Current game balance and overall

[Erroll Sandhawk]

Starting this as a player whose beaten the game (denial) gotten everything with a 10-1/2 hour playtime (with some encounter luck) with time to spare on normal difficulty and playing on V1.00

Early on the game quickly struck me as good horror for one of the first times in ages when it comes to games which was really refreshing, but I found that the difficulty drastically can change based on your luck for door encounters. I myself received The twin partners Monty and the girl which instantly turned the balance of the combat incredibly in my favour. I was pretty quick to bulldoze encounters that should’ve probably been harder (game told me to run) Also because Monty is a goat and carried most group fights even the late game while still fun was laughably easy as I bulldozed many bosses and encounters with basically a “cover all bases” party that devolved into “swing until they die” group.

On the topic of balancing I believe there either needs to be higher difficulty settings for more veteran players or a blanket nerf for companions as they quickly make the game trivial. Not to mention that monsters in mid to late game areas being pushovers except for a certain car in the basement that actually killed me twice… welcome to hell I think the early game was well balanced and led to a good experience of needing to manage supplies and weapons but late game once you get some decent weapons and certain craftables there’s little to stop you.

Speaking of door encounters I think there needs to be greater incentive to stay in the apartment for them as I often spent so much time outside that I barely saw any of them happen into I went out of my way to go back and try and get some (maybe greater difficulty in monsters the longer you are out or apartment attacks might help?)

I think weapon durability is also a factor in planning fights as for awhile I was breaking weapons in the early game but once I got better weapons (like cleavers) I found they either broke instantly or lasted FOREVER until I upgraded to the next items that I just kept going. Some of them seemed outright broken with crits and general damage output, even the most resistant enemies crumbled when using them


I think there’s also several armours and accessories that are downright broken, many of them I got and just never took off my character because they are straight up that good in fights across the board looking at you toothy necklace especially with the focus on pure damage you never have to worry about any other stat except defence but that’s increased often with the damage increasing items

Overall the game was a blast even though the horror of the survival became trivial. The sprites were genuinely horrifying to look at and always created a sense of dread wondering what I was even looking at (though there was some glitches of incorrect sprites loading and accidental overlay) would recommend to some horror lovers with enough balancing and some more blanket difficulty options