I fell into the void in the tutorial stage way too many time
and there were no checkpoints, which made me try to speedrun the tutorial in many places and I found out some things.
Any vertycal wall, no matter how tall can be zig-zagged up with wall running and jumping - I was able to just skip to the section with enemies you need to kill to disable the red wall. That wall also broke in one of my attempts - The blockade stayed there even after I dealt with the enemies, but I was able to wall run zizag over it too.
It was not clear in the tutorial where to go at times (the intended route) partly because you use one sided planes for your floors in many places (including your normal stages), which is not good.
At some point I realized how small the player character really is - CYBER MANLET
I just found that amusing.
The normal level was interesting, but it can be cheesed using the zigzaging i already mentioned (I got to 2 or 3rd checkpoint)
I had to end my run, because I ended up in a naughty box
As for your story, maybe it is just me, but I think it is fine to mention it takes place after world war 3 trying to prevent WW4, but no reason to mention individual countries' names.
I adore that the knife just lets you tear into things, heal, and get up close and personal. It's perfect and I can lean into playing bold and aggressive, I like it! It clicked for me. It's cool! Everything put down is perfect. It's fun and it's slick and it's good! I just have one silly request that's a matter of personal taste and a weird thing I found. Please, only if you want to, make it so you can "whip" yourself with the grappling hook since the pull is fine but the air acceleration during it isn't enough to overcome the pull to whip yourself at a new angle. I can't whip myself at a wall at a nice angle or whip strafe an enemy, instead, I have to go directly at it or at a shallow angle off of it. Here's the idea. Anyways, the hook is a solid "get the fuck out of here" and "go directly at this enemy at a slight angle off of him" and it's good! I think maybe the air acceleration during it is too weak and the hook feels stiff, but it's perfect if that's the point! It's just personal tastes at that point so whatever! The hook's solid either way! Also! I found a weird glitch. If you spam the knife at an enemy that died, you can auto-lock on and automatically get sucked into stabbing his already dead corpse (probably a fluke idk). Also, if one enemy dies, and a spawning enemy (in the horde mode map) spawns in somewhere within your direct line of sight, you automatically get pulled to knife that enemy no matter how far it is. From memory, it was probably of the same type. Additionally, it was like, 50 meters away and it's health bar showed up despite the fact it was behind a wall and it was really strange... probably a fluke but I was auto-knife sucked into stabbing it! Who knows! Anyways, keep care and nice game!
Movement is great, really on-point. I'm sensing heavy ULTRAKILL inspiration? It's great. I kinda skipped the "wall jump" tutorial since I already learned dash, so it took me some time to understand how it works. Wall jumping feels good but is VERY easily exploitable, I managed to get out of bounds and out of the intended progression area in lvl2 of act 2. I guess you're aware of that since there are limiting walls almost everywhere. Guess I just lucked out to find a spot where I could jump out.
Got stuck in Act1, reached a room where I was locked in and there were no enemies. Also I didn't quite understand the overwriting mechanic. I think it was perpetually on cooldown for me? No idea. But at some point I ran out of bullets and just melee'd everyone, which was alright, stunpunch + knife works like a charm.
I'm not a fan of the artstyle though. Weapons are fine, but all-white rooms get stale very fast. It was the same for act2 - feels like everything's gray and white. I dunno, it got kinda boring very fast.
Also - no UI in Act2? Is that a bug, or is it intended? I though I had infinite ammo until I ran out of bullets.
fun loop with shooting, stabbing and overwriting them
wallrun might go down too fast, got stuck in the wallrun test. good level design trick would be to quickly let the player get back there, by having a path under it. its ok that you need to walk back but its basically the start of the level
had no idea where to go on the tutorial map atter shooting the enemies so i went into horde mode and that was fun
solid mechanics, you need to flesh out the rest of the game
Game is a lot of fun. The movement feels really good and responsive, the only oddity I found that the wallrunning felt like it doesn't hold your elevation well enough. Combat is good, feedback for hitting the enemies are nice. I liked the distinct look and feel between chapter 1 and 2.
