Very cool game. Probably the best looking and feeling Unreal engine game I've played from agdg. Combat was really fun, enemies were really fun. Basically the whole base of the game is solid. Looking forward to more weapons and enemies.
Man, the combat is JUICY. Animations, models and sfx make me bite my lip. Kicks feel very good.
Sewer (tutorial) outstays its welcome with the ending "waves of enemies" pit. Also - I feel like there are only 2 attacks which do AOE damage - the jump-kick and the finisher kick. Which is... questionable in a beat-em-up, imo. For example - in "Pirate Yakuza" game (very recent release) you have 2 combat styles, with one suitable on 1 on 1 combat (perfect for bosses), and another one aimed at dealing damage in wide areas (perfect for big group fights). In the pit fight you're kinda forced to kite enemies so you can dispatch them one after another, which kinda forces you to stop in your tracks and rethink your strategy. I don't know if that's what you intended, but I was stuck for a bit there, wishing I had some sort of an AOE attack.
Second level is great and much more fun. Didn't have much trouble with the boss on the normal difficulty, I managed to keep him stunlocked for almost the entirety of the fight. Dunno if that was supposed to happen or not.
Guns are very underpowered both in terms of audio effects and damage. I think guns could suit as a sort of "get out of jail free card", especially since you barely get any ammo. Right now they are kinda worthless.
Also - it feels like both me and enemies have slighly more range than we should have. It got me killed during the boss fight one time.
And at some point the music loop became a bit too annoying.
I think most of my complaints are simple tweaks, and the core gameplay is a banger. A fantastic demo. Looking forward for more!
such a great game. the impacts and fx were on point.
some things to note that other people have mentioned:
sometimes it felt like my blocking/attacking inputs were being dropped.
some sort of fast movement option would be great to help the player get away quickly or get some space between enemies. like a quick back step or side step. would help a lot with projectiles
i think a parry or perfect block would work great, especially with some added hit stop to really give the player that satisfying feeling of parrying an attack. you could also add unblockable attacks that would open up the variety to dodge vs block
throwing weapons would be nice, i think you only throw them once they are 0% currently?
adding hitstop when the player is hit would help the player visually, its a bit too passive when you get hit currently, or maybe just some more fx when getting hit
the hitbox of the player attacks seem a little too tight, maybe expand the hitbox a bit
Boss mode is, well, very difficult so i had to tone down to Thug,which i guess is the medium setting. Even at medium difficulty, the level 1 boss was very hard to beat.
Besides, this is actually a very fun game. I love visual style too. Genuinely the most fun i've had in a DD game.
-Playing tutorial, all is good so far. Then we get kicks. The kicks are fine, and I like the comboing after a good ole wallop, however the default key is questionable. Maybe I'm just odd, but I almost never press any keys besides spacebar with my thumb when doing FPS controls, so it's a reach for the index finger to hit v. Anyways, thankfully there is a way to rebind it.
-I find it inconsistent that you kick off walls/people by clicking instead of using the dedicated kick button. Though it seems more ergonomic to do it that way.
-Sometimes holding RMB won't block. It happens if you start holding RMB, then swap your weapon(and some other animations/actions?). Then you have that disconnect of thinking you'll start blocking as soon as you can, but instead your character is standing there like a dumb dumb as his skull is cracked.
-Got to the arena with the shotgun outside. Was going okay ish, but then I notice the gate was down so I tried to walk out to get the pistol with 2 bullets I left when picking up the shotty. Then it was an invisible wall, so I got pwned. Please don't do that, even if gameplay-logically I should have to stay in the arena. Though looking at it again, I think it was just a hole in the wall I didn't notice before, since I think I saw the ramp past another wall. Point still stands.
-I died in that boss arena, but I was able to respawn at the boss with the shotgun which I used near the beginning of the goon beatdown. Not sure if intended or not, but it quickly whittled down the boss. I then beat him, and I guess that's the end of the game.
-Since it was short, I am doing another run on hard mode. Seems like enemies do lunge attacks now? Or else in normal it was so easy that I didn't notice. Also guns, getting a taste of my own medicine.
