Demo Test

[PHOBIE]

- no mouse support in menu, and, in fact, at all. for people who insist on using mouse this game will not work.

- default keybinds not great, no auto-fire, QWERF+space worked better than default

- because game doesn't use mouse there's an extra button for changing face direction. this has to be used because enemies respawn infinitely and come from behind, exacerbating the issue. this means ergonomics and ease of use are worse than they need to be. auto-facing nearest enemy might be a better way to do it.

- there is a wait time when changing vehicles and no feedback which one that will be. instead there are two buttons (Q,E) wasted on cycling forward and backward, and those buttons must be held while sitting on terrain, feels like forced design.

maybe better to have one key that toggles between vehicles, and a clear visual feedback showing this vehicle as pop-up: and if we sit on terrain long enough, auto-change to that vehicle. with mouse support we could use mouse wheel.

- rebinding keys will still have dialogue choice on numpad, maybe spacebar is better? right now we have one button to confirm dialogue (numpad 1) and another button to confirm menu choices (fire), it's too much?

- no backlog capacity to see text that was clicked away too quickly.

- not enough feedback which buttons are needed for an action. tutorial uses "change" and "charge" somewhat interchangeably, but forgets to say which key that is for player.

- keyboard users are still asked for "joystick" or "analog" input, it's weird

- pixel filter on top of artwork and text box, it's like pretending + underselling the high resolution graphics that are possible. comes off as forced retro, it's still enjoyable though.

- anime: are those aliens or camels? it's partially grotesque. quality is mixed, limited poses, overused facial expressions, limited animation, it's all in the same room.

basically one or two group pictures where the facial expressions change. plus one in-mission pixellated profile picture for the pilots. no sense of environment, surroundings, the lab, the planet, enemy forces, nature etc. could use 10x more artwork.

there is some good character design, and interesting experimentation, but it never goes anywhere, for some reason: it's like inventing a comic character and then only put that on the cover, instead of doing something with it.

- story varies between cringe and funny dialogue, lack of depth and cohesion, plot holes. has no choices. this could be used for RPG character building and world building choices.

- upgrading vehicle is instantaneous with no way back and no confirmation prompt, and it also launches the mission directly. there's something with arcade games doing that, but seems unneeded here, this game is not that snappy and arcade.

- no HP bar on vehicle, instead this is hidden away with the character profile picture. since the selected character/vehicle will flash all the time + no or little other feedback, there is also no sense of taking damage

- energy bar depleting will lead to screen turning red and less visibility. this gives the impression of taking damage, which is misleading.

- energy recharge takes incredibly long without upgrades. together with switching mechanics this leads to long intervals of not playing the game and forced waiting and game over.

- when there is no terrain left to sit on for a while or no option to go there because of enemies, it's pretty much gg:

game is designed around vehicles with energy be quick enough to avoid enemies with energy, but without energy it's too slow to succeed. so this needs planning and good practice, but not sure where this should come from unless memorizing the terrain and plotting a route, which needs replaying. this arbitrary limit didn't feel great and the constant red flashing was annoying. there is a narrated story tutorial about digging into terrain to hide from enemies, but that doesn't work well.

problematic for this design choice is that the perceived default mode of operation for the vehicles is land-based, such as roads, but the map doesn't have a road and instead we are flying all the time. This means using the vehicle's jump jets (auxiliary system) as the primary system, and have a much higher power draw than intended by the manufacturer.

maybe there is a chance for road mode where then combat feels fluid.
didn't see much in the way of creative permanent rogue-like upgrades: maybe this was a chance for more flavor, and to give characters more unique value.

Hope this helps.

[PHOBIE]

Any thoughts on added QOL? I'd love to give it a whirl, but would need mouse support at the very least.