A couple of general things that apply both to Chapter 1 and 2: Found out that you can infinitely slide into wall by holding down the button. The opening text scroll felt too slow for me, being able to reveal it all at once with a click would be nice. Even at max sensitivity it felt rather low, wish the slider's range would go out further. Similarly how there's a notification for the encounter ending, a similar one for the encounter currently going on would make some situations clearer. The way you're put back after falling can be disorenting with how instant it is, and if you keep holding movement keys you'll probably end up falling again In some places it doesn't put you back on the ground properly, making you fall infinitely until you walljump back to safety.
Chapter 1:
The taking over mechanics is interesting, and took some getting used to but by the end ended up using it pretty reliably. The melee combat is fun, and I specifically like that backstab works based on position instead of stun/alertness state, so that a good backstab mid-combat still works.
The animations for the guns are really nice, but unfortunately they felt lackluster actually using them. this is mostly due to their lack of damage, enemies small hitbox and their inherent spread, which encouraged me to get close, by which point I ended up going for the knife and backstab anyway - mostly because those also healed me, which guns didn't.
The only exception is the shotgun - it's really good at close range at least, though the damage falls off very quick. It also has the issue that it plays the reloading anmiation once you're out of shells. The way it counts ammo can be also confusing in the middle of a fight, as it counts individual shells but you can only shoot two at a time, so a display of 10 means actually only 5 shots.
With how open the levels are, would've appreciated some more objective indicators, as a good couple of times I wasn't sure where to go - like after destroying the core thing at the start, or after taking over the vulnerability. The green monitor afterwards was also a bit confusing, as you were taking over green cubes before, but other green things you had to punch.
I also managed to almost softlock myself on that level at the area with the big tunnel near the red door, where you have to take over three green cubes consecutively in the big cylinder room (first the one in the middle, then the one to the side, then up above): you can use jump and dash to get past the first two green cubes and use the third to go up. After that you circle back to that area and swap into the two remaining green cubes - they disappear after used, and wasn't able to jump-dash back the way I did it forward the first time. Managed to get otu by wall-running at the side at least.
I also constantly kept knifing the green servers instead of punching by mistake, would be nice if both would work (interestingly this was not an issue in chapter 1 - maybe because kicking is a very different action and uses different limbs?)
Also ran into a couple smaller bugs, like the corridor behind the red door has a flickering geometry if you look at it from the other way, or the upgrade kiosk automatically selecting and picking up the second upgrade after I opened the screen.
Chapter 2:
Liked the intro, definitely started with a different feel. The guns here felt much better, though against particularly tanky enemies like shotgunners I still mostly used backstabs or just kicked them off of ledges (as knife only healing is still a thing here). The escape sequence on the first level was particularly really good.
The part with the moving square platform (the first level if I remember correctly) had some issues: when it stops for you to destroy the red glowing thing it should probably wait for you before moving on (like later on after enemy encounters), as I did it while off platform and it headed off without me (at least there's a way to go on foot). It also bugged out at the end of it's path, vibrating weirdly and throwing me forward every time I jumped on it.
The stunning mechanic is interesting but I never really ended up interacting with it. Smaller enemies like infantry and workers just die before getting stunned, and tougher enemies like shotgunners take way too long to get stunned (even with something like a point blank shotgun blast) that I just ended up fishing for backstabs regardless. The tutorial also said that kicking enemies with 50%+ stagger bar would make them stagger instantly but that never worked for me. The only time I actually made use of stagger is when I unlocked the cryo cannon, though freezing is it's own status effect.
Speaking of the cryo cannon, as much fun it was to use it it probably needs some nerf. With how spammable it is with zero resource requirements it pretty much trivializes the end of the game. On the other hand, the concussion grenade I pretty much never used - would be better as an impact grenade, as I never needed the opportunity to flush enemies out of cover.
I also found something weird - during the second level, I accidentally realized I had a slingshot ability with RMB. I don't remember any tutorial telling me about it (maybe I just missed it though) and I never really needed it to progress, and it disappeared by the next level, so I'm wondering if that being there was intentional.
the movement is totally busted, and i wasnt a fan of the computer levels at all. but the part where you get the sniper rifle after killing the boss was really fun, i enjoyed that part the most so i wish it had more ammo
Comments
I couldn't stop playing and yammering on about this one 😄
I played on linux with steam's proton just fine.
I really like your first person animations.
