The Song Of WILL: ACT I

Very good game that I recommend to people thinking of downloading this. If you like RPGS, collecting and aiming guns you will definitely like this game. I will most definitely be buying it when it comes out. The main original ideas that the game is built upon are really good, makes me wonder how I've never seen a game like this before. However there are some things which I know is going to be in the full game, but without them being present now, it's hard to look forward to them. Anyways let's start with The Positives: Visually speaking, this game is absolutely gorgeous. The UI is so slick, crisp and colourful I could just fiddle with it for several minutes. The movement of everything is also so fluid and expressive, like when crawling through pipes and vents that's probably the best animation I've ever seen for doing that. I really like all the bat designs and all their unique costumes and outfits. The main character also looks really cool, especially in the inventory menu with the wind blowing their hair. I wish I could go into more detail about the art but that isn't my specialty but everything looks great. The soundtrack is great and builds quite a unique atmosphere that I can't quite put into words. (Also I've got the fight theme stuck in my head). Also, the sound effects meshed with the animation is very satisfying too. The gameplay overall is great through and through. The difficulty curve and progression is very fair which is a hard thing to get right so well done. Sometimes a combat encounter feels too hard but after working on my aim and effectively using items I can just about do it which feels very rewarding. The combat system is so simple yet so fun and original. I love how aiming for weakpoints gets gradually more challenging and how having to reload your gun requires extra strategy in the encounters. And being able to block attacks with good timing is always good to have in a turn-based RPG. Collecting guns is satisfying and quite original. I love all the very creative gun designs and how unique each one is from each other. The interactive minigames are also good simple fun like swiping the card and synchronising the waves and some nice variety. I hope to see more of these. Things to improve on (don't be threatened by the length; the positives still significantly outshine these): The lack of explanation for complex game mechanics makes me not use many guns and armours since I don't know what they actually do. Whilst a lot of the mechanics are self-explanatory like weakpoints, AP, and skill cards but there's a lot which is never explained that I really want explained so I can fully appreciate each weapon and the benefits they offer. Like luck, what changes? Do I get better loot? If so then that's not clear. What's buildup? And what's with the elemental damage and how are they different. Not understanding these just makes me choose the gun with most damage since I don't see what benefits these other things bring if they don't deal as much. Which is a shame because I can tell you put a lot of effort into the gun stat system I just can't really appreciate it. Also I still don't know how to get those guns that are over gaps I've got a spring but it doesn't do anything. I know this is very early in the game but I have no idea what's happening storywise. Which I get is what you were going for to add mystery but I feel likes there's a bit too much mystery. Just knowing that I need to escape doesn't really draw me into the story. It just doesn't really feel story-driven or lore-rich right now, which I'd like to see so I can look forward to future story events. Nitpicks: Parrying attacks is a bit too easy but I'm assuming it will get harder as the game progresses. Whilst I really like the bat designs, they're a bit too identical to each other, with them overall being the same colour and shape. Whilst I like the individual jingles for each item in the inventory, it's annoying that they play every single time my mouse hovers over it (which is a lot). I'd say have it so they play the jingle when you pick up the item. Also some of the jingles are significantly louder than the others like the Grounded Badge which is quite jarring. The controls could be a little more refined, like having the option to control with the arrow keys. Some of the input keys should be closer to the WASD because it's a tiny bit tedious to control the mouse, movement with WASD and press enter and backspace and I. Then I won't need to either or stop my movement or stop using my mouse. The flashlight in the dark section is basically useless and it's a little annoying how it replaces my badge so when I accidentally bump into an enemy I'm weaker than usual. I just ended up not using it. There should be quicker and easier ways to manage inventory, as I spend a bit too much time recycling guns that are lower levels of guns I already have and trying to sort all the different types of items. A system that automatically recycles objectively weaker guns would be useful and maybe there could be a separation of the different types of items into different inventories.