Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• The game has potential and some things are done right, but there is a lot of unfinished mechanics and bugs. It's easy to crash the game on the loadout screen. Aesthetically, this game rocks. Maps are just pleasant to look at, UI is clear, font is nice. Menuses could be better, but they are readable enough. It's hard to tell something about "fun factor" of Mechrl. Looks like the game has a lot of additional mechanics I haven't chance to test (like mech upgrades), but I never managed to finish even the first mission. Every 1-1 fight I lose. I was close to winning once, I think, but still - didn't manage that. AI is stupid, but maybe I'm even more stupid if I'm so easy prey?... Well, I thought that maybe I'm supposed to tinker with initial loadout. Unfortunately, I don't even know how could I do that - when I am in the loadout menu, one thing I can do is exit. Maybe it changes after first mission, but... Well, I would need to kill some dudes in mechas first, and I can't do that. I don't know, maybe I'm playing the game in wrong way? On the other hand, it's in the best interest of the dev to make sure that player will know how to play... Maps are hard to navigate often, but walking over walls helps with that :) Crushing over walls takes double time and needs player confirmation. Rotating destroys the wall as well and doesn't need confirmation - I wonder if it takes double time... I am aware that this review is a bit harsh, but I really hope that dev will put more work into this project after the game jam. I see the potential here, and this game could fit niche - I never played roguelike with multi-tiled player. But it definitely needs more balance and testing.
• Nice idea. Also a good choice in focusing on doing mech-to-mech combat rather than spreading too thin. I like the look of the game, and the visual representation of a mech was cool once I realise what it was, but the 'Aesthetic' rating is about functionality rather than prettiness. The terrain is unclear (lots of clutter but it's not always clear what effect it has, if any) and the rotational tank controls are unpleasant. I understand why they're in the game but there's a reason that tank controls aren't widely used in any genre. I lost count of how many times I took hits I didn't need to take because I was facing down the screen and that meant the controls were effectively flipped. My biggest criticism is that the game is either far too hard, or very opaque. In all the time I played it for review, I didn't manage to defeat a single opponent. I know it's possible to customise your mech but at the beginning of the game you don't seem to have access to any alternative weapons or parts to try out different approaches. Maybe I'm missing something about how to play well, but if so then it's very well hidden if I didn't find it after so many attempts. There doesn't really seem to be anything you can try differently, either. You move too slowly to escape or evade, you never catch your opponent by surprise, there are no ways to try a different approach. You just slug it out until you're destroyed (or, theoretically, your opponent is - though I never saw that). If it was more doable then I think this could be a fun little diversion. I like the idea, and even the tank controls would be excusable because there's a certain logic to why they're included, but the fact that (based on my own experience, at least) it's impossible to actually achieve anything makes it into quite a sour play experience very quickly. It would benefit a lot from rebalancing/tweaking play/being clearer.
• Thanks a lot for participating in the 7DRL, and hope you had a lot of fun putting this entry together. I was a HUGE fan of Battletech & Mechwarrior growing up. Kudos for trying such an ambitious entry. I think the maps were interesting and definitely gave you the feel of being in a giant, lumbering armoured machine, unable to make any rapid directional changes. I urge you to keep chipping away at this if you can.