Man this game's really something. I played it for about an hour with mouse and keyboard - mostly stuck getting my ass kicked at Tier 1 Fame 5. I'll try to find the time to give it another shot with a controller later.
I think the combat is good? I'm putting a question mark there because I didn't get very far into the game and haven't had time to wrap my head around stuff like the power system. At the tier-1 fighting I was doing, I feel like the only thing I was really doing was spamming punch and rarely blocking to counter a legionnaire (which felt really good). Unlocking moves like shooting missile barrages while Vanquishing around with your rocket knees seems like it can change the feel of it a lot, though.
The garage system is interesting, if very intimidating. You've got quite a task in front of you getting a player to understand all of that.
The presentation is great, the menu especially. The cutscenes were also really good, if pretty janky in places, and I really liked what little story was in the demo. I felt super sorry for NX1A.
Issues:
- player taking damage really needs some more oomph. I'd lose most of my health to an enemy's attack and not even notice.
- I'd really like a loading indicator when starting a match so I can tell the game hasn't just frozen.
- When you want to retry, you can't see how much money you have available when deciding on a repair level.
- I bought the legionnaire SS enemy as the first thing and I spent a long time in a vicious cycle of not having enough money to repair NX1A because I couldn't win fights because I couldn't afford repairs. Being able to disable enemies again after purchasing them would be nice.
Stuff I'd like to see:
- Resetting individual colors to their default in the paint room
- Being able to give NX1A pale, non-human skin tones like pure white (maybe that'll be in the cosmetics part of the store idk)
TLDR this game is rad and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it.