Awesome game! Movement and shooting are on the tips of the fingers, visual style, enemies variety, arena geometry — everything is very satisfying. I especially loved the traversal across the level. The gameplay is fast paced just to the right degree yet pretty tactical.
I still think there are things to improve.
- Every round for me ends the same: I intentionally leave one or two enemies alive and run around the level to collect all the ammo. It's boring, yet the game encourages me to do so.
- Most rounds start the same: I first run away from flying bombs, waiting for all of them to crush into obstacles, then I run backwards and just shoot forward almost without aiming to kill all the melee foes, then kill arachnids. It turns into routine pretty soon. Of course bosses break this schema a little, but not enough.
- Random ammo generation is very influential: for example, rounds, in which I get a lot of Gauss gun ammo are much more successful. I don't think it's good for such a skill based game. It also lowers the importance of map control.
- I can't immediately understand which ammo is for which weapon by it's look. Also it's not easy to see ammo from distance. Yellow lamps on platforms are possible to confuse with ammo. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but visual clarity is paramount for such a game.
- Small yellow lamps on platforms stop you from moving!
- Jump often doesn't work when running down the slope.
- An arachnid bugged out a couple of times: it's standing in one place and not reacting to the player. Can be killed tho.
- If you run straight into melee enemy, you just pass through, not stopped and without taking any damage. Feels strange.
- Damage taken from a flying bomb stops player's movement. It's irritating and feels unnatural. You expect the explosion to push you in the direction out from it's center.
- Slomo is controversial. It feels cool and adds extra layer to gameplay. But! It discourages you to improve your aim: I shoot in slomo almost all the time. So it lets a not experienced player feel cool, but slows his learning. Also it's incompatible with multiplayer.
The movement is sooo pleasant! I wonder, what if you make one step further? Maybe add dash, wall jump or dive? ))
Overall looks very promising. Thank you!