-I notice that items you pick up at 100% durability instantly become 99% when in the HUD. It's a bit silly, but should be made consistent so it doesn't distract the player.
-Boss this time is more engaging, but the previously mentioned no-blocking-after-weapon-switch is really annoying here as he keeps breaking my weapons and I don't think I can out run him.
-I realize I can use the kicks to stun the boss, which makes it less annoying as I can kick when my guard won't come up. I then beat him fairly easily, since the kick allowed for a way higher DPS.
Gameplay is fairly solid, had fun lining up the baddies and kicking them like bowling balls. Then you can go to one that was knocked down by a kick, and after only a couple hits they can be kicked too. Not a big fan of the visuals, it looks rough in a not so appealing way, almost 3D mobile game like. Though, I must admit that as a whole it communicates the theme of grimy alleyways and thuggery quite well. Keep up the good work.
The game feels great when you're smashing thugs with a rebar,really solid impact. But the movement could use more variety. Something like a bullrush or a jumping attack that damages your weapon but hits hard might make things more interesting. Right now, it kind of feels like you just pick one thug, keep hitting until the kick prompt shows up, then repeat. Is there a reason not to do that every time? Maybe if enemies reacted more dynamically, it would push you to switch things up a bit. Basically, a way to make the skill ceiling higher
yo, good point. The thugs in the demo are pretty simple, I am planning on introducing more aggressive / varied thugs further down the campaign to aid with this. Thanks for playing boss
Very nice game, It looks good and it plays good as well. I don't I have much feedback to give to you since I think the game follows a very particular aesthetic and gameplay style that fits it quite well. The combat felt nice, like an FPS beat em up, I did feel the need for a strafe/dodge mechanic where you can move to the sides a little faster to dodge some of the enemies' attacks (I don't think I missed something like that? maybe I did?), but even without it I had no problem playing through the game. Good work!
Felt really nice to play. Combat was juicy and satisfying. Being parry-brained by Dark Souls and Sekiro I wished that perfect block would have some kind of effect. It would also be nice if some thugs could pick up items and throw them at you. I didn't play the whole demo so maybe they do that later down the line.
The thugs shooting at you at Boss difficulty are too hard to dodge. V for kicking is extremely uncomfortable. I moved it to one of the side mouse buttons personally, but not everyone has one. The combat music is nice but it can get kind of repetitive, the loop is pretty short. Great game, i look forwards to the rest.
Played on thug difficulty, had to thug it out a few times on the boss. It's great. The way that bodies ragdoll and get pushed around is so very satisfying.
instead of gain elevation in the tutorial you can just tell players to jump, the wording is awkward imo
There are secret whiff mechanics when you miss attacks or kicks that also affect your ability to block, at least that's how it felt when I couldn't block several times when I didn't have any input or animation going on, maybe it's 0 stamina, I couldn't check during combat.
Enemy attacks feel unreactable so I was motivated to pre-block and always make sure there's only one enemy in range, fighting a retreating battle. Maybe it was partly due to whiffing, maybe interweaving kick spamming helps.
Gun enemies feel cheap, at first I didn't even try to block them because blocking a bullet with a pipe seemed impossible. they became more doable afterwards but with the horde in the boss arena that was rough. I was able to kill the two handed thug in the arena but always died afterwards.
I think my biggest issue with the combat is the fear of getting surrounded even slightly and so being forced to play a very specific way with enemies taking turns getting a beatdown so I wish the player had more variety in playstyle. I really hope you add being able to throw weapons.
Going down ladders is awkward, the forward input wants to climb the ladder even when you're facing the other way.
I don't know what's a good default bind for kick but taking my fingers off movement even for a split second felt like suicide, I rebinded it to M4 almost immediately. Top tier art style/direction in game environments, characters and menus, music for this game.
For what's it worth regarding my difficulty comments I beat god hand normal KMS last year
Completing the tutorial for one difficulty does not unlock the proper level for all difficulties. A move to close in with the revolver thugs would go a long way.
