So, the developer reached out to me after my review went up, and I cannot say this game is perfect by any stretch, but now that the controls are fixed I can at least see what the game has to offer.
If I could give a game a middle thumb, I would give it to this game right now. It needs polish but I definitely feel like there's something here. If you see this, this might be worth it on sale, or for a price around $10, because it feels mostly incomplete still. If this is meant as a demo for a future game, then idk about the pricetag, but if this gets more fully featured alongside a main title, then I think this game might be worth your time and money in a few months.
The good:
-Weapon variety, every gun feels varied and interesting, interesting enough that the inclusion of just a normal AK and M4 feel really weirdly out of place. All the guns look chunky and unique, I sorta wish there were more that played into the cyber style aesthetic of the cyber waifu more, but what's here is surprisingly good.
-I surprisingly felt the weapon reload interaction system was weird and kind of bad at first (you just run your hand over the weapon interaction points, mag, then charging handle), but I ended up liking it when duel wielding, it felt pretty natural, though I'd like an alternate method for more manual reloading personally, at least as a toggle option or something.
-Melee felt adequately crazy for a game like this. I really liked using the gunsword and flinging enemies away, the devs really cashed in on how powerful and weird the game is, and I honestly would like to see more of it.
-The gun-play truly isn't bad at all. I had to adjust the gun to be slightly more inward, but thankfully the option for that worked nicely, and the guns sound and feel pretty satisfying. Much more than I initially thought.
-The enemies are not bad, they obviously are pretty silly but I like the vibe, they work well as cannon fodder, and that's their function. I feel like some of the enemies are too small, but not enough that it causes issues or whatever, the goblin that spawns the smaller ones is mostly what I am talking about.
The bad:
-On the village arena, enemies spawned under a house so I couldn't finish the wave.
-I wish enemies wouldn't exclusively spawn near to you, because it makes it a lot harder for the waves to be fought with guns unless you have a melee weapon or are constantly backpedaling. Maybe specific spawn locations to let you kind of find a spot similar to CoD zombies.
-THE HORSE, man the horse is pain incarnate, I got back on to test if they worked with index controls, and they don't so you hold the carrot and throw up. It's awful. Please god, just let me use my normal joystick to control the horse.
-Kind of the cyber waifu? Idk she just talks like A LOT. Maybe if there was a way for her to talk less? I don't dislike it, but EVERY headshot, EVERY reload...
-The gun-belt is really high up, and kind of obstructs your vision. I think having the option for your weapons to be back mounted, or lower would be nice. If that option exists, I missed it.
-Weirdly the performance (only) in the hub area? It's choppy when you turn around which is weird, and everywhere else was mostly fine except the village arena.
-Not enough physics, I want to be able to grab and punch stuff, I don't really like games that allow everything to clip through the environment, it's very immersion breaking. I don't really mind the giant swords and stuff having no drag, but I think it'd be cool to be able to like pogo stick on your sword or something, jump and slap you gun against a wall and launch yourself. It'd be fitting for this game thematically too.
-More grip points on weapons. ESPECIALLY the gunswords. Let me use it like a rifle! That'd be awesome, or change grips from two on the handle to one on the front part, and then back.
-Also the M4 was the only gun with no reload animations? Idk maybe that was just a small oversight.
-Turn off, or maybe make a setting for movement acceleration, it's really distracting and makes movement feel strange and sluggish. The best solution is just a sprint or no sprint toggle, to let players control their speed.
Some suggestions:
-Go even farther into the craziness. I think there's a niche to be filled with a game like this, put in like huge enemies, like 3x bigger than the player that you could still cut down with one blow. Play around with scale.
-More cool and unique guns. Like the gunswords, those are really cool, and I want more weird stuff like that. Shotguns that launch enemies really far. Guns that shoot prop projectiles, idk, but if you're going for zane, go all in.
-Bosses? More difficult enemies? Maybe just a room where you do a specific sequenced boss fight? I think there's some potential to explore with making your character feel like they are fighting someone as overpowered as you are. Throw cars at us or something and let us slash 'em (I just want a game to let me smash cars out of the air).
-Maybe the ability to turn of the ragdolls floating into the sky? I don't dislike it, but idk, it'd be cool to let us play with the ragdolls more, or hit them multiple times or something.
-Make it easier to get currency on the arena modes, because I got like 30k points in 2 rounds of the shooting range just getting a few headshots. (Also maybe let melee hits get currency too)
-What about character specific powers? Or even some type of upgrade tree for passives. More stuff to spend currency on, that would be fun and engaging.
-Endless mode would be cool
Anyway, I appreciate the dev putting in the effort to fix the index controls, as per my old review, I wish them luck and I hope things continue to be updated, I'll be keeping an eye on this game!
