Hi guys,
First of all, thank you for your game. As a fellow keyframe and environment artist, former game and level designer and an old gamer of 47 years, i am amazed how this game is, as is. Stylization, cinematography, lighting, combat, mechanics… it is all excellent, and it shows the love poured into the game, like in the “good old days”, even from Eye Of The Beholder and Hired Guns from Amiga in the 90s. I didn’t finish the campaign, and did only 90 hours, but it is enough to love it. Great job, keep pushing!
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Now, part 2, some notes that i had. I hope you read it and maybe even consider some. If needed i can elaborate more and maybe recommend a solution. Note: played on highest difficulty.
- Combat
- During range combat ( in this example: Shortbow ) enemies stand and take damage, not registering because of the distance, or upper floor. Enemies should react and most of them should have the ability to jump to get the player.
- Backstrike for enemies against backstab.
- More running, pressing enemies, keeping players occupied. Fairly easy to outrun them.
- Thought: Enemies should stop their combos when they “see” they are way off course with their attack.
- Enemies should have throws as melee defense.
- Scaling should be higher. My example, as lvl 28, Shallows and keep danger level was 17. It should be 25, so it is still interesting to visit those areas, and more dangerous.
- Enemies should be able to parry, too and miss timing like players do
- Mechanics
- Shop items should have comparison option to gear you wear.
- Can’t open chests, or talk to traders at the same time.
- Short video which shows how skill looks like when the player hovers over it, both in inventory, chests and shops.
- Focus replenishment ( statue? ) and practice dummy to try weapons in Sacrament.
- Open to modding community, i think this is a must.
- At least one more difficulty level, and more difficult campaigns unlocked once player finish the first, or the next one. Can be infinite, and thus, ultra hard
- Dual weapons, like two wands, two swords, maybe let player choose 4 skills from total of 8.
- Shop should be more diverse in weapon runes, maybe even gems.
- Weapon runes, it would be neat if player can change the position of the runes inside of the weapon, so player can arrange spells better to his gameplay.
- Weapon runes, it would be nice if only original weapon rune extraction destroys the weapon, but slots 2 to 4 shouldn’t. Gives more room to experiment.
- Camera should follow the character. In co-op camera gets confused on who to follow, also a bit late sometimes. Also, for ranged combat, player can’t even see the enemy because camera is too close.
- More dual weapon categories. More weapons, even shields as main with their own combo. Some suggestions: Melee - Javelin, Lance, Katana, Sai, Bo, etc. Ranged: Crossbow, Slingshot.
- Bows should have their own categories as weapons for variety. Longbows and shortbows.
- PC controls are ok, a bit odd, i know it is mainly made for consoles/gamepad, but think of us PC players, too!
- PC controls during placement of the objects in the house is really weird.
- Enchantment restriction for embers feels a bit too restrictive.
- ROPE! I was playing with my wife and she is reaaaally bad at jumping and balancing on thin beams. It got me thinking, how adventurous it would feel if player can drop a rope for his fellowship to climb to his floor. I got sometimes tired of waiting for her to jump in right direction and not die Just a thought
- More elemental status mixing, and more statuses. Missing earth elemental damage?
- At scribe table, player should see the runes in gear. Hard to remember each rune for each weapon.
- Maybe more variety for weapon requirements, attributes-wise?
- Rune switching is weird, from weapon to personal runes.
- Bugs
- Camera lags, too close, confused in co-op.
- Game crashes
- Sometimes can’t click on top bar and side of the inventory
- Some dual weapons only show one weapon infused by element.
Hopefully this helps
Sincerely, Adam Isailovic