-Kino opening. I'll be petitioning JJ Abrams for a film treatment. I'm exaggerating, but it's pretty good. The term anthill for civilization seems kinda dumb though.
-Tutorial is good so far, but sometimes the text on screen lasts a little too short before I can read it all. Like for the radar when I was in the middle of navigating the boat.
-Intermission boat is a fine idea, though it's sad I can't jump and do things like normal. Would be fun to jump into the ocean for a time, or a drown-warp if you want to ensure players don't look for something that's not there. Regardless, having a home base with upgrades and stuff is cool.
-I go to the first mission, a little odd I start on an island with a locator stash next to a boat, and not on the boat itself.
-Radar is a good idea, adds another exploration element, and encourages actually standing in the cabin, unlike the previous versions. Though, I don't love how the character is just short enough so that the equipment/window ledge covers the bow of the ship from view. Harder to determine where the boat is. [later] I tended to just stand on the engine instead, since I got a better view than from the cabin, while still seeing the radar.
-Range and melee being combined into one enemy is meh. [later] I didn't bother doing melee at all this game since almost every enemy is ranged and the ammo was plentiful.
-New flying squid is fun, they can maybe dodge too fast but idk.
-Hanged mutant is neat, but the fact he's still holding the weapon is silly. Also I feel like the dogs are a little too easy outside of this encounter.
-I haven't said it yet, but the wired levers is sooo much better, you actually have a goal instead of just hoping the exit lever is somewhere on a nearby island.
-At some point I got nades? It's on the weapon wheel but pressing 5 doesn't do anything.
-I beat the mission and talk with Rags, he mentions tribes which is neat in theory, but it looked fairly homogenous. Might help to add differing tribe symbols around the ruins. Then again maybe I just missed it.
-Upgrading for the first time is fun, already have a mounted machine gun. Mutation wise though, I feel like it's too many options to choose from, would rather have 3-5 instead of all 15. They also don't seem quite balanced, some seem much better than others. Also, seeing my guns displayed by the inventory pack is a nice touch.
-Night level is nice, but what really sells it is the foggy water, transforms the area. However, in this area the repeating nature of the waves looks artificial even more than daylight.
-Found the nade launcher, nice.
-I go through the cave and am at the top of a gate but the lever is connected to some distant tower off the map... am I supposed to jump over the threshold and find the lever to then open the gate for my boat? I think I checked everywhere, but idk if I want to double check so here I go.
-Right choice, though Jumbo made a rag doll of me a few times. Strafing out of the way seemed more effective than running.
-Pet guy being on the ship is neat.
-Did the chieftain level, finding the PDW afterwards. New enemy was kind of neat, but easy to outmaneuver, the bossfight was decent fun, I found the speargun did the best damage. Almost suspected the glass floor/wall to be destroyed and cause a new phase.
-I notice there's a fisheye like thing with the FOV? When Rags is on the edges of my screen his face looks way fatter. Not sure if that's normal or not.
Game felt overall fun, story felt cheesy but enough context for what we're doing. Seems to be on track for me, but always room for improvement.