Requests and Suggestions

[Gravebound]

I wanted to start a discussion thread so I could share some feedback I had about the game, and maybe some others would like to join in as well.

CONTEXT AND DISCLAIMERS

I have only had the game for a few days, and as such have probably only played about 6 or 7 hours, so I very likely have the view of a 'new' player here. This means I may not grasp all of the systems or mechanics in the game to an incredible depth, and I also don't have all of the progression rewards unlocked yet. I might make suggestions or requests for things that are already in the game that I haven't seen.

I have a Quest 2, and I go to the gym in the mornings before work in order to beat the commute traffic. The gym I go to has a bunch of racquetball courts that I have never seen used for their intended purpose, but they make for a great VR-nasium because they are huge, empty spaces with no obstacles. My Guardian space ends up at around 6m x 6m

GAME DIFFICULTY

I have seen other posts both here and in the game reviews on the Meta Store that suggest the game is too hard, and I honestly agree. I am playing on the easiest difficulty and I'm still finding it to be quite a slog to get past the first boss and into the 2nd zone. I think a big part of this is down to the fact that the enemy vehicles feel extremely spongy relative to the sort of damage you can generate, especially early on in a run. I feel like I have to reload after each and every vehicle that goes down. The gunplay in the game feels like it is tuned around requiring a pretty incredible degree of precision for how much everything is in motion, especially with the starting gun loadout and its fairly limited ammo capacity. It may be that this will feel better as I manage to get more of the progression unlocks done, but if the game is balanced with that in mind, it makes for a pretty uninviting experience to a new player; I'd rather have the starting damage (and maybe even ammo counts) be a little higher, at least on Easy, even if the trade-off is that the progression unlocks need to be tuned down to compensate, as that would make for a better onboarding experience.

Personally, I think I'd love an experience where I'm dealing with more enemy vehicles but they go down in 4-5 shots instead of 10-12, if only because it feels like that would be more satisfying than having to spend a lot of continuous time hammering a single target. The weak spots do help, but I'd rather be doing more damage in general and have the weak spot damage reduced than try to have to pixel-hunt on some of the enemy vehicles, especially when they drift back a ways from the player platform.

ENEMY BULLET TRACKING AND THE PLAYER'S SHIELD

As I mentioned up top, I personally play in an area with a ton of space as part of a personal fitness regimen. I try to pick games that allow me to move about, since the entire point of the gym experience is to engage my body. As such, my goals are usually to avoid using the shield too much - instead, I try to favor actually physically moving my body out of the way of the incoming enemy projectiles. In many other games this works out great, but in Gazzlers I'm noticing that there is a persistent bullet 'tracking' as they fly towards the player that essentially has the projectiles constantly steering at you. This means that enemies that fire longer 'burst' chains (like the planes or the stationary turrets) are basically impossible to physically dodge, as by the time I have fully extended my range of motion or jumped to one side to avoid the first 4-5 shots, the trailing 3 or so will have course-corrected to smack into me. It would be nicer if you could actually side-step the incoming shots without the trailing ones chasing me down. There are already 'homing' missiles in the game that you can attack to disrupt, which feels reasonable, but the average enemy shot seems to behave much more aggressively than those missiles and can't be deterred!

I understand that this is where the shield comes in, and I appreciate the gameplay element it adds, but I have to say that having it drain passively just from being held also deters me from using it because it just becomes too much to manage (for me, at least) when I'm also trying to aim and dodge. I wouldn't hate being able to disable the shield drain, or have it substantially reduced from where it is now.

It also feels like alternatives to the shield would also be welcome - maybe the ability to deploy stationary barricades on the back of the vehicle platform in response to in-game power-ups, or at a scrap cost?

BETTER GUN PROGRESSION

Prior to Gazzlers, the game I probably enjoyed the most was Mothergunship Forge, which feels like it has a similar weapon-progression vibe. I really liked the constant gun evolution that is ongoing in that game. By comparison, Gazzlers feels very slow - you get fewer power-ups, they don't always feel like they make as big an impact, and you're mostly at the whims of whatever the game hands you.

I'd love to see more waves with more gun upgrade choices at the end of each. A reroll system that you can spend banked rerolls on would be welcome. A 'shop' option would also be great - maybe every few waves you have a second set of tracks that pulls up alongside your vehicle with a traveling shop train, or a gyrocopter-based vendor or something that can swoop in and offer to trade you upgrades for scrap. Just something to open up a bit more of the fun of the gun-building gameplay would be welcome, IMO.

ALTERNATE HAND / DUAL WIELDING

I did see that the game had a left-handed mode and I tried it because after an hour or so of playing with my right arm taking the bulk of the stress I did find it tiring. Having the left-handed option is great, but... why does the ammo station not flip to the opposite side when that's enabled? That seems like a strange choice. Maybe the better option is to just have the ammo be located on the player in general, like at the waist?

I'd love a game option, personally, that foregoes the shield entirely in favor of being able to dual-wield guns. Not sure how the reloading would work with that, candidly - maybe you throw the gun away when it's spent and pick a new one up in a Borderlands-esque move.

I think most of what I'm pitching above are things that could simply be done via mutators, or in-game settings (like how difficulty options have been implemented), but these are just some of my quick notes after a few days with the game. I think it has some amazing potential and it's a lot of fun, but I do find some of the choices made a little frustrating and think the game could be made a bit more accessible/casually fun.

[BoltBlasterGlenn]

Thanks for your excellent feedback! We appreciate your fresh perspective. Great to hear your ideas!

We're going to chat about them in our next team huddle!