Wormhole City

I got this game for free directly from the developer through Reddit to check it out, and in return I promised to write a review so here we go. Scores summed up: Graphics / visuals: 7/10 Gameplay / difficulty: 5/10 Game length: 3/10 Story: 2/10 Audio: 3/10 Bugs: 5/10 Firstly I've got to say, the visuals look great in most parts of the game, gives a good futuristic sci-fi feeling and everything fits the theme it's in. [b] Do I recommend this game? [/b] Yes, on what it [b]can become[/b]. If the current state is final, I would not recommend it. The game didn't particularly disappoint, but left me unfulfilled. The biggest flaw in this game, is the camera work, alot of times you can't see where you're going or where you're supposed to go or what you're supposed to do. This game also left me questioning what this game wants or is supposed to be. [b] PC requirements [/b] The game isn't too heavy or demanding, inboard graphics card won't probably run on Epic settings. I played this on a i7-8700K - RX580 setup, but my guess a RX550 / GT1050 or equal would be enough to get stable 60FPS on decent settings. [b] Audience [/b] This game has similar looks / influences from Gundam, Mass Effect, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Metal Gear and some others within the same criteria of sci-fi. If these game themes fit your taste, you might want to take a look although it didn't satisfy me enough. [b] Graphics / visuals: 7/10 [/b] Overall graphics look good. The trailer-video's are made up entirely out of gameplay, that should suffice to say as they speak for themselves, the game visuals are just good for anything that's not a AAA-studio. The visual quality however wasn't consistant, there were some parts that are lacking on the rest of the game. -SPOILERS AHEAD- [spoiler] - At the end of the first level, the machine-thing blows and your screen cracks. Visibility is very poor and barely able to see where to I'm supposed to go. - In the city-mech level where all the buildings and roads that can be destroyed, the visuals are of lower quality then the rest of the game. The animations of destroyed buildings are also quite simplistic. At this part, the camera alows free view instead of fixed angle which is a big plus. I'd recommend adding the free angle camera everywhere! - In the underwater level where you'd just have to walk with a bi-pedal mech, the visibility is very poor and field of view made everything very blurry. - In the (last) space battle, the game was suddenly very heavy. The complete game did a constant 75fps on VSYNC and all graphics onEpic (highest setting), but in this space battle the game dipped all the way through to +/- 25 fps which made the game also stutter. I think there's way too much to render in that area. [/spoiler] [b] Gameplay / difficulty: 5/10 [/b] The first 15-20 minutes it's just walking and interacting with computer panels. Trying to find out who what where and so on. It is somewhat confusing as you're just walking around trying to find out what you're supposed to do. The better parts follow up later in the game. Transitions from one scene/part to another feels empty, you just go from one part to another. The load screens are just black screens which seem to take longer than you'd like, I'd get the feeling the game crashed at some point because my steam FPS counter disappeared aswell. Playing with the Mech-suit the first times are fun, although what irritating through the camera angle. At the third(?) mech battle, the camera goes free angle which improves the experience tenfold. The difficulty is varying, most mech-battles are too easy, until you run into the enemy's flying mechs. If you ignore them, they'll ruin you. Trying to escape them is possible, until you run out of bounds of the area. Then you'll be teleported back to the centre of the map, with a big black loading box covering most of the screen (I'm using a 21:9 monitor so on the sides I'm still seeing things). You'll have to wait untill you'll be killed and restart the mission to be able to play. Later on missions on foot, you suddenly have the ability to kick and later on even shoot. Which I had to find out by trying buttons since the game doesn't tell you what you can do, or what you're supposed to use. The shooting on foot is flawed and not intuitive, since you aim with the mouse in a 3-dimensional space from a bird's eye view and tend to miss alot. I'd suggest going with a third person-view shooting experience like Mass Effect (or just like the mech-level!) or go with a shooting experience similar to Asteroids where the shooting is 2-dimensional. [b] Game length: 3/10 [/b] The game itself takes about one hour at minimum, one and a half at most if you die a few times, get stuck/bugged and such. The game length itself is quite short in comparison to any other game. Looking at a typical game that's being released, they take between 20 to 60 hours of gameplay for a typical full release price. If you'd look at the price / game length rate, this game is either too short for it's money or quite expensive for it's length. I feel this game could offer much more, the mech battles could be much longer, and more of them should be added! [b] Story: 2/10 [/b] A great story sells itself. The story in Wormhole city itself is minimal to non-existant. There are some dialogues with a small amount of NPC's and there is alot that feels empty and leaves to be unanswered. [b] Audio: 3/10 [/b] The audio was sometimes there and sometimes wasn't. In a few missions there was only a very bass-heavy heartbeat which was kinda annoying. There is much to be added! Spoken dialogue was almost non existant. [b] Bugs: 5/10 [/b] Got stuck by jumping on a fence in the first missions (got off eventually by spamming jump). Going out of bounds with a mech resulted in black box'd screen and had to wait until I got killed and restart the mission, which was kinda gamebreaking for me. Nothing crashed the game so that's good. Hope my feedback helps and I'd hope to see this game develop further to unveil the potential it has, as for now this game is not so great overall.