Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Completeness

  I gave you a 4, which is the highest score we're "supposed" to give. This feels like a basically complete set of mechanics. I couldn't help but feel like something was missing, but I couldn't put my finger on it, so I didn't dock you points for it. It's missing some gameplay glue somewhere. But that's high-level criticism for a 7-day roguelike.

  Aesthetics
  

  This game is REALLY PRETTY. But I knocked off a point because I couldn't always tell why things were happening. I would take some damage, or the alert level would go up, or I would lose the game, and I would just have NO IDEA WHY. It was really frustrating. According to the scoring rubric, UI is part of Aesthetics, so 3/5 for you.

  Edit: Then I came back later and put it back up at 4/5 because this is the prettiest game in 7DRL, easy. It wouldn't be fair not to acknowledge that.

  Fun
  

  I agonized over this one, but in the end I had to go with my subjective experience: I loved the hacking minigame, and I avoided mech combat as much as possible. It always felt like getting into a gunfight was a bad idea. The times I tried it, it ended badly due to alert level explosion. The alert level mechanic felt a lot like it was kicking me while I was down - it would get up a bit, and then the fact that I was in a mech would make it shoot right up to 5 so there was no way for me to get out of a gunfight once I got in it. So I went for a 3/5 instead of 4/5 for feeling like I had to avoid a huge part of the game to do well.

  Innovation
  

  4/5 obviously. Excellent ideas. This is what 7DRL is for.

  Scope
  

  Solid scope from a 7DRL. Nice variety to pickups, mechanics, enemies, parts, and flavor. 4/5.

  Roguelikishness
  

  Had to do a 3/5 here because the hacking minigame is realtime. For me, a roguelike is all turn based, all the time, as a core requirement.

• I went into this not knowing what to expect. Often with hacking games I get frustrated quickly, not understanding fast enough what I'm meant to do with usually dire consequences. This one however, took me a couple of goes to understand and once I got it, I found I loved it. It doesn't detract from the rest of the game at all, adding a great layer of gameplay to what seems like a typical roguelike on the surface.

  I didn't get control of mechs very often, but what I did play I loved as well for sheer strategy and intriguing mech-layout. I found when I wanted an easy playthrough, I'd just stealth it up and occasionally hack data points for the thrill of it, but if I wanted a challenge I'd happily take on a mech and pilot it very badly.

  The only time I won was through stealth, but that's not a surprise - it's the easy way. 

  Aesthetically, it's the typical roguelike but with extra UTF characters and a good use of colour - for something cyberpunk-inclined, it's a perfect style. The terminal screen is clear and easy to use, though I got annoyed I couldn't scroll up to repeat my previous command - but that's just because I use terminals regularly and I expect that functionality.

  Overall, I absolutely loved it - and would be glad to see a post 7DRL version if one was ever planned.
  

• A really impressive 7DRL. The hacking mini-game is really really fun. I found the other elements to be a little dense and/or too difficult but will definitely return to up my game. It's easy to see how much thought and effort went into this entry - the controls are simple and the display is flawlessly integrated into the game.  This is a must-play from this batch.