I fell into the void in the tutorial stage way too many time
and there were no checkpoints, which made me try to speedrun the tutorial in many places and I found out some things.
Any vertycal wall, no matter how tall can be zig-zagged up with wall running and jumping - I was able to just skip to the section with enemies you need to kill to disable the red wall. That wall also broke in one of my attempts - The blockade stayed there even after I dealt with the enemies, but I was able to wall run zizag over it too.
It was not clear in the tutorial where to go at times (the intended route) partly because you use one sided planes for your floors in many places (including your normal stages), which is not good.
At some point I realized how small the player character really is - CYBER MANLET
I just found that amusing.
The normal level was interesting, but it can be cheesed using the zigzaging i already mentioned (I got to 2 or 3rd checkpoint)
I had to end my run, because I ended up in a naughty box
As for your story, maybe it is just me, but I think it is fine to mention it takes place after world war 3 trying to prevent WW4, but no reason to mention individual countries' names.
I adore that the knife just lets you tear into things, heal, and get up close and personal. It's perfect and I can lean into playing bold and aggressive, I like it! It clicked for me. It's cool!
Everything put down is perfect. It's fun and it's slick and it's good!
I just have one silly request that's a matter of personal taste and a weird thing I found.
Please, only if you want to, make it so you can "whip" yourself with the grappling hook since the pull is fine but the air acceleration during it isn't enough to overcome the pull to whip yourself at a new angle. I can't whip myself at a wall at a nice angle or whip strafe an enemy, instead, I have to go directly at it or at a shallow angle off of it. Here's the idea. Anyways, the hook is a solid "get the fuck out of here" and "go directly at this enemy at a slight angle off of him" and it's good! I think maybe the air acceleration during it is too weak and the hook feels stiff, but it's perfect if that's the point! It's just personal tastes at that point so whatever! The hook's solid either way!
Also! I found a weird glitch. If you spam the knife at an enemy that died, you can auto-lock on and automatically get sucked into stabbing his already dead corpse (probably a fluke idk). Also, if one enemy dies, and a spawning enemy (in the horde mode map) spawns in somewhere within your direct line of sight, you automatically get pulled to knife that enemy no matter how far it is. From memory, it was probably of the same type. Additionally, it was like, 50 meters away and it's health bar showed up despite the fact it was behind a wall and it was really strange... probably a fluke but I was auto-knife sucked into stabbing it! Who knows! Anyways, keep care and nice game!
I've taken a moment to slow down and actually read the story because the gameplay's that good. I really like it.
You may find this interesting.
Movement is great, really on-point. I'm sensing heavy ULTRAKILL inspiration? It's great. I kinda skipped the "wall jump" tutorial since I already learned dash, so it took me some time to understand how it works. Wall jumping feels good but is VERY easily exploitable, I managed to get out of bounds and out of the intended progression area in lvl2 of act 2. I guess you're aware of that since there are limiting walls almost everywhere. Guess I just lucked out to find a spot where I could jump out.
Got stuck in Act1, reached a room where I was locked in and there were no enemies. Also I didn't quite understand the overwriting mechanic. I think it was perpetually on cooldown for me? No idea. But at some point I ran out of bullets and just melee'd everyone, which was alright, stunpunch + knife works like a charm.
I'm not a fan of the artstyle though. Weapons are fine, but all-white rooms get stale very fast. It was the same for act2 - feels like everything's gray and white. I dunno, it got kinda boring very fast.
Also - no UI in Act2? Is that a bug, or is it intended? I though I had infinite ammo until I ran out of bullets.
solid mechanics, you need to flesh out the rest of the game
Game is a lot of fun. The movement feels really good and responsive, the only oddity I found that the wallrunning felt like it doesn't hold your elevation well enough. Combat is good, feedback for hitting the enemies are nice. I liked the distinct look and feel between chapter 1 and 2.
A couple of general things that apply both to Chapter 1 and 2:
Found out that you can infinitely slide into wall by holding down the button.
The opening text scroll felt too slow for me, being able to reveal it all at once with a click would be nice.
Even at max sensitivity it felt rather low, wish the slider's range would go out further.
Similarly how there's a notification for the encounter ending, a similar one for the encounter currently going on would make some situations clearer.
