Clearly there was a high level of effort put into this. I wanted to like it very much, but I ended up kind of frustrated...
- First off, there aren't instructions on buttons other than the prompt to press E. Which increased the issues below...
- The beginning pistol feels kind of weak relative to how many enemies you have to fight off. So the first level feels pretty bad. It doesn't help that you have to keep clicking very fast to shoot things. Maybe it's just my taste, but I feel like if you have to shoot constantly it would be better to let us hold it down, or maybe spawn fewer enemies on the first level so we can get to the first gun upgrade earlier. But shooting the enemies with the pistol felt more like work than fun, and you have to clear at least the first level that way unless I'm missing something. Sure it's the first gun, but killing enemies should still be fun with the first weapon - after all it's the first impression people will have of your game.
- I was trying to find a way to spawn turrets with the nanites due to the above and the instruction manual and could not figure out how to do it. I thought it was a key issue. Then I found you have to unlock it and it costs $70. I would make this a default ability and then give you a crappy turret and you could spend money to power it up. Otherwise the nanite pods are spawning and you collect them, but you can't do anything with them and don't understand why. Plus it would alleviate my pistol pain.
- I bought two pistols thinking I would dual wield but it still only shot one. So I'm not sure what the point of letting you have two at once is.
Maybe it's just me but I really tried for like 20 minutes to get into this and it never clicked. But it looks great and I think you have some good systems there if you can tweak the balance or whatever. Good luck on the game jam!