I apologize for such a late post. I streamed this with PearDoll and BuriedCandy, and it was an absolute blast. All the classes feel pretty unique, and the waves really ramp up in a nice way. Exploration feels good, and the upgrades and choices that enhance it feel powerful and worth taking.
Some critiques and issues found:
- Offstream BuriedCandy (flame class) and I (melee class) had alot of issues with the first wave of enemies. Using the version deployed to Itch, one of the small slimes would consistently not take damage. Doing the tutorial quest for skills before or after attempting to kill them didn't seem to make much difference. I eventually tried the steam demo instead and that allowed me to get through the tutorial (with the gun class) and switching back to the itch version worked. Notably, in the exploration phase, this consistently happened to one of the slimes in an enemy camp (with the melee and flame classes). It also happened to one of the brown flying camp enemies as well.
- During the initial tutorial the game softlocks if the player exits the game while the WASD keys are displayed on the screen. Upon reload of the game, the tutorial is no longer displayed and the portal to leave the ship is not active.
- A few times without a noticeable reason, player control would stop responding. It was still possible to open the menu. At times it was just gamepad control, others it was both gamepad and keyboard control.
- Returning to the M.Ark after the first round, it wasn't possible for me to buy the first upgrade. I had to restart the game in order for it to be buyable.
- As the Melee character it's hard to see when I'm about to be attacked by the majority of enemies. It also didn't seem that the provoke from the scarecrow would work (enemy waves would sometimes simply walk by). It felt like there was alot of risk as the melee without too much of a safety net. I don't think a higher armor rating would help or be balanced at the ratings it would help. Possibly turning 5 or 10 of the HP into Shield could possibly add the buffer needed for the class fantasy but still punish bad play.
- Teleporters don't seem to consistently be shown on the UI. It would be nice to see the nearest teleporter at all times. More mapping tools would be nice in general, especially for planning out the exploration phase.
The VOD is linked below, and will be available for 60 days from broadcast. If needed for longer, please reach out and a highlight can be created. I apologize for the screen being clipped off, I forgot to reset the resolution after relaunching the game.