I absolutely loved playing this game, it's ridiculously well put together! It's haunting and tense in all the right ways, and the risk elements are super well thought out. Some notes:
- The concept is flawless. Space is terrifying, especially the idea of only being connected to safety by a flimsy tether, and this idea only amplifies that fear.
- I ADORE the atmosphere of the title screen already, and that haunting title screen theme especially. The color scheme is perfect, not pure black and white but just SLIGHTLY tinted blue was a genius move. That said, the thumbnail is so clean that I'm genuinely sad it's not used in-game.
- Really, the atmosphere of this game is just flawless in general. The music is haunting and keeps you on edge, the darkness is overpowering, the character being so small makes everything more overwhelming. Genuinely professional grade stuff.
- The gameplay loop is also simple but effective, needing to march forward to get scrap, never knowing whether you'll be able to make it back or if a few bad rolls will screw you over, with everything being a literal roll of the dice - it's so good.
- That said, I do feel like the game is currently missing one big thing: stakes. Maybe I was just getting lucky, but it never felt like there were stakes on the "macro" level - sure, I could die at any time, but that only costs you a bit of scrap, and you have infinite tries to regain that scrap as far as I can tell. There doesn't seem to be a lose condition, and that made the prospect of a failed run much less scary, and the idea of evading risk (like, say, putting down that last die with no bullets in the chamber) much more palatable. Perhaps wracking up enough of a "scrap debt" or failing to reach a quota could completely end your run, so you can be forced to play even riskier out of desperate measures? I like that dying doesn't end your run, though, because I think that would just make people play safer. (If this is already a thing and I just never noticed, forgive me!)
- The upgrade system is really nice and well-paced, and does does provide some incentive to build up scrap, but again, I don't think it provides quite enough incentive to go for big plays on its own since you have unlimited tries.
- The tutorial was pretty good, but because of how simple everything is visually, I still got a bit confused - adding arrows to the text boxes or specifically highlighting which die/mechanic is being talked about would be nice. Also, corporate's lending box was something I missed for my first few runs.
- I'm a bit split on the tile dice, since on the one hand, like I said, the dread of having to roll and then being forced to place down the die to live with your roll is fun, but then on the other hand, I think it kind of kills some of the tension that slowly moving could give - since you HAVE to play and immediately move onto a die you place down, it functions exactly the same as if you only found out after moving, except you replace all of the tension of the movement with the feeling of "ugh, now I have to deal with this" - which can be really cool in its own right, it gives you a sort of sinking feeling that you're screwing YOURSELF over by placing that die even if you're being forced to ("you made this mess, now sit in it"), but it can also just sort of spoil the tension ahead of time, and the way things are set up gives a false sense of being able to do more about a bad roll than you actually can. This could be solved by either placing down a die and THEN having it roll, or by perhaps being able to do something to a die with a bad roll, like placing it on a non-adjacent open tile at some cost. That said, I still do think you'd be losing something in the process, so your call.
- Being able to see the sides of each die is nice, but in my experience at least, they're all the same - having the sides of each die be a bit different might make the risk assessment element of the game a bit more engaging. (I notice colored dice in the screenshots - I'm not quite sure what those do since I haven't encountered any, but if they fulfill this function, then ignore me.)
- I really like the revolver spin animation and effects.
- The results screen is super well-done and keeps the empty feeling going super well, and kind of funny in a dry, dark humor sort of way - I like it a lot.
Overall, I absolutely ADORE the core gameplay loop, and I definitely plan to keep playing - while I think the stakes could be a bit higher (a lose condition, and maybe a more concrete goal to work towards), and there are a couple mechanics I feel could maybe be fleshed out just a bit more (namely, placing dice), the gameplay itself is already addicting enough as-is. This is an incredible game, thank you so much.