Cleared Sublevel 5...

[Duffking]

Really enjoyed it but 3 things stick out to me:

The Reactor Lasers on Sublevel 1 seem really, really overpowered. On every other level where the reactor fires at you, you've got some cover. But these lasers change direction so quickly that they can kill you ridiculously fast, and there's nowhere to hide. With early weaponry it feels like pot luck as to whether or not I survive.

Also, close range weapons feel really useless. Especially late on - sublevel 4/5 feature room after room filled with enemies who start attacking as soon as you open the door. The only real way to survive is to hit them from distance, getting in closer is suicide, which really limits your options.

Finally, sometimes the key backtracking is a bit obnoxious. I had one level where the red door was at one end of the level, and the yellow door down a path I hadn't explored near the start. Took a really long time to fly back, clear like, one room to get the key, then fly all the way back. Would be nice if the doors were a little closer together somehow.

Other than that though, great. Especially like the enemy variety, hopefully more environment variety is on the way?

[Mosu]

Glad you're enjoying the game, some responses to your feedback:

-I personally agree with you on the Sublevel 1 reactor lasers and I think they need to be a tad slower to at least give players the time to move between beams if they're quick enough.

- Good point, we'll see what we can do to make those weapons feel more useful late-game.

-This is something we've noticed and are working towards changing how keys behave and where they spawn to lower the amount of backtracking players have to do.

-So we've got the 4 biome types currently. There's possibility for completely new biomes, but we're going to focus on adding more variety in terms of shape and size based off feedback from players to pre-existing environments.

Hope that gives you an idea of what we're thinking? :)

[Uninstall Wizard]

I just cleared the game and completely agree on all your points. I had the exact same experience in sublevel 5. The map was so big that it even didnt fit the screen and parts of it vanished even with zooming out. Yellow door was back at the start, with the yellow key being on the complete opposite side of the level. Same story with red key/door on the same sublevel.


Equip on finish:

-Hunter Ship

-Minigun (3 bars, nothing fancy)
-Laser (3 bars)

-Kicked the minigun on sublevel 5 for a Gauss Cannon (HOLY MOLY)

-Std Hull,Engine, Random (nothing crafted) secondary weapons (only used to nuke the core and the purple ships that spawn these fast-rolling-fast-firing ships)

Mostly used the minigun to clear rooms of popcorn enemies or slow spongy ones. The hitscan weapons are kinda mandatory later like Duffking mentioned and I think that I wouldn't have survived the shotgunner/sniper corridors without the normal Laser and the Gauss later.

I would really like to see some more of the glass panels (they look amazing, maybe crystals made of that glass-panel stuff) and water (waterpools, -falls; like the lava). In addition to that, the game needs (in my oppinion) more room layouts/modules, especially in the space station biome (level 0).

Regarding core on sublevel 1: You can stay behind the door and shoot the core from there. With the correct position, the laserbeams cant hit you. I must admit though that my first encounter with the core on sublvl1 was very short. 'Hmm, it doesn't fire back.'' Lasers start coming out of the core and racing through the room. ''WTF"???" BOOM. Run ended.

Regarding cores on level 3-5:

I think that the hardest core is lvl3. You have to navigate carefully (lava) and some enemies will spawn. When the enemies are gone it becomes obviously very easy once you find a warm place behind lava :).

Core4 and core5 battle was just flying around in a circle for 2-3 minutes and not getting stuck in enemies/obstacles.
Killed core4 easily with Minigun+Lasers
In the battle with core5 I had the aforementioned Gauss and this battle was also very easy. Maybe the Gauss is too overpowered or the difficulty curve from the core fights 3-5 feels kinda off.

The difficulty curve in the levels however, feels very good.

Are advanced missiles used in secondary weapons which have to be crafted?

A blueprint/recipe collection in the menu would be very nice. I already forgot half the stuff I unlocked :(

The price for the best enemy ship has to be the Dubstep Charger :)


Very great game ! Gameplay, look and sound/music form a very enjoyable complex

[FireAcolyte]

When it comes to the subleve 1 reactor, I hug the wall, and fire. I tend to see them coming, and only got hit once.

I got trounced on Sublevel 2 though. I went from 5 repair kits, to none before I beat it. Might have to see if I can dance around it.

[OmniNegro]

I just beat the game. And I freely admit I cheated my rear off to do it. I used and abused every "friendly fire" scenario I could find and still barely held on. Oddly I got the achievement for not using any plasma weapons. Is my Plasmacaster not plasma based?

And to be perfectly honest I only made it this far by running from most harder enemies.

[lyravega]

First reactor is just a dummy anyway, so won't talk about it.