The way you're put back after falling can be disorenting with how instant it is, and if you keep holding movement keys you'll probably end up falling again In some places it doesn't put you back on the ground properly, making you fall infinitely until you walljump back to safety.
Chapter 1:
The taking over mechanics is interesting, and took some getting used to but by the end ended up using it pretty reliably. The melee combat is fun, and I specifically like that backstab works based on position instead of stun/alertness state, so that a good backstab mid-combat still works.
The animations for the guns are really nice, but unfortunately they felt lackluster actually using them. this is mostly due to their lack of damage, enemies small hitbox and their inherent spread, which encouraged me to get close, by which point I ended up going for the knife and backstab anyway - mostly because those also healed me, which guns didn't.
The only exception is the shotgun - it's really good at close range at least, though the damage falls off very quick. It also has the issue that it plays the reloading anmiation once you're out of shells. The way it counts ammo can be also confusing in the middle of a fight, as it counts individual shells but you can only shoot two at a time, so a display of 10 means actually only 5 shots.
With how open the levels are, would've appreciated some more objective indicators, as a good couple of times I wasn't sure where to go - like after destroying the core thing at the start, or after taking over the vulnerability. The green monitor afterwards was also a bit confusing, as you were taking over green cubes before, but other green things you had to punch.
I also managed to almost softlock myself on that level at the area with the big tunnel near the red door, where you have to take over three green cubes consecutively in the big cylinder room (first the one in the middle, then the one to the side, then up above): you can use jump and dash to get past the first two green cubes and use the third to go up. After that you circle back to that area and swap into the two remaining green cubes - they disappear after used, and wasn't able to jump-dash back the way I did it forward the first time. Managed to get otu by wall-running at the side at least.
I also constantly kept knifing the green servers instead of punching by mistake, would be nice if both would work (interestingly this was not an issue in chapter 1 - maybe because kicking is a very different action and uses different limbs?)
Also ran into a couple smaller bugs, like the corridor behind the red door has a flickering geometry if you look at it from the other way, or the upgrade kiosk automatically selecting and picking up the second upgrade after I opened the screen.
Chapter 2:
Liked the intro, definitely started with a different feel. The guns here felt much better, though against particularly tanky enemies like shotgunners I still mostly used backstabs or just kicked them off of ledges (as knife only healing is still a thing here). The escape sequence on the first level was particularly really good.
The part with the moving square platform (the first level if I remember correctly) had some issues: when it stops for you to destroy the red glowing thing it should probably wait for you before moving on (like later on after enemy encounters), as I did it while off platform and it headed off without me (at least there's a way to go on foot). It also bugged out at the end of it's path, vibrating weirdly and throwing me forward every time I jumped on it.
The stunning mechanic is interesting but I never really ended up interacting with it. Smaller enemies like infantry and workers just die before getting stunned, and tougher enemies like shotgunners take way too long to get stunned (even with something like a point blank shotgun blast) that I just ended up fishing for backstabs regardless. The tutorial also said that kicking enemies with 50%+ stagger bar would make them stagger instantly but that never worked for me. The only time I actually made use of stagger is when I unlocked the cryo cannon, though freezing is it's own status effect.
Speaking of the cryo cannon, as much fun it was to use it it probably needs some nerf. With how spammable it is with zero resource requirements it pretty much trivializes the end of the game. On the other hand, the concussion grenade I pretty much never used - would be better as an impact grenade, as I never needed the opportunity to flush enemies out of cover.
I also found something weird - during the second level, I accidentally realized I had a slingshot ability with RMB. I don't remember any tutorial telling me about it (maybe I just missed it though) and I never really needed it to progress, and it disappeared by the next level, so I'm wondering if that being there was intentional.
This is awesome.
Love the movement options and melee mechanics.
i like but i got filtered hard
the movement is totally busted, and i wasnt a fan of the computer levels at all. but the part where you get the sniper rifle after killing the boss was really fun, i enjoyed that part the most so i wish it had more ammo
astonishing quality. the movement tech is just crazy, and i honestly love the feedback of shooting at enemies, the reload animation etc
if i had to be nitpicky, you could add a way to skip the text faster by clicking the LMB during the intro.
great job so far.