I haven't got a lot to say that hasn't already been said, but damn the pump-action feels satisfying. I've always loved games that do the "click again to pump" thing on shotguns. (Well, I've only ever seen it in doom mods, but still!)

I also appreciate the little bit of lore at the start of level 1. The idea of a gang that's using reality-bending to its advantage is fun, and the phrasing of "Kill these 3 targets and you will gain access to the light" is delightfully ominous. Someone else compared the levels to EYE already, but that bit of implied storytelling is what really gave me EYE vibes--or maybe a bit of Cruelty Squad.

I agree with Zackarotto in that it'd be cool to have a bit of stealth, with enemies not immediately recognizing when one of their number has been possessed. If you really wanted to, you could probably build an entire immersive sim around that mechanic.

I liked the possession mechanic a lot! You took its consequences into account and streamlined the gameplay to its favor. You don't need health pickups, since your possessed hosts are all the health you get. Not having ammo but keeping weapon reload was also a smart decision in my opinion.

Engaging in combat as the possessor was always a last resort for me. I see a lot of potential in the strategic depth of this game. Being able to formulate a plan and then execute it can feel very fulfilling and I feel like this should be (and most probably is) the centerpiece of your experience. I works as a slow-paced strategic game (exploring and planning) with fast-paced interjections (executing your plan).

There are so many possibilities arising from the game elements you introduced: "Which guy to posses first?", "How to position myself in order not to get involved in the shootout?", "My host died and dropped my favorite gun, what now?"

I don't think you need the Vibe limitation. A maximum possession range should be enough. The game would benefit from giving the player plenty time to asses a situation first and then act on their plan. I should get hectic when the player decides the game to get hectic.

Now I could start rambling about game feel and movement, but this clearly isn't what this game is about. However, please add a mouse sensitivity setting in the future. I really had trouble aiming since moving my mouse by a millimeter made the screen jump. But still, the game was fun even when I had trouble aiming.

I'm not a huge fan of the visual style, but that's a subjective thing. I did like the sound effect and the music a lot, though!

Good job!

you know, I really enjoyed this vibe. map design gave me strong feelings of eye divine cybermancy, and the look--and feel--totally reminded me of frozen synapse / introversion. this music definitely has promise. really though the gestalt of the whole thing--the tutorial, the menu, the maps--felt cozy in a sort of unified way.

the guns didn't have a lot of juice (which is fine) or weight, but they did feel sharp, which I liked. they also felt different enough to be reasonable as player choices, although I'm ultimately not sure how the rifle differed from the pistol?

I appreciated the removal of various standard fps inputs that were deemed unnecessary, like crouch and reload--definitely streamlined the experience. however, 'vibes management' (should be the name of a band) was something I pretty much completely ignored. reading numbers in a twitchy game is really hard, but for the most part it just didn't seem to impact my experience. similarly, I forgot that shift was an action I could take, because it never felt motivated as a choice in the game.

that being said, after playing for a bit I began to appreciate a little that this game could go in two directions, and it seems to me that your intentions for picking one of them are actually fairly well communicated. on the one hand, this could be very fast and juicy, with possession as a line of sight mechanic (that maybe triggers slomo as well) with some nice fast interpolation... this is what I thought was missing a couple minutes in. on the other hand, this could retain its slower, more thoughtful speed. it becomes a kind of tactics/puzzle/even sandbox thing, which rewards map knowledge and creative solutions. after finishing a session I realized that this is where you took the design, more so than the other thing, and I think that's cool.

e.g. the hide => Q => WASD => F interface flow for possession in the beginning felt awkward and interrupting--too long, too many choices, breaks the flow. but later on I began to appreciate it. it's more of a sandbox thing; it gives you more control, slows down play and makes you think.

in that case though, I would like to see more creative constraints on the player. when vibes did block me, it felt kind of arbitrary. I want vibes to be more of a valuable resource: something I spend to try and get past a hard part of the map. shift feels a bit one-sided as a player action: it always seems to benefit me, so why would I ever not use it? where's the risk? all of this feeds into possession, which I think fights a little as a core mechanic with shooting (which one is more important?). I enjoy possession and I think it has a lot of promise, but during play it was sort of unclear when and why I should do it.

I'm sure you took a look at driver san francisco when making this, but it seems relevant enough to bring up. they also managed this kind of dual player desire (taking control of cars vs epic driving action) in a way I recall feeling successfully awesome. might be some learnings there.

overall, great work! will be playing this again (right now).

I love possession as a mechanic, it lends itself to all kinds of fun. It might be cool if enemies didn’t immediately turn on their possessed allies? Though if you’re going for pure Superhot action over a stealth/puzzle thing, I can see why you wouldn’t.

The most fun thing for me was making all the enemies drop their guns.

Some very cool ideas in this game, the addition of several types of weapon along with the various mechanics you’ve included is very impressive. I had some issues hitting enemies when they were moving, and ran out of vibes a bit quickly (could maybe use a faster regen), but I had fun combatting with enemies.

A lot of cool ideas in this game! Getting some SUPERHOT vibes for sure.

The blinking lights are indeed quite distracting though, and I had a hard time aiming for moving enemies.

So many interesting mechanics! Great weapon variety too.