Ok I just finish this little gem of the Game Demo.
I just loved its introduction and so far what we seen from the story it promises to be very entertaining game, I REALLY hope you will not stop developing it and expand on the story, Maybe even try to leave some parts in the story open up for later on for possibility to add additional character stories either as RE2 unlockable content story A/B or like they did for original half-life as a expansions.
It would add option to use older game assets for additional story telling and I personally would not mind to play same levels as (for example) that dead character that we found at the beginning and see how he ended up like that. Maybe even make it if we leave some health packs on key locations (story A) in first run he could survive (unlocks side/expansion story for additional runs) so we could then meet him in our next run with Reina (optional story B if we complete some conditions in side/expansion story) and affect how things progress a bit in that next run. Hey I can dream right? :D
Graphic: I wont lie, the first thing that really attracted me to try the game was its graphic style, It reminded me on original “Resident evil” series from PlayStation/Dreamcast and “Deep Fear” from Sega Saturn. The look of low poly models and textures with that grainy filter really compels me in a good way to continue to play the game.
I would recommend to look in to “Deep fear” if you didn’t play it since theme(ocean and all) is to extend similar to Endless Blue so you might get some additional inspirations for your game.
Puzzles: A bit to simple for my taste, with little luck we will get more advanced puzzles as the game progress, it is demo to showcase aspects of the future game so I understand that they are there as proof of concept.
GUI: Simple and easy to understand. The only other option you might want to add is for players to be able to read older documents they already found from the menu. If there is that option and I didn’t find it, Sorry my fault then.
The lack of mini map on inventory screen is kinda good. I hope you will not implement it in that way later on. I don’t know about other players but with maps that show me where my exact location is and all the room locations needed to visit at any given time in the course of the story with blinking point gives me a feeling like my character already knows where everything is located(personal opinion only), it makes me feel like I’m robed of exploration part and the need to start looking for clues to piece them together to find what I need to do or go to locations to progress and move on. Yes i know its more convenient to have it but with out instant mark for it it forces player to think carefully if the clues he have are correct and to manage available resources it have if the player has made a mistake.
Maybe put maps throughout the underwater base on walls so players can interact with them to see their current location and those maps are maybe the emergency evacuation routes (Room with that specific map show routes for emergency evacuation for that room ). Good use from story narrative and gameplay perspective all put in to one.
Combat/Controls: Combat felt ok. The auto aim on enemy did good job with it. You could maybe make enemies a bit more tougher on next update. It felt that enemy has gone down to fast so I did not have a need to try to run back or run around the room in general to test out how the current combat build would progress in longer battle.
Maybe add a bit of mark on the aimed enemy so when have multiple enemies you can see what is auto aim targeting and add that enemy that is taking current damage is slower then other targets.
It would give a player a bit of crowd control mechanic if they could switch between targets to slow them down(maybe additional button for switching targets), sort of like in Parasite Eve 2.
Reina: The character so far is ok. The first impressions of her reminds me a bit of Regina from "Dino Crisis 1" but we shall see how will Reina develop in the future. Whoever did the voice for Reina, they did fine job and I hope they will try to keep the same feel for the character. The way Reina act and talks feel that she is professional that have been in a lot of action but somethings tells me this will be the first time that she encounters something like this so we shall see. :D
Maybe later in the course of the game as the story progress add a bit more strain and uneasiness in her behavior. It is a horror survival situations after all and it would reinforce how dire situation this really is if even she can get uneasy with whole thing.
The only thing that kinda felt off on her was her hair and face mesh. I notice that at some points the light source kinda reveal the edges and faces of her mesh on her face. Maybe add additional mesh for her hair and rearrange vertex on her face a bit so we don't have strange shadows on there.
All in all the game demo so far looks to be very fun. Hopefully we shall see new version very soon.
Best wishes and keep up the good work.