I liked how snappy the game is! cool art, cool sfx, cool bouncy animations for the UI and the goons, everything is well put together
The only issues i've found: -Sometimes when picking weapons or breaking them, i feel like blocking doesn't work (that might just be me messing up though) -I can't crouch so I can't teabag the defeated boss
The wall jump might feel more intuitive as a kick instead of an attack.
I would like some hitstop on successful attack. this would go a long way in reinforcing you didn't miss which is very important in this game. Also some kind of effect or sound which lasts the entire "whiff" penalty duration (I think that's how it works). There were times where I felt like I should've been able to attack but nothing happened.
The jump kick should be way more powerful in terms of area affected. Honestly a 360 explosion type effect would probably be good, as it stands I was never sure it did anything.
I got filtered hard by the boss. The game is great though. Love the art direction you are going for. It is kind of like a source game, but with Quake 1 or 2 chraracters. Honestly great. I don't have any feedback. What's there feels and looks great. Sadly I suck at your game. But keep up the good work!
The style, music, and sound effects are all really solid. Really satisfying thug'em up. I'm also conditioned to expect a parry mechanic or at least a sort of enemy stun lock on a successful block. One issue for me was that approach in each scenario was strategically the same. Maybe more enemy types that do things besides run directly into you with a pipe at the same time
feedback and bounciness of everything feels so nice, its thugnificent
automatically picking up and swapping weapons is very appreciated
enemy sound effects are really good and remind me of god hand
i wish that there was a weapon or two which would break very fast but could be used to eliminate problem enemies in 1-2 hits
i made it to the big square arena with the shotgun (which felt great) and then got filtered by the thug wave with 2 shooters in it, seems like blocking them or keeping an enemy between you is the only way to deal with them
i like the simplicity but part of me wishes there was some sort of movement mechanic to make running around or dodging enemies more interesting
my slop brain is conditioned to expect a reward for parrying an attack with perfect timing
whats here is pretty excellent and fun, ill probably return and see if i can beat the level later.
Thoughts after the tutorial: Pretty damn satisfying to play, very polished. I really like the motif. It makes me feel like a sicko thug. Eager to play more later tonight
Comments
Very cool game. Probably the best looking and feeling Unreal engine game I've played from agdg. Combat was really fun, enemies were really fun. Basically the whole base of the game is solid. Looking forward to more weapons and enemies.
Man, the combat is JUICY. Animations, models and sfx make me bite my lip. Kicks feel very good.
Sewer (tutorial) outstays its welcome with the ending "waves of enemies" pit. Also - I feel like there are only 2 attacks which do AOE damage - the jump-kick and the finisher kick. Which is... questionable in a beat-em-up, imo. For example - in "Pirate Yakuza" game (very recent release) you have 2 combat styles, with one suitable on 1 on 1 combat (perfect for bosses), and another one aimed at dealing damage in wide areas (perfect for big group fights). In the pit fight you're kinda forced to kite enemies so you can dispatch them one after another, which kinda forces you to stop in your tracks and rethink your strategy. I don't know if that's what you intended, but I was stuck for a bit there, wishing I had some sort of an AOE attack.
Second level is great and much more fun. Didn't have much trouble with the boss on the normal difficulty, I managed to keep him stunlocked for almost the entirety of the fight. Dunno if that was supposed to happen or not.
Guns are very underpowered both in terms of audio effects and damage. I think guns could suit as a sort of "get out of jail free card", especially since you barely get any ammo. Right now they are kinda worthless.
Also - it feels like both me and enemies have slighly more range than we should have. It got me killed during the boss fight one time.
And at some point the music loop became a bit too annoying.
I think most of my complaints are simple tweaks, and the core gameplay is a banger. A fantastic demo. Looking forward for more!
such a great game. the impacts and fx were on point.
some things to note that other people have mentioned:
sometimes it felt like my blocking/attacking inputs were being dropped.
some sort of fast movement option would be great to help the player get away quickly or get some space between enemies. like a quick back step or side step. would help a lot with projectiles
i think a parry or perfect block would work great, especially with some added hit stop to really give the player that satisfying feeling of parrying an attack. you could also add unblockable attacks that would open up the variety to dodge vs block
throwing weapons would be nice, i think you only throw them once they are 0% currently?
adding hitstop when the player is hit would help the player visually, its a bit too passive when you get hit currently, or maybe just some more fx when getting hit
the hitbox of the player attacks seem a little too tight, maybe expand the hitbox a bit
Boss mode is, well, very difficult so i had to tone down to Thug,which i guess is the medium setting. Even at medium difficulty, the level 1 boss was very hard to beat.
