My friend told me this game feels "janky" and damnit he's right XD
That being said, it's the same jankiness I felt when first playing Kingdom Come Deliverance, or Dark Souls 1. Though the combat mechanics aren't nearly as complex and fluid, No More Room in Hell 2 does a pretty good job at making you commit and time your melee attacks in the same way. There is a veeeeery narrow gap where you can time your attacks and spacing between you and the zombies, so you can swing without being hit back. That being said, it's sometimes safer to use a "push" mechanic where you can use a "light" push to stun enemies for about 1 second, or use a "heavy" push to heel kick enemies with 1 second of invulnerability, dropping them to the ground. Again, reinforcing the idea that timing and spacing is crucial, since the invulnerability only exists within a small window of about 30 to 45 degrees in front of the player. In addition to these mechanics, a stamina system also exists, making it so you can't just spam the melee, but also manage and be efficient with what you do. Losing your entire stamina due to a desperate situation, having just used the last of it to swing at a zombie and miss, missing your stun, can leave you vulnerable and open to a bite.
That's not even including the difference between blunt and slashing weapons. The resource management features where you need to think about what supplies you bring and carry. The infection mechanics. The super awesome looking and sounding hallucinations that were designed into the game. Seriously, they look super dope, check them out on youtube. The stealth mechanics. The different rifle/pistols/shotguns. Etc.
That being said, I do feel there are some CONS.
Firstly, the movement does feel a bit janky. Mainly, I'm talking about the movement mechanics not relating to the combat mechanics. For example, you might want to jump on a ledge that's waist height (that you've jumped on before), but pressed jump too early and now you get stuck and bump into the ledge. Normally, you can press jump in front of a ledge you touch, and an animation will perform, during which you cannot make actions (remember this game makes you commit to decisions you make). However, you are able to jump onto ledges without the animation sequence, you just need to time it right, and make sure the ledge is low enough that you can clear. I feel like having a "catch" feature/animation would solve this issue. Sure, it might look janky to "catch" the ledge from the ground, and maybe they could design a workaround, but at the very least it would definitely help the game feel less janky. Also, some ledges, for whatever reason, just can't be climbed on or jumped over, for no reason. Maybe the collision mesh just doesn't line up with the visual of the object, or the devs didn't want you to go on top of that object, but it's not clear, since it's the same height as other ledges. Some ledges have objects on top that you don't collide with, and some do. It's janky.
Secondly, the game can get a bit repetitive once you've played long enough and feels like objectives are always in the same spot. I haven't confirmed this, but once I learned where objectives are I've skipped ahead and finished objectives very fast before they've popped up. This repetitiveness can make it feel somewhat linear, just like Left for Dead, and while that game is obviously a classic, No More Room in Hell excels in that feeling of terror when you can't figure out where you're at, you look at your map and realize you've been going in the wrong direction, and have to figure you're way through a town/forest/underground government bunker filled with zombies (desperately hoping to catch up and make extraction in time). Randomizing objectives would help with this. The game missions include elements of a story, similar to Left For Dead, where key stories are tied to each map. Meaning specific objectives are tied to specific maps. Many of these maps are filled with tons of spaces and corners from which to find supplies, and are big enough to be played with dozens of times without ever having explored the entire map. I definitely like missions like the bunker, where it feels more like LFD. But maps like Pottsville that includes a small town that has entire sections skipped over. The Cemetery underground mausoleum that gets completely skipped over since there's never an objective down there. Yes, you can look supplies and look for good ♥♥♥♥ there, especially since nobody ever goes there, but you never do since the rest of your teammates are trying to speed run the game and will 100% ditch your ass to complete the mission, meaning you completely lose your character. Randomizing sub-missions within the story tied to the map would solve these issues, providing an incentive to explore these parts of the map without limiting it to only a quick glance or never being explored at all. Maybe I've just been extremely unlucky and keep getting the same objectives, but being able to select a preference between the more linear and open-world maps would be nice.
Overall, solid game. 100% worth the $30 this game costs.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Edit: Turns out I HAVE been getting pretty unlucky. I just went through the Subway potion of one of the maps for the first time and DANG! It was really cool! It brought back some of that feeling of dread when looking for the way out. I know the recent update changed the pick rate of maps to increase the chances of the newest map, but the objective changes through the different map sections was great! I hope this happens more frequently!
