This game was an immense blast to play!!! PLEASE, KEEP WORKING ON IT!!! (But only if you feel you could satisfyingly continue the story, and if you really want to)
While there's opportunity for improvement in every area, the base you have is far better than lots of other indies that feel more complete in terms of the potential within it! I would truly describe this as a diamond in the rough!
To start with what I loved about it:
First off, I loved the writing. This is directed specifically toward the dialogue between Halen and Sharp, but I was invested in the story the whole time and couldn't wait to find out more about Halen, Sharp, and the world their in! I loved their personalities SOOOOO much! They were so much fun to listen to! As an extension of their personalities, The jokes and comedic dialogue is hysterical and made it impossible NOT to laugh! It was super funny crap! Every time I was laughing hard, even getting a bit excited when I died (but only at times) so I could experience the comedy again! Overall, the comedy is on point!
Next off, I really enjoyed the gameplay, of course. I loved the options you had within combat with dealing with enemies. Everything feels good to use on it's own from a gameplay and interaction perspective, but could use some more impact and game feel, which I get into. The dash especially feels really nice. I loved using it to take out several enemies at once. It was great, not just for crowd control, but also for movement. I loved how expressive it is, being able to use it wherever I was facing rather than where you were facing horizontally alone. It makes for intense saves when falling off and easier platforming.
For the things that could have some improvement:
For starters, the game altogether could use some game feel. The gun doesn't feel like it's having much impact. Not much happens when it hits an enemy, unless you use the powerful shot, which destroys the enemy. Using the melee attack suffers the same thing, where it doesn't feel flashy enough, especially when compared side by side with the dash, Sharp's other ability.
Next, the movement felt a bit weird. Running doesn't immediately stop, making it hard to gauge when you should let go when you're about to fall off a small platform or nearby edge. Mid-air movement is also strange. Despite the game being a platformer not focused on momentum, you have little to no control of Halen once you've jumped. It makes it nigh impossible to make a small adjustment needed to safely land on a platform, or land on it at all, unless you use the double jump or the dash, which one has the same jumping problem and the other is super committal and could end up missing if not used optimally. To stack with the dash, no momentum is carried from it. It gets a little frustrating when every few jumps I ended up being a tad short, which the lack of mid-air control made it really hard to save (Which could be chalked up to my lack of skill, but was a bit frustrating regardless).
Another couple of things to note is that the point system feels almost pointless. The whole time I was focused on the combat, story and dialogue. I would even say the score system took away from the game a little bit. The UI colors also feel too saturated and sort of clash with the somewhat muted colors of everything else.
The boss was also a letdown. He just felt like a teleporting version of the rapid fire enemy. His only attack is shooting at you, making the whole thing rather uninteresting. On top of that, whenever you get too close, he'll teleport away, making half of the combat system I've learned to enjoy unusable. Being such a big part of the game, Sharp's abilities should be far more incorporated into the boss fight. You're only option was to shoot at him with the powerful shot. Combined with his constant shooting, blocking your shots with his shots, and teleporting, it made it especially frustrating to hit. Whenever I ran out of shots, I just had to hide behind cover to wait for my gun to recharge, turning the fight into a waiting game. Overall, the structure of the boss fight made it feel unneeded/unfinished/unpolished.
I'm almost certain I missed things in both the good and the improvements, mostly in the good, though. Despite the amount of things to be improved compared to the good that I've put, my thoughts during my playthrough were 70% about the good, 30% about the improvements, and 100% about the potential of this awesome IP! Despite the things that could be improved, I had a blast playing it! I loved the dialogue, the combat was great, and the whole game has tons of potential! I just wish there was more to experience! Like I mentioned at the start, PLEASE KEEP WORKING ON IT!!!!! But only if you want to. I think it would be cool if in a longer version, you and Sharp went around PROCURING items, but then the story kicks into gear when Azriel starts tracking you down to get the sword from you. I think that'd be super cool!
Again, I had an absolute blast playing this!!! I loved it a ton!!! Anyways, I wish you a great day, and good luck with your game dev endeavors!!!
Edit:
WOOOOOAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SOOOOO EXCITED Relicbound is a thing!!! I'm so excited to follow along with the development and to play it when it's done!!!!!
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