Besides, this is actually a very fun game. I love visual style too. Genuinely the most fun i've had in a DD game.
Game runs at 20 fps on my shit computer.
Specs: 4 GB RAM, i3 7020u (4 cores, @ 2.3 GHz), Intel Graphics 620.
thanks for the report boss.
What screen resolution are you running at ? ( 720p, 1080p... ? )
1080p.
I set the system resolution to 720p and the game never dropped below 30fps on the first level, mostly of the time at 35~45 fps.
In the second level it was below 30fps. Mostly of the time about 20 fps.
I’m pretty sure it would run fine (30 fps, 720p (if you write a resolution slider)) with 4 gb ram, similar CPU, and a dedicated GPU with 1 gb vram.
-Playing tutorial, all is good so far. Then we get kicks. The kicks are fine, and I like the comboing after a good ole wallop, however the default key is questionable. Maybe I'm just odd, but I almost never press any keys besides spacebar with my thumb when doing FPS controls, so it's a reach for the index finger to hit v. Anyways, thankfully there is a way to rebind it.
-I find it inconsistent that you kick off walls/people by clicking instead of using the dedicated kick button. Though it seems more ergonomic to do it that way.
-Sometimes holding RMB won't block. It happens if you start holding RMB, then swap your weapon(and some other animations/actions?). Then you have that disconnect of thinking you'll start blocking as soon as you can, but instead your character is standing there like a dumb dumb as his skull is cracked.
-Got to the arena with the shotgun outside. Was going okay ish, but then I notice the gate was down so I tried to walk out to get the pistol with 2 bullets I left when picking up the shotty. Then it was an invisible wall, so I got pwned. Please don't do that, even if gameplay-logically I should have to stay in the arena. Though looking at it again, I think it was just a hole in the wall I didn't notice before, since I think I saw the ramp past another wall. Point still stands.
-I died in that boss arena, but I was able to respawn at the boss with the shotgun which I used near the beginning of the goon beatdown. Not sure if intended or not, but it quickly whittled down the boss. I then beat him, and I guess that's the end of the game.
-Since it was short, I am doing another run on hard mode. Seems like enemies do lunge attacks now? Or else in normal it was so easy that I didn't notice. Also guns, getting a taste of my own medicine.
-I notice that items you pick up at 100% durability instantly become 99% when in the HUD. It's a bit silly, but should be made consistent so it doesn't distract the player.
-Boss this time is more engaging, but the previously mentioned no-blocking-after-weapon-switch is really annoying here as he keeps breaking my weapons and I don't think I can out run him.
-I realize I can use the kicks to stun the boss, which makes it less annoying as I can kick when my guard won't come up. I then beat him fairly easily, since the kick allowed for a way higher DPS.
Gameplay is fairly solid, had fun lining up the baddies and kicking them like bowling balls. Then you can go to one that was knocked down by a kick, and after only a couple hits they can be kicked too. Not a big fan of the visuals, it looks rough in a not so appealing way, almost 3D mobile game like. Though, I must admit that as a whole it communicates the theme of grimy alleyways and thuggery quite well. Keep up the good work.
I fixed the Blocking flow issue! Thank you!
The game feels great when you're smashing thugs with a rebar,really solid impact. But the movement could use more variety. Something like a bullrush or a jumping attack that damages your weapon but hits hard might make things more interesting. Right now, it kind of feels like you just pick one thug, keep hitting until the kick prompt shows up, then repeat. Is there a reason not to do that every time? Maybe if enemies reacted more dynamically, it would push you to switch things up a bit.
Basically, a way to make the skill ceiling higher
yo, good point. The thugs in the demo are pretty simple, I am planning on introducing more aggressive / varied thugs further down the campaign to aid with this. Thanks for playing boss
This game is great! Love the frantic combat. I'll echo the suggestion for perfect blocks doing a parry or something. No other notes, just thug life.
