It worked! The issue did crop up once or twice again when the game got choppy though, but that wasn't game breaking.
I finished the demo and I am absolutely stunned! I am very happy to see a sequel to Brush Burial which is definitely in my list of favourite games ever. I just played without going for the challenges (Grace, Prowess, Mercy), aggressively (killing pretty much everyone) and with this in mind I can say:
- Same as the first, the vibes/style/atmosphere - absolutely beautiful. The world is dark, but also never oppressive, so I feel invited to stay and enjoy.
- The combat is just right, with each encounter feeling tense and interesting but overall never being so challenging as to frustrate. Resources felt tight, but never scarce.
- The level design is just right, with a big non-linear space, just winding enough so you can get a little bit lost, but not so much you can't find your way back. Climbing and looking around vertically for spaces to reach very pleasing, and I also always feel properly rewarded for exploration, because the side bits are fun, engaging, beautiful, *and* have goodies.
Apologies for the lack of (constructive) criticism, but you are literally making my dream games. I can truly find no major fault. I can muster a few suggestions though:
- Option to make the inventory UI always visible. Very slightly annoying to fail putting a item back to the inventory the first time because I forget which slots are taken. Oops. Missed the tab and g key, cause I was reading the readme with half a brain :').
- I was having difficulty stunning some enemies. Not sure what it was about. The dual wielding axe men I couldn't stun at all, and some others I just couldn't stun sometimes. (Edit: It was a skill issue, I got better, though I still don't know what exactly I'm doing, I'm just better at doing it). If it's due to their animations or the range, maybe a bit better signposting as to when they are stunnable (Perhaps a particle alert like when they are getting alerted?)
- As for bugs, apart from the refresh rate issue, I also noted that some items I interacted with and dropped would disappear when I come back.
Will be replaying to go for the challenges and will report back on the experience with stealth.
Edit: Are you publishing somewhere about your development process by any chance? If I understand it well, you are a solo dev, and the fact that you pull this off alone is amazing and an inspiration.
Edit #2: Did it!
Took a couple of tries. Mercy and Prowess were easy to get when trying for Grace (but failing :P). Grace had 2 pain points for me. Took me a few tries to figure out the timing to pickpocket the Apartment Key from the worker in the basement without alerts. Also, even when I did it was finnicky cause the hitbox on the key seems to be small (maybe it could be a bit more permissive?). Secondly, the guards at the armory where the Stronghold Key confused me before I realized that taking them out sneakily wouldn't break Grace. The rest of the stealth was smooth sailing given I knew the level layout. I did appreciate it more now that I used the sneaky routes. Also totally missed the tools at the beginning on my first (violent) playthrough.
Prowess would seem to be crazy difficult to do in a combat playthrough given how I was having difficulty getting stuns in, and how quickly enemies can interrupt the takedown animation. Still gonna try though. Also wonder if it's possible to do all the challenges with no takedowns. Or taking down all the guards for the secondary objective while also doing the challenges. Hmmm...
The completionist in me also thinks that gathering all gold should be a special objective (Greed?), and given how fluid and fun the movement is, a speedrunning special objective to beat a certain time might also be fun (Haste?)
And a final note, after starting the game for a second time the refresh rate issue was gone even with a high refresh rate. Great, but odd...