Almost a guilty pleasure, it kinda feels like a discount Alone in the Dark, but maybe I am being too generous. Perhaps I could enjoy it with a lot of updates, but it's almost unplayable in the later stages because of how poorly he balanced the ranged enemies, not to mention all kinds of gameplay and design issues. I will say the game is not a troll, I am sure the developer was trying to make a decent game, there are lots of cutscenes and locations, it's a bigger game than you might expect, not that you would want to play it for several hours. The first 4 hours or so I was trying to be very forgiving, I attempted to finish the game to the best of my ability, but I just can't do it, the way ranged enemies attack you makes it very unfair, I died like 40 times in the office boss fight, and I can't utilize the stealth attack because they get aggroed outside of the vision. The first thing you will notice is how bad the navigation is, very often you can't tell where to go, and the objectives can be somewhat cryptic because there is no confirmation for anything that is not in the vision. Sometimes the light effects in the game can make it hard to see the paths, for example at the start of the game, the fence does not look like something you should be jumping over.
The combat feels pretty unreliable because you don't get much of that 'impact' feel, technically you can stagger enemies but it's so brief, enemies often feel like walking sponges, and you have to be perfectly aligned to hit them, so I think the hitbox should be a little wider, for melee and ranged attacks. For some reason the game discards the unused pistol ammo when you reload, like seriously, it's a video game with ammo conservation, can we just pretend that he keeps the bullets.
As for the level design, I do think the developer tried, some locations look okay, but the consistency is just not there, like it's hard to enjoy this game for its aesthetic because you often get long corridors with nothing, followed by an occasionally okay looking room - I would prefer a shorter game with more condensed content than to have lots of empty space. I get that as an indie dev you have to cut corners on assets, but like you have some places in the game that don't look terrible, you would be better off making a smaller game with better exploration. I like the attempt at making some secretive navigation, but overall it's often unclear how to progress, maybe you could make hints with the highlights, and change the gamma for important spots. Even though the platforming is pretty annoying, I don't hate the idea of platforming-based navigation, I almost enjoyed the ship area because of the platforming, but overall, the levels feel very confusing.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) I don't have any good arguments in the defense of this game, that said, I do think the developer tried, it feels like the idea was good on paper, and maybe you just doing too many things. I can see the bigger picture and the effort you put in, but it's completely lost in all of the design issues coming at the player from all directions.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
(1) First of all, can you buff the run speed a little, I think doing that alone could make the game feel a bit less clunky. Maybe you could highlight hard-to-see areas, at the start of the game, it's not clear that you have to jump over the fence. For the doors that you can break, maybe lower their HP so it's clear that you can do it (I hit the door in the shaft 10 times and left, came back, and finished it with more hits). Whenever you unlock something with a switch, it should show it so you know where to go.
(2) For the weapons. The shotgun feels super underpowered, sometimes ranged dudes tank several bullets in close range - maybe give in more damage and more penetration against hordes as well. You should try to give flying kick and shotgun some nice impact feel, maybe enemies could get bigger knockback. Trading with melee attacks also feels very goofy, it just feels like you fighting air, might have to look in into extending the stagger, just maybe so it does not lock them forever.
(3) The ranged enemies are ****** to deal with, I can't finish the office boss fight, it does not feel even remotely fair, they often shoot you before you can even see them. Either add some healing items or buff my weapons so I can actually trade with them. I know you can sneak on some of them, but it does not work when they just run at me before I even see them, so I end up trading bullets no matter if I use a cover or not.
(4) The checkpoints are not great. For example, you know new players could die to the first horde, why there is no checkpoint?
(5) It feels like the game has a lot of optional exploration, but you are almost never rewarded with resources. For example, there is a train with a bunch of things in it, but nothing you can use. Is it RNG? Either way, populate the locations with more resources, and maybe add some healing items in optional areas.
[b] Overall Thoughts: 4/10 [/b]
I can almost see a decent game somewhere in there, but it's just a really frustrating experience all around, there are too many design problems that distract from the gameplay, and overall it feels punishing to play. Again, I don't think the developer intended to release a trashy game, it has some effort to it, but this was clearly too ambitious, make a smaller game, polish it, and make sure you test it more internally until people don't feel like leaving it right away.
[code]For more niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
