>The game isn't meant to be a fast paced hack and slash, it's more methodical and about making use of bouncing projectiles and cover
Well, then I think you're going about it the wrong way. You need a better incentive to go for bounces instead of making the whole game more tedious to play so that the player will want to get it over with as quick as possible. And there's still a lot of walking involved since your projectiles only bounce once. As it is, the game looks like a shooter, plays like a shooter, and quacks like a shooter.
>Starting as you would be playing in the lategame would remove any buildup and tension
That's not what I'm asking for. You just need to have have *some* amount of challenge at the start if you have to restart from the beginning when you die. Rooms with a single enemy should be relegate to the tutorial. It does create tension, but tension over the possibility of having to replay the same piss-easy and overly long sections that weren't a challenge even the first time is not what you want.
>some will have higher HP
Just don't make the mistake of thinking the time it takes to kill an enemy directly correlates with its difficulty.
>If you know a way to make cloud shadows fuzzier, please do tell.
I assumed they were just a panning texture that you could put a blur filter on.
>If you can tell me the conditions under which you took damage during the transition or footage of it I'd be grateful, thanks!
It was from the projectiles of the faces on the walls in the last level.