Very nice game, It looks good and it plays good as well. I don't I have much feedback to give to you since I think the game follows a very particular aesthetic and gameplay style that fits it quite well. The combat felt nice, like an FPS beat em up, I did feel the need for a strafe/dodge mechanic where you can move to the sides a little faster to dodge some of the enemies' attacks (I don't think I missed something like that? maybe I did?), but even without it I had no problem playing through the game. Good work!
Felt really nice to play. Combat was juicy and satisfying. Being parry-brained by Dark Souls and Sekiro I wished that perfect block would have some kind of effect. It would also be nice if some thugs could pick up items and throw them at you. I didn't play the whole demo so maybe they do that later down the line.
Other than that great work!
V for kicking is extremely uncomfortable. I moved it to one of the side mouse buttons personally, but not everyone has one.
The combat music is nice but it can get kind of repetitive, the loop is pretty short.
Great game, i look forwards to the rest.
Played on thug difficulty, had to thug it out a few times on the boss. It's great. The way that bodies ragdoll and get pushed around is so very satisfying.
Played on max diff
instead of gain elevation in the tutorial you can just tell players to jump, the wording is awkward imo
There are secret whiff mechanics when you miss attacks or kicks that also affect your ability to block, at least that's how it felt when I couldn't block several times when I didn't have any input or animation going on, maybe it's 0 stamina, I couldn't check during combat.
Enemy attacks feel unreactable so I was motivated to pre-block and always make sure there's only one enemy in range, fighting a retreating battle. Maybe it was partly due to whiffing, maybe interweaving kick spamming helps.
Gun enemies feel cheap, at first I didn't even try to block them because blocking a bullet with a pipe seemed impossible. they became more doable afterwards but with the horde in the boss arena that was rough. I was able to kill the two handed thug in the arena but always died afterwards.
I think my biggest issue with the combat is the fear of getting surrounded even slightly and so being forced to play a very specific way with enemies taking turns getting a beatdown so I wish the player had more variety in playstyle. I really hope you add being able to throw weapons.
Going down ladders is awkward, the forward input wants to climb the ladder even when you're facing the other way.
I don't know what's a good default bind for kick but taking my fingers off movement even for a split second felt like suicide, I rebinded it to M4 almost immediately.
Top tier art style/direction in game environments, characters and menus, music for this game.
For what's it worth regarding my difficulty comments I beat god hand normal KMS last year
Completing the tutorial for one difficulty does not unlock the proper level for all difficulties.
A move to close in with the revolver thugs would go a long way.
The only issues i've found:
-Sometimes when picking weapons or breaking them, i feel like blocking doesn't work (that might just be me messing up though)
-I can't crouch so I can't teabag the defeated boss
The wall jump might feel more intuitive as a kick instead of an attack.
I would like some hitstop on successful attack. this would go a long way in reinforcing you didn't miss which is very important in this game. Also some kind of effect or sound which lasts the entire "whiff" penalty duration (I think that's how it works). There were times where I felt like I should've been able to attack but nothing happened.
The jump kick should be way more powerful in terms of area affected. Honestly a 360 explosion type effect would probably be good, as it stands I was never sure it did anything.
I got filtered hard by the boss. The game is great though. Love the art direction you are going for. It is kind of like a source game, but with Quake 1 or 2 chraracters. Honestly great. I don't have any feedback. What's there feels and looks great. Sadly I suck at your game. But keep up the good work!
The style, music, and sound effects are all really solid. Really satisfying thug'em up. I'm also conditioned to expect a parry mechanic or at least a sort of enemy stun lock on a successful block. One issue for me was that approach in each scenario was strategically the same. Maybe more enemy types that do things besides run directly into you with a pipe at the same time
played on boss difficulty
whats here is pretty excellent and fun, ill probably return and see if i can beat the level later.
Thoughts after the tutorial:
Pretty damn satisfying to play, very polished.
I really like the motif. It makes me feel like a sicko thug. Eager to play more later tonight