2nd one, the laser reactor is easy. You just need to see where the lasers are, and only move perpendicular to the reactor rotation - meaning up and down. You may get hit once when the lasers start firing, but after that it's easy to dodge as you'll see where the lasers will pass from. They do not deviate much, and certainly won't go ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

For third one, which fires at you, you have good cover, but you should clear the room first so nothing will flank you. Then you need to sit behind a cover and shoot at the core, just hope you have a rather accurate weapon. It'll start firing faster as it takes damage, so if you are trying to strafe-circle it, you'd better be good at it.

The fourth one, people say lasers pass through the lava, but I didn't experience it. you can do the same thing as you did with the 2nd one, but you need to clear the summoned turrets first.

The 5th one is in a room with mines and turrets. It also fired homing missiles at you, so a good hit and run weapon is good one for that as you won't be able to stand still at all. Turrets got shielded as soon as I went inside, don't know if you can destroy them - but if you can, a lined up railgun will take out all of them at once.

[I'm proud of you, son]

Huh, you guys need to watch more speedruns lol. Every core can be cheesed super easy.

SL1: just go above the core. Lasers only cover a certain width of angle from the horizontal, you can just go above the core, point down, and not even have to move.

SL2: The one that shoots at you has auto-aim. It aims WAY ahead. If you literally just go in a small circle like up -> left -> down -> right repeat, it literally can't hit you. You can be right up against it and it can't hit you. Easy.

SL3: The lava pillar one. Enter room, clear all enemies. Go through tunnels in ceiling, clear enemies. Damage core, clear turrets using cover and going up above if need be. There's a section in the ceiling that covers you just enough that you can shoot the core and it can't hit you back with anything. Sit there and shoot until it's dead.

SL4: I don't remember this one.

SL5: The last one. I wish the whole game was like this room, so much fun. However also really easy to cheese. If you stick to the floor and just circle around the middle platform where the core is, literally nothing can hit you. I had no repair kits but the regen-when-low nanocart and with my 30 health I couldn't take more than 1 hit at a time. Still easily cleared this by just circling around the bottom until my ammo regenerated and then taking shots at the core. Even for the first stage, none of the bots can hit you if you do this so you can slowly regen ammo/missiles and clear them. The second stage is the same, the missiles don't track very well and the turrets aim where you are, not where you will be.

All the cores can be cheesed super easy if you just look for it and don't get caught up in "oh my god it's shooting at me, panic!"

[Duffking]

SL5 took my ages the first time because I didn't realise you're supposed to shoot the pylons to drop the shield on the core. Was blasting enemies for a good few minutes before I realised they weren't going to stop spawning.

[I'm proud of you, son]

Yeah shooting the pylons/batteries on the side wasn't very intuitive. I shot at them because they glowed and you usually shoot things that glow, but after a few shots I got no feedback so I stopped. Circle around the room a few more times and realize nothing is progressing, so try shooting them again. It was actually my very last shot before I said "I don't think this is doing anything" that destroyed the first one lol

[AceMatt]

I actually find close range weapons quite powerful once you figure out some good strategies. For example, if you can bottleneck a larger group of enemies in a doorway or near a cover point, you can quickly pop out and shotgun blast or unleash flamethrower spray and clear out a large crowd . It's all about being able to dodge and move quickly. That's really why I'm loving this game, because there are a lot of different approaches and styles based on the weapons.

As for the reactors, as was mentioned above, if you pay close attention there are a number of ways to "cheese" a lot of them. The early ones you can shoot at from the open doorways without going into the rooms and getting locked in, for example. In a way it reminds me of the Souls boss battles. The fear and chaos of what's going on makes them seem more difficult than they actually are.

[Uninstall Wizard]

Originally posted by Jazriel:

Yeah shooting the pylons/batteries on the side wasn't very intuitive. I shot at them because they glowed and you usually shoot things that glow, but after a few shots I got no feedback so I stopped. Circle around the room a few more times and realize nothing is progressing, so try shooting them again. It was actually my very last shot before I said "I don't think this is doing anything" that destroyed the first one lol

There is a line in the Commander Keen (4 iirc) manual that I live by regarding action games (FPS,STG,etc.): Shoot at everything. If you can't shoot it, collect it. :)

[Soot Leopard]

Honestly the keys already feel too linear. Even up to sublevel 5 I was usually picking up the keys on the path to the doors they unlocked and there were only two places on my first complete campaign run when I didn't, and both of those times were on the last two levels. I would prefer a bit more backtracking to be honest. Some space to listen to the tunes and think up insane strategies, lol.

At this point I would barely feel a difference if the game didn't have any keys at all.

I never had a problem with the second reactor; even when I was up close and using a flamethrower there was enough time to see where the lasers were and avoid them. That room only ever killed me if I left a guard bot alive by accident or if somebody outside the game distracted me while I was going in for the kill. :D
On the third level the reactor room could get a bit tedious since I'm constantly having to duck behind cover. I didn't feel like I was in danger at all, just wondering when it would finally die...