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Zoquete rated Project Malice

Zoquete rated a game 3 years ago
A downloadable game for Windows.

First of all, this is a very impressive project, and I appreciate the amount of worldbuilding and character writing you've created here. I really enjoyed this game in its current state, so I'm excited to see its development and eventually play the finished version. To that end I have some feedback on the version I just played (mostly v2.0.0.5, checked out v2.2.0.0) that can hopefully help out.

In terms of presentation and graphics, I like the art direction, but there are a few specific rendering choices I didn't enjoy (especially at first, before I got used to the rough edges). The way dialogue text is handled is unpleasant to read because it jumps and moves as it appears - I would adjust that effect to reveal the stationary text for a better reading experience. In the intro specifically, I also started skipping text when I pressed buttons to adjust my audio, which was a small but preventable annoyance. 

In-game, I'm split on the way you handle walls and the camera. It works fine and I was impressed by the rotate-able environment, but my first impression was that changing the camera angle was confusing more often than it was helpful and walls tended to block my view of objects and enemies I was interacting with. I'm not sure exactly what should be changed for this, but I think it would be a good idea to optimize the experience for one camera angle rather than having unnecessary multiple angles, and it may even be a good idea to hide walls that come between mobs / items and the camera. 

On a gameplay note, there were a few things I found questionable. The style system is neat, but I wasn't sure what significance it had beyond achievements. The stamina bar is pretty small compared to its gameplay importance, so I think it should be more visible at a glance like the health bar. I got used to it after a while, but the aiming system with two offset cursors and a slight delay on one was not intuitive and disorienting at first. The auto-targeting was helpful at some points, but also tended to lock on to things I didn't intend, which interrupted my aim and camera movement. Your level generation system gets the job done, but I wasn't a fan of the dead ends and vents going nowhere.

A couple final miscellaneous critiques: the siren noise when a dangerous attack is about to happen seemed disproportionately loud compared to the other sound effects, but that could just be a me problem. I also loved the dialogue, but I noticed that I hadn't seen most of the scenes when I looked in the extras tab - I think it would be a good idea to incorporate those into the flow of gameplay more, which might be as simple as making it easier to interact with other characters (i.e. larger radius for pressing 'e' around them) or having them show up and be available to talk at shops like the ally survivors do.

Overall, this is a really exciting project and I hope this feedback helps you make it even better. I just included my critiques and suggestions for change here, but that's because I really enjoyed the rest (characters were likeable, items were balanced, gameplay was challenging but fun, etc.). Good luck!