Spike Traps - Who thought this was a good idea?

[Ronn]

Who thought it was a good idea littering the maps with spike traps that one shot you? They add nothing to the game but frustration.

I'm trying to play really carefully scouting my environments but still I've died to them 5 or more times now, I'm at the point where I'm contemplating if I have the patience to continue playing this game, all I do is trying to get stuff back from my corpse because of cheap deaths which is such a waste of time.

The furthest I made it was floor 4 where I lost my lantern never to be seen again.

[Moleculor]

I'm not understanding how anyone is hitting these traps. I've hit two, total, and that was only because I wasn't paying attention. Both were below level 10, so I already knew spike traps were a thing, I just didn't have the lantern turned on to highlight them.

[stevo]

Originally posted by Ronn:

Originally posted by bladechild:

Stop running through maps

Stop replying to posts without reading them.

I read your post. Honestly can't see how you/anyone is having issues. I've run around the entire game and only got stuck by one once because I didn't have my lantern on

They really aren't that bad. You just need to pay attention.

[stevo]

Originally posted by Robko:

Died to this trap, without even knowing it was a trap. Insta killed me. Uninstalled game. What an idiotic decision. Do devs never learn insta kill is bad?

An abundance of casual adventure games have insta kill mechanics. The only added irk here is that you have to return to your stuff ala Dark Souls style, rather than having a checkpoint system.

Once you get done by a spike trap, you should really never get done again unless something unusual happens.

Once you realize, just like in Dark Souls, dying is a minor inconvenience when your knowledge of the game allows you to breeze past rooms to get back your corpse/lantern, the death mechanic is lessened. But of course, people just refuse to get to that point.

[LeoV]

Originally posted by bladechild:

Originally posted by Robko:

Died to this trap, without even knowing it was a trap. Insta killed me. Uninstalled game. What an idiotic decision. Do devs never learn insta kill is bad?

An abundance of casual adventure games have insta kill mechanics. The only added irk here is that you have to return to your stuff ala Dark Souls style, rather than having a checkpoint system.

Once you get done by a spike trap, you should really never get done again unless something unusual happens.

Once you realize, just like in Dark Souls, dying is a minor inconvenience when your knowledge of the game allows you to breeze past rooms to get back your corpse/lantern, the death mechanic is lessened. But of course, people just refuse to get to that point.

Agreed

[Belle Delphine Targaryen!]

LOL, try playing Immortal: Unchained! Traps are riotously littered there for no reason.

[Jinx]

Spike traps are super easy to deal with and like the trip wires seem to be something the devs put in to slow players down from rushing through the game.

If you have the lantern lit or a torch out, they literally glow with a red square around them making it obvious that it's there.
Easy.

You can manually trigger them without getting hurt just by swinging your sword to hit one. Then you won't even have to worry about it.
Easy.

[ZenTeapot]

Originally posted by Xbob42:

The presence of these traps is really making me question whether I should just refund the game while I have the chance. Maybe my brightness is too low, but I feel like I only see them about half the time. I just got "killed" by one that just appeared as a black square on the floor, when it triggered... no spikes appeared? Can they glitch like that? It made the spike trap triggering noise but nothing happened except my character falling over.

But beyond that, I just don't get the purpose. Returning to actually playing the game is a slog up a couple boring climbs with a little unskippable scene. It's really discouraging and doesn't seem to add much to the game so far, granted I'm still early. But that's also why I'm considering a refund, if it's this irritating now, who knows what kind of nonsense one-hit-kill traps or hazards will show up later?

I can trap enemies on them? Great. I can also just kill the enemies normally. The traps don't seem to be a good fit for the genre, and come across as a cheap "Gotcha!"

Maybe all this changes later on and they become hilarious jokes or memes for new players or something, but they've sapped almost all the fun I've been having out of the game, and I've only died to two or three of them. That slog to get back to the game is the real culprit, but the traps are the only thing that has come anywhere near killing me, so it doesn't help.

EDIT: Just went ahead and applied for a refund. Sorry guys, I've been waiting on this game for a while, and I like almost literally everything else about the game, but instant death traps combined with a boring, totally unfun climb to get back to the dungeon is just silly. Based on beach/cliff you start at, I assume it's more of a hub than just a way to get into the dungeon, but that means little when you're only using it to get to the same area. I'd be happy to pick the game up if things changed, and if not, oh well. Not every game is for every person.

Agree with everything you said, and requested a refund as well. These traps are poorly thought out and there are much better ways to achieve similar effects. It just shows poor design or a lack of though from the devs on this part of the game. Probably too much effort spent on polishing the art and atomsphere that the actual combat and level design kinda shifted out of focus.

[bunny puncher]

The spike traps are very easy to see, avoid, and eliminate. Fact.

If they're killing you over and over again WE ALL KNOW it's really because you're impatient as you a.) farm items/gems b.) as you run back through the levels with your respawned characters to get back to where you were.

Also, I wonder how many of you complaining don't know that the traps can be triggered with a sword swipe and the tripwires cut with a sprinting sword slash.

[tommy_beast]

Traps are not that bad, you just need to be careful. However I agree that they shouldn't insta kill the player. Also, because of moronic hunger sometimes you have to rush through levels and can accidentally hit a trap.

[sojov]

o boi....if these traps concern you...buckle up for whats comming.

[benni]

Seems like 50/50 whether people hate the traps or not. Personally, I hate them.

Fair enough the game wants to be challenging and tense, but the mechanic for reviving and getting back to where you were is tedious. In most good rogue-likes the trick is getting back into the action quickly and letting you learn from your mistake. BELOW has far too many difficulties to overcome after dying. At least in dark souls you could head in a new direction or farm souls. BELOW doesn't allow for that. It's just a slog to get back to your corpse and to recover the lantern.

The fact that you can only teleport to a fireplace once seems needlessly punishing. Overall, I'm a little disappointed with the game. It's super stylish, but it seems to be style over substance.

[SpectreWulf]

Originally posted by benni:

Seems like 50/50 whether people hate the traps or not. Personally, I hate them.


The fact that you can only teleport to a fireplace once seems needlessly punishing. Overall, I'm a little disappointed with the game. It's super stylish, but it seems to be style over substance.

I concur! I am loving the game so far, only around 100+ minutes in. Spikes aren't the problem whenever I find one I drop a shard on the ground to mark them forever without any hassles.

Teleporting to fireplace and making them obsolete IS a punishing move and is unnecessary... In all Dark Souls inspired games Fireplaces are safe havens in the punishing world. Removing that simply because you chose to teleport (for which you paid shards btw) is a punishing mechanism that's not really upto everyone's liking.

[the_kraut]

The traps are really OP. One shot anyone is a poor mechanic. It is not only about running through the map. If you are not careful, you can simply die to it - tying to disarm it. Very bad design.

[DarkXuin]

I keep my lantern out a lot and it highlights the spike traps on the ground, if I don't have the latern I'll usual craft a couple torches. Once you've spotted a trap you can activate it by hitting it with your sword. If you're having trouble getting back to your latern consider unlocking the shortcuts down to where your body is at and maybe paying for a warp fire.

[Miasmic]

Originally posted by toriaezu:

The traps are really OP. One shot anyone is a poor mechanic. It is not only about running through the map. If you are not careful, you can simply die to it - tying to disarm it. Very bad design.

I've never died to them while intentionally triggering them. Why are you standing so close....