Wow! This was pretty amazing!

Didn't really know what to expect going in - The gunplay, visuals and sound are actually super polished and feel like a really high-quality experience!

The horror/puzzle sections are such a contrast and were pretty funny (though I had to use the hints 🙈)

I think my main complaint is difficulty: I did manage to get to the end because I really wanted to see it, but it took me way more tries than I would have liked. I think I have a (maybe somewhat controversial) mantra that jam games should never be difficult, because most developers want people to play their games to the end, and most players are trying to get through 62 games in 2 weeks. It's a really difficult balance to get right but  I think this one  definitely verges on the hard side: especially given the permadeath, and the expectation of multiple playthroughs for both endings (I haven't tried the bad ending yet but will probably try for it after the jam!)

I also found that health boxes were few and far between, and that they worked somewhat inconsistently? My tactic at the end was basically just to be blown off the map and then stay still, which was the only way I managed to get to the end 😄 (work smarter not harder)

Anyway though, this was still a crazy experience! Was pretty jaw-dropped by the final boss!  Well done!

This is a pretty good game, with plenty of style (and clearly very well put-together), bogged down by a few rather unfun design choices which do sour the experience somewhat.

So, the negatives. The random visual effects every Random Time Interval were amusing at first, but after getting effectively blinded by the blurry screen filter (especially when combined with the other filters) for the umpteenth time (making it nigh impossible to actually see what I’m doing and play the game without dying), they did start to overstay their welcome. Additionally, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to when weapons were given, when the game abruptly chose to speed up, when the game decided to take away my ability to see, or when it suddenly decided that I should be dropping bombs everywhere. All of these random elements just kinda soured the experience for me, because it just felt like there wasn’t much point in trying when I’d just get screwed over by random spikes of arbitrary difficulty.

That, and the main gameplay loop felt like an extended period of ‘doing generic arena stuff whilst waiting for things to happen (with no way for the player to make the thing happen any sooner)’, which also makes me less keen to replay the game (as I’d need to sit through the slog of random artificial difficulty spikes).

Still, if it wasn’t for those sources of frustration, I’d be singing the praises of this game. It’s clearly had a lot of time and effort put into it, and is on the verge of greatness - but, ultimately, it’s just not really for me.

This is wild.

It's an incredibly intense first-person shooter. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on half the time, it's extremely hectic and fast paced, but it's genuinely pretty satisfying to jet around, unload some firepower and watch the carnage. There's no time to figure out what the specials do or where those bombs are coming from. Some variations are definitely more fun than others, but I think the only truly bad one is the one that lags horribly (whether it's real or artificial, the end result is the same).

The whole thing oozes style, too. From the first logo hit through the gameplay and the interludes, it's got a bold, brilliant visual identity. The photosensitivity warning is no joke, and the visual loudness may be too much for some- I can handle it in short bursts only- but it has a very distinct look and goes all in on it. The audio isn't quite as standout, but still very good, and meshes well with the rest.

It's not exactly what I'd expect when I think of SBIG Jam, but I think it does hit the right notes.

From the screenshots and the description it sounds like there's more to this game than initially appears, but I'll probably never see it. Realistically, there's no way I'm going to get one ending, let alone both endings. Each round is pretty long and insanely intense, I played three or four before dying but by the last one I'd already decided I was going to stop after finishing that one if I hadn't gotten game over. The minigames are pretty obtuse, maybe if I was more genre-savvy I could solve them, but I don't have the time or energy to trial-and-error my way through them.

I think that's the one major flaw with this game: it asks a lot of the player. It requires the player to be decent enough at shooters to pass the levels, to know enough or have enough patience to figure out the minigames, and to have enough endurance to charge through visually harsh and extremely hectic gameplay multiple times. I personally feel that's way too much for a jam like this that isn't genre-specialized, has a wide variety of participants, and 62 entries for a two-week rating period.

If nothing else, this is crazy impressive for eight days, even at that crunchy pace. From a technical and visual standpoint, it's probably the most impressive game in this jam I've played so far (although a few others are pretty high-effort as well).

WOW what a shooter!

This was seriously impressive, the variety of weapons, enemies, visuals effects was staggering!

SPOILERS BELOW

The sections between combat were neat, the FAITH-like robo voice combined with the hilarious hiding spots and t-posing menace were great! I sadly only got the bad ending, I'm guessing the good ending requires knowing that code (which I'm guessing in hindsight is probably just "hide"?).

The boss fight was very impressive with its multiple attack types, though I admit I maanged to cheese it because it was fixated on a ghost ally I spawned with the katana special ability. Oh and btw the special bility variety is AWESOME! I actually wanted to try implementing abilities in my game like slow-motion, speed boost, etc. but these were much more exciting.

The screen effects I thought were interesting but definitely warranted that visual sensitivies warning at the start.

The only real complaints I have about the gameplay is that I thought the gun reloads took a little too long, and are especially hard to aim with certain visual effects, so I kinda had to lean on circle-strafing and the ally ability from the Katana. And also I found having to repeatedly click with the melee weapons made sense, but also got too close to clicker-type gameplay for me which gets tiring on the hand lol.

But back to the positives, the audio was great, the visuals were great, everything felt very juicy. Excellent work!

I don't think I am capable of articulating how I feel about this game beyond "melatonin overdose dream after hitting your head on a lead pipe while high."