A promising game but with a lot of problems.

[SometimesaTom]

I played this game late last night so apologies if this is a bit of a rant.

I think this game has a lot of potential but there are a few things that ruin the experience imo.

One of my main complaints about this game is that the combat is very frustrating and at times an absolute mess, visually and mechanically.

Enemies constantly stun lock you and there is little you can do to stop their constant attacks. I think adding some kind of knock back ability would mitigate this:
Such as if you block just before an enemy hits you it knocks them back.
Or even better, incorporate the kick into the combat. Using the kick wont do any damage but it will knock the enemy back giving you some room and interrupt their attacks. As I was playing the game I found myself getting trapped in a corner or being stun locked to death, all the block does is stop you from getting damaged the enemies will and can just continuously attack especially if there is a group, giving you no ability to get out.

The combos propelling your character forward is also very annoying, as all it does it put you into the enemies melee rang. Which is a huge problem when there are multiple enemies as they can now ALL hit you basically stun locking and killing you. Being able to control forward momentum would vastly improve the combat. Such as holding down the attack button or having the last hit on a combo being the one that moves you forward.

When an enemy hits you the screen turns black which makes it incredibly hard to see whats going on or read the enemy movement. I was constantly loosing track of what was happening during combat because of this, it is very distracting. Also this could be a problem for people with photosensitive epilepsy.

Also:
Flashlights with limited battery is and has always been a terrible idea. Its not tense or scary it just makes the game become annoying busy work that interrupts the flow of the experience. I want to explore and look around but I can't do that when its pitch black and I have no batteries.

The map is over bloated and borderline useless. A classic survival horror map of a flat image on the screen would be a lot more useful as the current map can be obscured by weather effects. Also I can't help but think rendering the map in full 3d like that is very taxing on hardware and is ultimately a pointless resource hog.

[ホトトギスくん]

Try playing on easy difficulty.
As for the light issue, you can increase the brightness in the settings.
Also, finding night vision goggles in a shopping mall would solve this problem.
I played the story all the way to the end and enjoyed it.

[Agathocles69]

play on easy

[Steel Arts Software]

Thank you for the detailed feedback!

Combat seems to be a mixed bag right now, with mixed opinions, so I will try reworking it a bit, definately a "perfect" block is something I want to add, so enemies are stunned for a second after executing one. I do like the idea of incorporating kick into the combat more, I tried before with mixed results but I think if I can pull it off well it could really help with making it more engaging.

I've had a lot of complaints about the torch, so it will absolutely change, I probably won't remove the battery mechanic completely, but it will be vastly different to how it is now.

The damage indicator issue you mentioned isn't something I've considered before, but I think there would be no harm in adding an option to change this, especially in cases of photosensitive epilepsy like you mentioned.

I really appreciate the feedback, it all helps towards making the game as enjoyable as possible for the most amount of people as I work through Early Access. Thanks again!

[Toonen1988]

Would be a great idea that if the torch is on low battery, or even empty battery, it won't go out entirely but the brightness of the lamp decreases and flickers sometimes on and off.

So, you will still be punished for having a low/empty torch, while it doesn't remove the flow of the game.

I haven't bought the game yet, so no idea how it plays. But when I read other people comments, it feels like the torch indeed needs to be changed.

Turning up the brightness of the monitor or game, is in my opinion cheating.

[Ari]

Yeah, sorry to say but I won't be getting the game until the flashlight mechanic is worked on. I agree that it doesn't add to the difficulty. It's just annoying. Hope it can be reworked pretty soon so I can buy!

[Steel Arts Software]

Originally posted by Toonen1988:

Would be a great idea that if the torch is on low battery, or even empty battery, it won't go out entirely but the brightness of the lamp decreases and flickers sometimes on and off.

So, you will still be punished for having a low/empty torch, while it doesn't remove the flow of the game.

I haven't bought the game yet, so no idea how it plays. But when I read other people comments, it feels like the torch indeed needs to be changed.

Turning up the brightness of the monitor or game, is in my opinion cheating.

Actually I really like this idea, can we get anymore opinions on this, anyone?

Also, to update, I added the perfect block mechanic and changed some of the enemy attack patterns to make them less spammy with their attacks. It's building now so once I test it enough to be sure I didn't break everything (it happens almost every time), that update will be live, sometime tonight.

[Prelude2disaster TTV]

I think the flickering and reduced visibility would be good, yeah, and appeal to more people.

[ホトトギスくん]

Originally posted by Steel Arts Software:

Originally posted by Toonen1988:

Would be a great idea that if the torch is on low battery, or even empty battery, it won't go out entirely but the brightness of the lamp decreases and flickers sometimes on and off.

So, you will still be punished for having a low/empty torch, while it doesn't remove the flow of the game.

I haven't bought the game yet, so no idea how it plays. But when I read other people comments, it feels like the torch indeed needs to be changed.

Turning up the brightness of the monitor or game, is in my opinion cheating.

Actually I really like this idea, can we get anymore opinions on this, anyone?

Also, to update, I added the perfect block mechanic and changed some of the enemy attack patterns to make them less spammy with their attacks. It's building now so once I test it enough to be sure I didn't break everything (it happens almost every time), that update will be live, sometime tonight.

They probably don't like the short time it takes for the battery to run out.
I only use the light when I need it, so it didn't bother me.
If the time until the battery runs out could be tripled, there would be less complaining.

[TheBigLebowski2000]

why not like in half life 2?