Appreciate the feedback and ideas, thank you!
Knowing your core gameplay loop and optimizing the hell out of it is far preferable to "triple A" titles that shove in everything and the kitchen sink, and end up with an experience that is just bland (*cough* Bethesda *cough* Starfield *cough*).
I fully agree.
As it is, my suggestion is to consider environments that would challenge the Landsword. For example, a level with lots of tall peaks and narrow valleys (which Mars definitely has) such that the mountains obscure radar returns and allow for enemy ambushes.
Varying terrain height would be pretty hard with the way things are set up currently, but perhaps not impossible. I'll probably need to figure out some new methods to render things in order for it to look right though; something to research.
I also feel that introducing more varied enemies will help because it will give you more building blocks to design levels with. For example, an easy early level could be revisited later with more challenging enemies. More aerial attackers is also an option to consider.
Good idea. I think some of the Ratchet & Clank games on the PS2 did that in addition to randomizing enemy positions. Will definitely try to implement that.
Finally, I think the campaign needs more coherent connections/transitions between levels or groups of levels - right now they feel very disjointed and arbitrary.
I agree, they're quite disjointed at the moment. I intend to have different regions split up into groups of five or six missions which will reuse the same set of assets so that the levels will feel more connected together and lead into the next region/set.
Overall, I am looking forward to where you go with things and I'm confident you'll deliver something even more outstanding than what you've already shown us.
Thank you!