Demo Review

[GeRalT oF rEvia]

I think this game shows a lot of promise, but I also feel like it has some pretty major issues holding it back. I do not wish to discourage the developers, and I hope that they can fix the issues and release the game because I think that what they have here is really good.

I will start off with the positives:
-The game is scary; the atmosphere and soundtrack create a pretty terrifying game that had me looking around frantically regularly.
-The enemy design is really good, and their introduction is unnerving and made me jump the first couple of times. I like their mutated forms, and it does an amazing job at representing the mutations. It reminded me a lot of the first dead space.
-The level design (for the most part) is really interesting, and it reminds me a lot of Dead Space 1. I have an issue with mainly the last level of the demo, which does not feel like a real room and feels a little too video gamey, and the hidden red batteries to power down the energy doors. The placement of the batteries does not feel realistic at all, and it makes me feel like someone is hiding them for some reason.

I really like what the team has done with the atmosphere and story telling; it has all the markings of a great survival horror game, but it needs some work.
The main issues I had with the demo are:
-The enemies are scary until they stand still and stop attacking. The enemy AI is very easily cheesed, and it kind of ruins the enemies when you just stand there and stunlock them, or they struggle to go up small ramps, so you just bash their heads in.
-The shooting is fine until you get given wayyyyyy too much ammo and realize that the pipe is better for 70% of situations. The pipe 1 shots the basic enemies with a headshot and stunlocks them if you weave in and out, making it the best weapon in the demo by far. By the end of the demo, I had around 40 bullets for my pistol that I was not using because the basic enemy takes 2 headshots to kill, but due to the animation of them throwing their heads back after a headshot, it made it not only slower than the pipe to kill but also really easy to accidentally waste ammo.


My conclusion for the demo is:
The atmosphere and sound design are amazing, and it creates this unique experience where, even though I had plenty of health and ammo, I always felt scared and weak. That being said, I would like to see the following things changed or improved:
improved enemy AI
Balance out the weapons so that the pistol feels more useful and the shotgun has more than 2 bullets (this could be a fun upgrade mechanic where you mod the weapons with the tokens).
Make it so you can go back into previous areas; this would make it feel more like a real place that the players are exploring rather than feeling like I am going from level to level in a videogame.
Limit resources; remind the players that these things are scarce and ammo is precious, so that every time I find a medkit, I appreciate it rather than just ignore it (I was always either full HP or almost full HP).

I think that what the team has here is really good, and with some more work and polish, it could turn into an amazing game worthy of awards, so I really hope these things get addressed and I look forward towards the final release.

[B]

This is a great review thank you, you have a lot of great points and I'd be stoked to have you on the tester team if you are interested.

[GeRalT oF rEvia]

Originally posted by B:

This is a great review thank you, you have a lot of great points and I'd be stoked to have you on the tester team if you are interested.

I would be more than happy to join the tester team, feel free to add me and send me your discord so we can discuss this further :)