[specs]

• mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
• browser, chromium

[overall/first impressions]

• love the oldschool dusty eighties basement crawler vibes

[intro]

• simple and very effectively creepy looped sprite animatic on start menu, with ambient/drone synth textures whining on in the background - instantly sets a great mood

[audio]

• great little shuffling synth and percussion OST, dynamic with active character modes. menu SFX standard.

[art/visuals]

• absolutely loving the heavily saturated/shadowed ZX-ish vibes. start screen sprites are delightfully creepy and art overall is very cronch.

[customization/accessibility]

• zero in-game instructions or controls (negative)
• start menu settings only (good to have, but best to have always accessible), separate Audio levels for music/sfx and vsync on/off.
• pause menu with
• odd menu nav quirk: to go Back to the main menu, you can use Enter on Stats/Credits, but only mouse on Options. i get why, because you have to confirm the option settings, but it’s a good idea to also bind the Esc, Del, or Backspace button as a universal cacenl/back.

[gameplay/handling/controls]

• WASD/arrow key omni-dir movement. a survivors-like so
• fun standard Survivors loop. kill enemies, pickup point boosts, upgrade stat/weapon/ability on levelup.
• was a little confused why i wasn’t firing at first. no indication as to expect transformation except the easily-missed word RUN! not sure if lack of attack when normal human form is intentional but once i realized what was happening i found it a unique and fun angle as opposed to the perma-tank you become with most Survivors games.
• hitrate/power/dmg received seems balanced, could maybe do with some tweaks to incoming tho, and def need to implement a very slight invulnerability as you are immobile while transforming and can easily be insta-killed before the animation stops.

Very fun roguelike! I really like the old school retro artstyle reminiscent of the arcade vibes. The concept of running and then transforming into a monster killing enemies after that is quite unique. However, I do feel like when I transform, the game should've been paused so I can not get killed while I am immobilized. Other than that, this was a fun one! Great job!!