Co-op feedback

[Khadgar]

I bought this game to play in co-op exclusively, and after around 10 hours, I wanted to give some feedback on some co-op specific things.

Camera:

When on a crusade, the constant camera movement made it very difficult to keep track of where my character was on screen. I imagine in single-player this might not be an issue, as the camera movement is entirely based on the movement of your player character.

In co-op, the camera movements did their best to keep both of us towards the center of the screen, with constant zooming and panning, but because it was effected by the position of both players, I would get lost on-screen constantly. Almost every single combat room, I lost track of where I was on the screen at least once. My partner had trouble as well, though not as much as me.

I understand not having a static camera is a stylistic choice in this game, but I would greatly appreciate a static camera option that would take effect in the combat rooms. If not a static camera option, then a Super-Mega Greatly Reduce Camera Movement² option, since the effect from the existing "reduce camera movement" option in the accessibility menu was not noticeable to me.

Town:

As has been posted in other feedback comments, the townbuilding / cult-management stuff in co-op feels pretty lackluster, due to so many interactions taking exclusive control of the screen & input. Taking exclusive control when building structures makes sense, and navigating the various tech trees, but for talking to townspeople, it feels unneeded. Outside of collecting resources from bins, and sweeping up poop, what else is there to do besides talk to cultists, accept their quests, give them pets, bless them, etc.

If the talking-to-cultist radial menu didn't take exclusive control over the entire game, it would enhance the experience quite a bit.

Tarot Cards:

The tarot cards you receive on the crusade (and to a lesser extent, the starting weapon choices) felt... pointless on co-op. You get a choice between TWO cards, and the one you don't pick goes to your co-op partner... so you end up getting 100% of the cards you see, it's only the distribution you have a choice over. Given the number of "who cares" cards that effect both people regardless of who takes them, such as [enemies have a chance to drop a heart] or [you deal more damage when nearby to your ally], it didn't feel like there were any choices we made the entire run.

I think, at the bare minimum, the tarot card choices should be expanded to 3 in a co-op run. This partially counteracts the tarot card pool being expanded with some co-op only tarot cards, but mostly just improves the experience by having players actually make choices during a run. Taking all 2 of 2 cards offered every time isn't interesting. Having to pick 2 of 3 cards is at least SOME choice. Alternatively, each player could receive an independent choice of 1 of 2 cards, bringing it to a total of 2 of 4 cards picked.

Moreover, the random tarot cards that drop as loot or chest rewards were annoying. You can't see what they are before you pick them up, and you can't choose which player receives the card once you do pick it up. There were several times where, upon picking up one of these cards, it gave an effect that would have been more suitable to the other player, but it was too late at that point to make a choice. If either the effect of these cards were visible before picking them up, or if a modal choice UI appeared after picking them up to assign which player would receive it, this would be greatly improved.

- - - - -

These were the main 3 issues we had with the co-op experience on Cult of the Lamb. The camera issue was the most impactful, as it severely limited our enjoyment of the combat segments of the game, which are numerous.

Otherwise, it has been quite fun!

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