Played the demo, I think this is a decent 90’s throwback shooter. I especially feel like with a bit of gameplay polishing that there’s potential with this game. A few critiques and praises I would like to point out after finishing the demo (based on Hard difficulty):
- -The sword ranged attack feels really satisfying to use, and I really like how it penetrates multiple targets. The cooldown period doesn’t bother me as I like the risk vs reward of using it.
- -Movement during combat feels a bit stiff. I feel like it might be a combination of total lack of air control when jumping and the claustrophobic environments, but I tend to get caught on geometry quite a bit.
- -It feels like dashing moves the player based on the direction you’re currently moving as opposed to the current input being held. It would help with effectively dodging if it functioned like the latter rather than the former.
- -I don’t think that enemies are too spongey, but rather that it might help weapon’s feedback if there were a pain-state, or pain animations for hitting enemies. Damage values feel pretty good to me, overall.
- -Reloading on the pistols feels a bit long for a relatively weak weapon. I’d recommend quickening it or even dropping reloading altogether.
- -The charging enemy with the dual sword attacks felt off. I’d have times where he would charge through me and deal no damage, and other times it felt like he would strike me from way out of his reach (I had my FOV set to 90, which may have been contributing to this).
- -I especially liked the level design so far, I appreciate the open-endedness and nonlinearity without going too hard on being mazelike. Well-hidden secrets too.
Overall, I think there’s a solid game foundation here. Combat and weapons feels satisfying and the levels are fun to explore. I feel like that if the above critiques are addressed that it would really improve on the core feel and combat flow of the game.