Hi there!

I finished my first playthrough of the alpha content an hour or two ago (assuming it ends when climbing down a ladder after entering the vents). There's some great atmosphere and a good start on some solid characterisation. I feel invested in Rook's journey, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the ability to shape his (and other party members'?) attributes impacts on the game. I'm also interested to see how other characters' moods will be used through the game (so far, it doesn't seem like they make much of a difference?).

In general, I'm enjoying the pacing of the game, though the intro sequence feels like it might go on a little long for some players (at a guess, 2/3rds the length feels like it might be a good sweet-spot to aim for?). The tutorial, first security droids and final combat sequences feel like they're providing solid beats at good moments in the game (not so sure about the 3 drones, but that definitely wasn't unwelcome).

I loved the cell block/ladder puzzle, and appreciated that the backtracking gave a second opportunity for players to discover stuff in the cells if they'd missed them on their first pass.

It took me a little while to notice that I could shoot the valve to stop the middle flame vent. The valve itself could stand out a little more (not just the steam escaping it). I tried to shoot it while crouching and nearly gave up before I decided to stand up and try it - I'm not sure if that was just bad aim on my part or not.

I found myself wishing I could use the forklift to give myself an advantage going into the final combat sequence (maybe ramming the shield robot?). It's a little jarring to have it disappear, but I guess that sort of context shift is common in JRPGs.

It took me a long time to notice/understand the nuances of combat. In particular, I struggled with timing a lot both for attacking and defending (likely exacerbated by colour issues). Initially I thought that the ranged defence bar was the enemy's attack timing bar and didn't realise that I should have been aiming for the green area (I guess it's green? The right most segment doesn't stand out as green to me). It also took me a while to work out that the mouse wheel could change targets (the dash skill felt pretty useless up till that point!), and it wasn't until after I was reading the character status screens on my second playthrough that I discovered how to use the short circuit skill.

Once I got the hang of it though, I found myself enjoying the combat even if it did ramp up in difficulty faster than I was learning my abilities. If you are planning to make character stats have an impact on timing for ranged attacks/defences and melee defences, I'd say that what's there now is fine, but if not, maybe giving a little extra leeway here (especially early on?) might be worth considering.

Fantastic work! I am very glad to  have supported this game's development and look forward to seeing where things go from here :)

Edit: I didn't find anywhere to use the code I found in the prisoner's cell - is that used in the game or did I sidestep it by solving a puzzle differently?

Abusing this post to not create too many different threads for the same thing.

Loved the aesthetics of the game overal, from the audio design so far to the overal graphics, including the corruption on-screen when you're still recovering. I knew that from the campaign a bit, of course, but to actually be in there is another thing.

The RPG mechanics seem interesting and, like mentioned above, I wonder how this will affect the journey.

To me the intro sequence didn't take too long, but I generally like these forms of intro exposition. It gave a good sci-fi/cyberpunk kind of feel.

Other thoughts will come, need to play through it a few more times to properly gather my impressions.