Over all, I enjoyed the style of this game, and started having a good time with the challenge of it as I started to understand what was asked of me. It is, indeed, a very hard level, but that’s part of the fun.
That said…
-
There needs to be a better hint system. I doubt I would have ever learned about the fork in the kitchen without having been told, and it may have taken me forever to figure out how to use said fork on the locked door (and I’m still not sure, beyond just “thrash that mouse like it’s biting your figure”). Had I not been given those clues, I may never have figured out how to even get started.
-
The guards detection of the player when in a dark location is… unclear. Visually, I see the “flashlight” of the guards, which act as a visual detection area, but the guards often found me easily even when my character was well away from that light and in the dark. I’m told this has to do with “sound” also being an element… if this is the case, this is not something that’s telegraphed in any way to the player. As the player, I can grasp the flashlight being a detection area, but without any other indicators, it just feels like the guards see me WAY too easily and without much reason. My suggestion is either removing “sound” as a detection system, or, add some visual elements to the player which indicates they’re making too much sound (I had suggested a small sound wave like effect when the player moved in the dark)
-
What lights are affected by which light fuse boxes isn’t totally obvious to me for all of the fuse boxes. For instance, the left corridor fuse box shuts off the left corridor light, and the center corridor fuse box shuts off the center corridor light. These make sense! The Kitchen fuse box I never figured out what light that affected, and the right corridor fuse box I also had no idea! All in all, this made it near impossible for me to use the fuse boxes to my advantage as they didn’t behave in a way that worked with my way of thinking.
Over all, I think this would make for an awesome, challenging, escape style game with only some minor tweaks. Even as it is right now, it IS very impressive and challenging!
If you want to watch a grown man cry, or, at least, grumble loudly, here’s my stream of the game!