Feedback after 40 hours

[Gaming Existence]

My feedback after a few runs post is here - https://steamcommunity.com/app/2211170/discussions/0/4628105688914150602/

At the 40ish hour mark we have gone through two Endless loops, discovered all but two cartridge upgrades and unlocked all the cartridges we would want to start with.

Likes:

The risk to reward of choosing your route and difficulty. Pushing the limits for more bolts with ever increasing speed. Conversations such as do you think we can handle another extreme map? Or, can we do a few extra maps and still manage the boss? Being met with are you insane or the likes :)

Wagon diversity has kept me interested a lot. Trying out different tactics and upgrades in different combinations. Even though we have roughly settled into a build that we tend to default to, I still want to try other strategies and tactics. In UR1 this was very limited but in 2 it is massively improved and provides a lot of replay value.

Similar to above, cartridge selection for the first 3 options when starting and gaining additional ones as you progress. This provides some small build options or play style optimisation that is very welcome. I'm not opposed to starting with 4-5 of these to increase the starting build variety but of course balancing that is a thing.

Biomes for the most part all provide an interesting challenge with adapting skills to overcome. A choice of navigating to different biomes after a boss is also welcome, giving some player choice to select one that they can manage based on current train setup.

Meadows is a very nice start but it is also cool that you can choose different starting biomes, again providing player choice on which special wagon they might want to get in biome 1. Robot land is for sure the hardest current biome. Taking a lot of player time to dash into water tanks to fill in whole lava sections or bucket reloads to fill in sections. And for sure the hardest boss we encountered although each time we defeat it we feel pretty proud of it.

Bosses - In our first few plays the GF hated, HATED the bosses. After doing them a few times she chilled out a bit with them and has even started to like them now we have tactics and understand most of the mechanics they use. I think it adds a nice element to the game, in UR1 you pushed and pushed and then just jumped into the next biome with a bit of an anticlimax. UR2 feels right now with going up against the boss to end the biome, and as player skill, train build competence and understanding of the boss mechanics grows, the players almost start increasing the difficulty themselves on these bosses by getting to them with faster and faster trains albeit with more upgrades.

Looping - Loved that you can loop back round and continue with your train upgrades, we both also really liked that the bosses had improved, mole with larger dynamite etc.

Bolts in UR1 at a certain point could be simply ignored. UR2 fixes this and bolts are simply always needed, this is great because player agency regarding them is massively increased. We congratulate each other on an extreme map when we manage the free and paid for task plus get both bolts. Sometimes we must make a choice when pushing the limit of speed and difficulty of the map to abandon a task or a bolt for security of making it to the station alive and once again it feels like our choice to make. Each bolt feels like a victory and each lost one something to mourn and this holds going into loops or trying to fill the piggybank wagon at the last moment.

Dismantling and storing wagons/upgrades is great. I might potentially like a bit more storage, perhaps 5 slots. Been in situations where I have three wagon upgrades in waiting for the wagon I want to purchase to appear in the shop. But I also would like to store an alternate wagon option for specific biomes etc. 5 slots seems reasonable?

Milking animals with the bucket is a nice touch and cool addition to the game.

Dislikes:

The swamp biome has killed us a few times because we have run out of resources. Now of course this is part of the challenge of that particular biome and we are the ones that pushed and did the extreme or hard map. And yes we could have the converter wagon but don't... And yes... We have started to adapt and store extra wood (if possible) for the next map or do a easy/medium gather resources before doing a string of harder ones. And so perhaps it is actually working exactly as intended, forcing us to adapt and overcome. But sometimes the islands are so far and few between with so limited resources and spider web everywhere that it potentially goes beyond a fun challenge to overcome and just annoying. If more feedback from others like this comes back and perhaps some adjusting could be required.

Robot biome is by far the most challenging and with the hardest boss. As it currently works on Endless we normally just skip this biome. Something to keep in mind that perhaps it needs balancing closer to the others to stop people just skipping it. I keep on not having double dash when we get there and that presumably would help a lot with knocking the water towers into the lava, but the biome still seems like the easy option to skip.

Mountain blocking pieces that drop when near them - These are kind of cool for getting near them and revealing bolts behind them. At first I really liked this change. But when you are on an extreme map they can make it very hard to see if there is a route for the train or not. Sometimes you need to physically get near them for them to drop and confirm yes this is the ONLY path or reveal an additional travel path to use whilst the train uses the other. This can be a complete pain as some extreme maps will have limited resources and expending them to get to what is actually a dead end can be game over and quite annoying as a player, feeling a bit cheated. This is rare, most of the time it is quite clear where the train can go but can be very frustrating.

*edit* Forgot to mention that the GF really struggles to see the difference of the wagons. "Is that the torpedo wagon or the dynamite?" Or "Is that the water tank or the turrett wagon?". Perhaps the designs need a bit more of visual flair to make them stand out from each other?

Wants:

I said in my original feedback that initially the visual clarity was lacking but I did not know if this would pass. It has not, both of us find the screen sometimes feels too zoomed out, making it hard to see things. Combine this with tasks that we have spent a bolt on and can gain two bolts if achieved, but lose them because we thought we were grabbing the bucket but got track or the axe or something. This is quite frustrating and happens too often.

With the above in mind. A better version of the item you are going to pick up that highlights a bit in white would be helpful. This might be too much or could be a menu option toggle but making the icon come up above your characters head, a larger icon of the bucket or tool that will be picked up, so you know if you click that is what you will have. You could even have a menu toggle so that icon of what you are currently carrying is on display somehow. This is just an idea but it can get very frustrating when you desperately need the bucket and it looks like you will get it but pick up track, then pick up stone, then put the stone on top of the bucket.... and so on.

The warnings that you are losing tools off the edge of the map either don't seem as loud as in UR1 or perhaps there is a lot more going on that sometimes we don't notice in UR2. Either way a bit more of a warning would be nice.

A warning when leaving a station that you have NOT selected the optional additional task. This can be easy to do when you jump into the blacksmith for example and start upgrading/dismantling etc. A quick pop up reminder I think would likely be beneficial, or have a big exclamation mark above it that goes when purchased.

When in the shop in local co-op at least, if one player is looking at something or idle on the station the popup information blocks a lot of the screen, this makes it annoying to then look at other stuff. Be handy if these popups had some transparency or did not overlap.

When looping, perhaps instead of the train not being able to slow down (other than tiny amounts with the slot machines) have other stuff to increase difficulty. The normal moles are now more numerous or sometimes throw a stick of dynamite at you. Some deer eat the resources but don't compress it they just destroy it or ram the storage wagon and knock resources out etc. Each loop or NG+ NG++ these things get worse. We both played a lot of Heroes of Hammerwatch, and both were quite surprised that Ng+ and ++ etc, the enemies not only got extra health and dmg but their attacks would in many instances evolve and interesting ways. Unlocking a higher difficulty was interesting to see how they would change and how we would need to adapt to it, that became a bit of an incentive to keep playing in itself.

With the bucket upgrade to either tell you how many uses it has left, and or be able to fill it back to max uses despite it not being empty. This is more of an issue in the robot biome, where you have 3-4 uses but only one left, you run past the water tower, fill in one section of lava then run back to fill it to max, just let it top up to max please when not empty.

Certain wagon upgrades when putting them onto the same wagon to either say how it will improve or not let me do it. For example I feel like I need to test 1x vs 2x and 3x magnets on the storage wagon to see if the range increases or am I just wasting bolts and upgrades. Like when you blacksmith and it has +benefit if you upgrade, be nice with certain extensions to say what you gain.