Demo feedback

[pyrolocutus]

First off - the body camera thing is a neat twist and you've done a pretty good job of the environment, making it look like a facility that's a workplace in a dangerous environment.

Couple of qualms -

Gameplay - Signposting the player's way could use a little work. I ended up taking the left path at the decision junction and it took me a while to:

1) figure out the pipe (the glow isn't quite sufficient what with all the other glowing elements in the environment, and the player hasn't been shown this kind of thing before)
2) to realize there was an interactable button in front of the grate where the two soldiers show up and the beastie kills them .

I think this is a case of verisimilitude hampering a smooth flow of gameplay.

Gameplay - The health system is very obtuse and difficult to evaluate.

The player is not (as far as I can tell) given an absolute value of health at any given time, rather it functions on a sort of Resident-Evil like aspect of healthy/caution/danger with the blood around the edge of the screen and how fast it pulses. However, the health stations will tell you a value of health restored?

Also the threshold at which the blood element kicks in seems a little wonky, like I'd be a little nervous with the screen pulsing rapidly but then I'd take a couple hits from a revived mutant and be okay?

I feel like it needs a second design pass to adequately communicate to the player 1) how injured they are and 2) if they should use a health station charge immediately or bank it for later.

Design - The shotgun (or whatever the weapon in the Quantum Data Vault on the left path is) seems to bob around to a rather ridiculous extent when moving, I think the weapon sway could stand to be dialed down there.

Design - I think the standard mutants could use a bit of cleaning up. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what they're supposed to look like since they move a bit fast and vanish after death, but right now my mental image of the standard mutant is "man in office casual wearing a Halloween rubber werewolf mask".

There's also some animation jankiness. When one jumped me from an alcove at the top floor of the staircase on the left path, it T-posed for a second. Also their movement is a little twitchy.

Overall it looks promising but the signposting and the health system need a second look.

[batouyukinawa198]

Your game needs work!

Guys, if I can't figure out how to progress in such a tiny room there's a problem with your on boarding process. You need to direct the player towards points of interest like flashing lights or maybe a smoking transceiver. Right now, I'm just walking around aimlessly and I don't have time for this. Cool concept but it's not there yet IMO.

[Wilgryf]

Some feedback

Atmosphere is good, bodycam perspective works great for this type of game but there are... many issues.
Flashlight is patheticaly weak, like I have at least 5 times stronger flashlight IRL that's the size of my thumb and we're playing sci-fi soldier. Rifle lacks rear sight and aiming with it is weird, both rifle and pistol completly lacks stopping power (1 zombie that can mutate into spitting skeleton thinng took 3 headshots to kill) making weapons deadlier but making ammo more scarce and making zombies a bit more agile to balance it out would be great. Zombies have terrible pathfinding and really like getting stuck on every possible object, object which more often than not has inaccurate collision making air sligthly above it bulletproof. Section when you summon a tram and horde of zombies start attacking you stutters a lot but I'm not sure if it's problem with optimalisation or with proton compatibility but it's more likely the former. However if given some work this game has a really great potential. Good luck!

[Wilgryf]

Pretty much all interactable things glow sligthly yellow/orange.

[Joseph Stylin]

7/10 great demo, obviously needs some polish but I will likely buy when released

the guns and knife felt a little too weak, maybe less ammo stronger guns?

shots sometimes didnt seem to register (I havent ever played a bodycam game so this could be a skill issue)

And obviously a little optimization here and there couldnt hurt

I love gtfo and this game gives me very similar vibes to it, I know your not aiming to copy anyone but taking some inspiration from it may help improve models as I feel the regular enemies look kinda goofy.

I can tell this will be an excellent game when finished, I'm excited to see where it goes

[MystiveDev]

Thank you for the feedback! Let's make it 10/10. Yeah, the ammo will be more limited in the full game, we are more forgiving in the demo. Will definitely take a look at all the other things. You can follow us on Twitter (MystiveDev) for updates and discussions on future features and tweaks.

[PawnSacrifice]

Demo ending

Are you supposed to die on the train platform? The reduction in speed when reloading made that part impossible so I was just wondering if it ever comes.

[MystiveDev]

Originally posted by PawnSacrifice:

Are you supposed to die on the train platform? The reduction in speed when reloading made that part impossible so I was just wondering if it ever comes.

Yes, the train actually comes. There is a broadcast on the steam page at the moment showcasing that ending and the other playthrough path and ending.

[batouyukinawa198]

Yup, got that. But then you go to a branching path, kill all enemies and come to a door that cannot be opened and no clue as to how you open it. If I wanted to play Myst I'd play Myst. I don't want my Survival horror games cryptic nonsense. I like puzzles but the point of a SH is you know what is supposed to be solved, just a matter of how to solve it not complete arbitrarily running around trying a matter of all things hoping something fits. That's Adventure games of old.

