Played this for a 3 free indie horrors and didn't particularly enjoy every aspect of it. The game just doesn't feel entirely balanced and with the constant crashing every death, i lost interest rather quickly. The sprinting was really bad, not only did it really not offer much faster movement but after you run out, you're an autistic snail until is recharges. The wind up on the axe is a little "Eh..." The forced "Weapon or flashlight" mechanic was annoying and the boss at the end i got stuck on because i ran out of ammo. You can't kill him without bullets, he hits you from too far away to get close enough to hurt him, and i don't even think the full clip would had finished him, Now all of this isn't meant to say there's nothing right about the game. i like the pixelated style, while most areas were ridiculously pitch black, it still looked nice and the atmosphere was pretty good. Not crazy about the sound design but it also wasn't bad. You can find a Full and in-depth review and feedback in my video below
Viewing post in Escape The Place (alpha v00.3) Survival/Horror comments
Hey thanks for playing! Your feedback is definitely valuable, quite a few changes are being implemented in V00.3 which will be the final alpha version. Definitely agree the sprint could use a little work, barely ship-able at the moment.
The boss is already being reworked, there are some scaling issues as well as you probably noticed. It takes roughly 20 shots to kill him but yes, it is possible :) Will watch your video soon when I get home to wifi, but did you find the safe in the second room? Inside resides two clips of ammo and a health pack, which are necessary to defeat the boss.
Also, saving often is recommended. Of course, crashing definitely discourages one to keep playing either way! The issue with crashes on reload I'm still trying to sort, its hard to diagnose because it varies from person to person. On some machines, it rarely crashes - if at all. On others, it seems to crash every time the game is reloaded. I don't expect you to play more, but running in compatibility mode for windows 7 seems to help.
And yes, definitely too dark. Not for long tho :)
Again thanks for the play and the video! Will check it out as soon as I get home.
Yeah, it's no problem. I do these types of video not just to show the game for a playthrough, but the end segments are for the developers mainly, where i give my honest opinions and reviews and try to help you guys improve wherever i can, because (Contrary to popular belief) i ONLY want to see you and all other devs thrive, and that can only be achieved through honest criticism and feedback (Sorry if i come across as harsh in my review, you gotta understand, I play A LOT of indie horrors). No, i didn't get the safe open, i actually forgot about the safe entirely after my first death. The biggest concerns i have are the Movement, sprint and lighting, everything else wasn't particularly bad for an FPS creator game. I did manage to break your pixelation overlay when i loaded my save that final time, and i think the dog on the stairs AI is broken. I'd definitely give it another play once you update the game though.
No worries, honest feedback is the most valuable feedback! Certainly is more rough edge than game at this point but this kind of feedback is exactly why I made it available now, before I made a bunch of design decisions lol.
I do like enter as the action button bevause it discourages fighting and using objects (pickups, doors, etc) at the same time. Still though, I may default it to F key as it seems many people do not like the enter button for interaction. Personal keybinding (and mouse inversion) will also be available in the finished product, though unfortunately not in this alpha version.
A huge update is dropping soon that includes quite a bit of features and fixes, hope youll give it another chance sometime :) Liked and Subscribed👍
Update Features Include
- Instruction/Direction Huds
- Health Huds
- Descriptive Pick Up Huds
- Boss Modified
- Axe Modified
- New Themed Menu Screens
- Slight redesign
- Texture changes
- Darkness/Ambience adjustments
- All pickups flash
- Press Enter to Pick up Items
- Revised player sounds
- Revised doors and keys
- Player Sprint Adjusted
- New Cursor
- Ceilings Now Have Their Own Texture
- AI doesnt get stuck as easy
Fixes
- Post Effect Shader Fixed
- Packaged with Direct X 9