Played it to completion, and I can't say I had a bad time... but I didn't have a great time either. So with that in mind, here are my overall thoughts and feedback:
Pros first. Overall I think it's a really dope concept, playing a streamer exploring a spooky place isn't something a whole lot of games have done, so I love that aspect of it! Having the live chat feed is super cool, and I like that it's from the point of view of his GoPro/phone or whatever he's using, even though the fisheye effect makes it just a little hard to see sometimes. Atmosphere was good, the generic 'aaaaAAAAA' screaming sound effects on repeat got old really fast, so I'd like to see some variations in environmental sound design. Sound design should be first and foremost in a horror game, as making your player unnerved and apprehensive makes it a much more immersive experience! Maybe add some groans/creaks from the building itself, some metallic scraping, some far-off screaming, things like that! Visuals were really nice, if a little unpolished and low-poly in some places, and I would like to see the asylum look grimier and dirtier, it felt very... clean for a supposedly abandoned and haunted 100 year old asylum.
Now for the cons. My first complaint was how quiet Streamerbro was... like he barely said anything through the course of the game and he never reacted to/responded to chat aside from that one 'you're banned, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥' remark. Hopefully more voice-acting will be added in the full game but I would love to see more interaction from him with chat. He also never responded to ANY of the scares or ghosts popping out which MASSIVELY killed my immersion. Would love to see him start out as confident urban explorer but slowly get more unnerved and scared as he goes through the game, because having "WHASSUP GUYS, WE UP IN THIS CRAAAZY ASYLUM WITH ALL THESE GHOSTS WHO WANNA KILL ME- WHOOPS, ALMOST DIED, LOL" all the time was just... weird and unrealistic, and created tonal dissonance imo. I'd also love to see more reactions from chat about things that were happening in game, instead of just constantly 'is he really in a madhowse?!' over and over. More comments on what just happened, on ghosts who appeared, sounds, hints about what to do next. I know there were a few of those and I was super appreciative of them every time they came up! Love when they told him to turn off the light or check a room to solve a puzzle. Having that live chat relay is an amazing and diegetic way to give your player hints on what to do next without having a waypoint or a map, so make use of it!
Also, and this is a very minor complaint but it still bugged me, having chat refer to him as 'streamer' constantly kinda took me out of the experience. I assume he'll have an actual twitch handle or streamer handle in the full game but that really bugged me. Having them say his name would add to the atmosphere and immersion way more for me, at least.
Next, my second biggest gripe was definitely the gameplay. I know it's technically just a demo but 'go in room, read paper, find key' is just... not fun or interesting gameplay. It's fine to do it a couple of times, they're tropes for a reason, but having it be the only thing to do is incredibly boring and predictable. I, for one, was extremely appreciative of the lack of handholding/having to actually read the documents to progress, it's way more natural and fun than just being magically told what to do through an objective tracker. But more variation in gameplay please! More focus on puzzles and ghost interactions, add a sneak/crouch feature and have patrolling enemies, because getting randomly insta killed by fauxhawk sauna towel man for going the wrong way was, to be blunt, lame as ♥♥♥♥. NEVER punish your player for exploring or going the wrong way, it feels terrible every time it happens and discourages exploration of the environments.
Finally, the ghosts themselves... were the worst part of the game. They weren't scary even a little bit, and this is purely subjective. I've played horror games my entire life, watched horror movies and TV shows and have become incredibly desensitized to jumpscares, but there wasn't an ounce of scariness to be found here. The models... such, Sauna Towel Guy... Harvey, I think his name was? The guy who looks like a Good Charlotte wanna-be, he made me giggle every time he popped up because he just looks like... some guy, he doesn't look like a ghost. Rough him up a little, make him look gruesome and rotted and DEAD, he's a ghost! Don't be afraid to play around with your models and make them look as scary as possible, ghosts should be terrifying, they should not induce laughter when they show up. The animations were... not good also. Seeing the ghosts pop up and do stock unreal asset animations (I assume) was just silly. Have them bang up against the fences or lunge at the player, honestly anything besides just standing in one spot and ineffectually wiggling/doing that thumb across the neck thing. Hopefully this will be fixed up in the final product.
To summarize, here is my feedback in listed format!
Great!
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-Concept
Fine, but needs improvement
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-Atmosphere
-Sound design
-Visuals
Need Major Improvement/To be added in
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-Gameplay
-Enemy models and animations
-Protagonist interaction with environment/chat
-Story
-MORE SAVE LAPTOPS PLEASE (didn't mention this above)
-A sprint and crouch feature, for god sakes.
Hopefully this wasn't too long of a read but I would LOVE to see this game improved and would happily pay retail price for it if the above fixes were addressed. Good luck to you guys, you have the beginning of something really special here, but I cannot in good conscience recommend it in its current state.