[MystiveDev]

Originally posted by batouyukinawa198:

Yup, got that. But then you go to a branching path, kill all enemies and come to a door that cannot be opened and no clue as to how you open it. If I wanted to play Myst I'd play Myst. I don't want my Survival horror games cryptic nonsense. I like puzzles but the point of a SH is you know what is supposed to be solved, just a matter of how to solve it not complete arbitrarily running around trying a matter of all things hoping something fits. That's Adventure games of old.

I think I know of which door you're referring to. Guess it's the one right after the left button? Take a look above the door, there is a glowing pipe.

[Evan]

Painfull and laggy. My review

13900k + 3080ti massive fps drops. I finished the game when game crashed after looting the wooden box. I dont want to play again because...
Camera in a pain. My eyes hurts and its not a joke. I feel myself like cant focus right know and eyes looking different directions.
Sometimes i cant understand what am i looking at. Is that a box? Is that close or far?

Zombie run animations are awful, i know where u took them, i work in UE too - just dont do that. Pay for a freelancer animator to have 3-4 running cycles. Its not expensive.
You can even buy Zombie Pro - MoCap Pack and it will be better for sure.
But anyway not the stock animations are the problem.

I wont buy this game if there wont be option to disable fish eye.

[pagb666]

Demo feedback

-DLSS and FSR seem not to be working at all
-Need ability to tone down the exaggerated image sharpening filter
-Need ability to disable the film grain
-Need ability to invert mouse Y axis

Also, I'm not the kind that gets motion sickness like ever, but I must admit I felt a bit weird while playing the demo, other people will get sick really fast while playing this.

[Tiger's Eye]

Demo Review

Interesting concept, but needs a lot of polish.

It definitely takes a moment to get used to the perspective, but I can see it working, if some of these issues get fixed:

1. Slow turning did not work for me. I had to screw with the sensitivity settings to get somewhat comfortable. But my hand still started to hurt after 10 minutes or so.
2. There is a considerable delay after certain actions before another action can be performed. For example, after switching to the knife, I had to press RMB three times before I could actually swing it.
3. Having to destroy corpses before they transform is a worse version of having to burn them to keep them from respawning, which I already consider to be the worst feature of survival horror games.

My biggest issue with the game, however, is that the game is...kinda boring. The entire time (I played until the metro survival, where I died), I walked through nameless, faceless corridors and through doors that had generic sci-fi descriptors I've read a thousand times before. Without any narrative, and without anything interesting going on with the environment, I really don't see any reason to get invested into this game and its story.

[DEADEND]

Hello developers. This is my review of the demo

Hello developers. This is my review of the demo. I know that this is a demo, and it is by no means final. I had no problem with the machine requirements mvme m2 SSD with 3060 VGA and the game ran smoothly at 100FPS-although it stuck a bit on loads. I really liked the big shark swim. Track design and track: The game reminds me of Doom 3. Only here the track layout is direct and repetitive. Unimaginative nonsensical nonfunctional with ventilation arrows, repetitive track elements, and terrain objects. I guess it's the demo. No ragdolls in the game, just disappearing opponents. My biggest two problems were with the pistol view and the monster design. Even if it is body camera view, no one holds a gun like that all the time unless they are afraid to fire it. It's not realistic. A lot of times the monsters would get stuck in landmarks. Similar to Doom3, I think it would be much better in terms of enemy design to add zombie workers and soldiers and health workers to the game's enemies in addition to the two mutants currently in the game. They really do make the enemies look very ugly. In all honesty I liked the demo, but towards the end I died and didn't restart it because it kept me busy until then. The map could have been much nicer and more detailed because the machine requirements don't justify the visuals. Looking forward to the final result.

[Zer0_Ph34r]

Game Critique and Suggestions

I tried out the demo but didn't finish it. However, while I think the game has some significant issues at this point, I also think it has some good ideas. The main issue I ran into was massive stuttering regardless of the quality settings. This stuttering was with the same frequency regardless of being on epic or low graphic presets.

Firstly, I really like the game aesthetic, the first person through a real lens feel, the wiping off the lens, and the lack of UI is really cool. The underwater city really hasn't been used as much as it could, and it makes for a great horror setting.

Aside from the performance issues I had, these are the things that I didn't like that I would suggest changing to make this a more refined experience:
1 - Combat. There are too many enemies (not difficulty wise) and they are too samey and fast to be interesting. The main issue is that the enemies aren't very scary because they can be killed easily, and all they really do is run up to you quickly and smack you, but they do so little damage that it isn't really a problem. You can have one or two fast enemies that are relatively easy to kill, but if all the enemies are that way, it doesn't make for a very scary experience. My suggestion for improvement would be to reduce how many enemies there are, increase their damage, reduce their speed, and increase their health. By doing this, it would make each encounter with an enemy frightening and tense, rather than a jump scare.

2. Creep Factor - The first section of the game has a great creep factor, but it goes away pretty quickly when you first see the weird eye wall and the jump scare. These aren't bad, they just happened way too soon and far too close together. When you throw so many cheap "scares" so soon into the game, the creepiness that really ramps up people's fear goes down the drain. i'd suggest extending the starting section prior to seeing any real dangers to about 10 minutes. I'd also suggest really focusing on sound design, as the thought of danger is often more terrifying than the actual danger.

3. Weapons - Again, weapons do too much damage and allow you to fire too quickly. Slow down combat and you'll create a much creepier experience and tenser fights. For sure extend how long it takes to reload and lower clip capacity. When fighting several enemies, it should feel like you are constantly on a knife's edge.

4. Enemy AI - I only encountered 4 enemies (the normal two headed guys, the crawling guys, the spitters, and that guy that pops out of the wall) Past the issues I raised above, I suggest working enemy AI so each enemy feel more unique rather than just having different animations. The Spitters specifically need to check if their tragectory for spitting at the player is blocked, because currently they spit at you through doorways that prevent anything from hitting you, which makes them dumb and not very intimidating.

5. Player Info - While I love the lack of UI, I think that there needs to be some kind of indication about the players health at all times. Simple changes to the breathing sound based on the level of health would make the game more immersive and allow players to have a rough idea of where they're at, which usually leads to extra stress rather than relief

i hope this game does well, but in its current state, I can't imagine many people are going to enjoy it.

[GsomOVER9000]

demo feedback - pretty impressive so far

i found the way the game builds fear to be amazing, the ambience is fantastic and really makes you feel like youre in this impossible underwater city thats been overrun by freak lab experiments. every encounter felt tense, desperate and charged with adrenaline, the way enemies just sprint at you with reckless abandon makes every time you have to take a shot exhilarating. not once did i even think about rushing through it much less exploring which was a great incentive to take it slow and properly scan rooms and check corners. i think the game preys on our fear of the unknown like very few other games do, and the fact that i did not know what could be lurking around every corner made me tense all the way through. just clearing rooms and checking corners felt so nerve wracking in the best way, like how i imagine someone in this situation would actually feel


every little sound that sounded even remotely similar to a footstep, breathing or metal moving regardless of how far it mightve been had me nervous and thats something not a lot of games have found success doing. it feels like the game really encourages trepidation and taking it slow owing not just to its nature as a tactical shooter but also the tense encounters and oppressive atmosphere created by that dreadful feeling of not knowing what might be lying in wait around some unseen corner. it doesnt feel cheap either, it actually feels well executed which is another impressive feat that would be very easy to mess up


im really feeling the combat, moment to moment gameplay is very satisfying, and theres such a palpable rush of adrenaline when an enemy storms towards you. it all feels so real in a way and the guns sound and feel appropriately meaty. only thing i think can be improved is the bullet impact and how much damage it inflicts to the enemy hit, it feels like the game might be slightly lacking in that aspect but only slightly. combat overall is very fun and engaging


the environment design is immaculate adding so much to the incredible, dreadful and uneasy atmosphere of the game, everything feels like it was put there for a reason and i didnt get the feeling anything was copy pasted or out of place. the graphics are likewise very impressive. it really feels like im in a dilapidated facility at the bottom of the ocean, making it so it actually feels like youre there. a lot of effort went into realizing the setting and it shows


i also really appreciate the way the hud is set up to be sleek and hidden most of the time which further amps up the immersion factor of the game, and the bodycam felt just right in terms of view angle, motion, height and overall look, though the arms might at times look a lil off.. or im just tripping who knows


voice acting is also surprisingly good and for just a two man team i cant stress enough how impressive this game is panning out to be


some gripes i might have would be maybe, and im really trying to find something here, but:

- though the optimization is generally great there were some instances where my fps dropped down to 20 namely during the underwater section in the intro cutscene but nothing major. rest of the game ran at a consistent 120 fps on max settings at 1080p on my 3060 and on rare occasion would drop down to 1 fps then quickly climb back up, which i imagine will be fixed before the full release

- this isnt really much of a gripe but i dont get why the knife has to be reloaded when its supposed to be something to fall back on when our GUNS run out of ammo.. unless i missed something

- the enemies feel a bit basic in the way they attack, some more expressiveness in their animations could go a long way. their speed feels just right tho, damage likewise feels appropriately tuned

- the arms might at times look a lil off or i could just be trippin

- maybe the monster designs could be improved or be more out there? idk this didnt bother me too much, i found the designs fine for the most part, some of them had a funky hairstyle but thats about it. im really just trying hard to find some downsides to the game so im more objective about it and not just blindly fawning over the game, but i really dont see a whole lot worth pointing out