HellJam5 is a simple enough game that needs some more development time for sure to really expand on the current mechanics of the game. I was able to get to the tank but was unable to beat it as its HP pool is far higher than anything else in the game which is fine I think if there were more shooting options or upgrades or more mechanics to handle such a large HP pool.
Fun/Gameplay:
This game has a super straightforward gameplay loop of you shoot the bad guy, focus your fire sometimes, and try to not get hit. Simple premise, excellent execution here. As there isn't much to this project in its current jam build I don't have many critiques other than allowing the enemy to turn around and shoot above him and at all directions but the player is locked into only firing upwards.
To me this control system is a little hard to grasp I ended up not using wasd because I didn't have enough finger room to hit shift and z at the same time and move, this game needs to think out its key binds for sure. In the current state the game is totally playable with arrow keys while allowing your and to be free, but here is how I would fix both issues about the whole control scheme:
Place fire on left click and focus fire on right click, allow the player to look at where they are shooting by having them always look at the mouse and that way you can shoot enemies more effectively.
Visuals:
This game has some decent looking pixel art for the enemies and the player but everything else in the game like the map and borders and stuff leave more to be desired the flat grey and yellow border is fine but this would have been a great opportunity to throw some ground down or a cover system and have it work more like a 2d on the rails top down shooter instead. It could work like you get to a zone some enemies parachute in behind boxes and other environmental details and the player clears the zone and runs up to the next zone. Something like that would totally bring some much needed detail to this game.
I did find out that you can change your bullet color which is cool but feels like a small polish thing because it doesn't affect gameplay. Maybe it helps those with colorblindness though which is cool any accessibility is good accessibility in my eyes.
Audio:
To be honest the first time I played a run of this game I didn't even realize the music was there which is a good and bad thing as to me that means the music is simple enough that when its looped around it doesn't sound annoying but not memorable enough that I had to go back to the game again and check if there was music because I forgot while writing this comment.
Theme:
This game is 100% a bullet hell but doesnt have much in the light of consequences as far as I can tell, which is fine the game as is still feels good so I dont think anything else needs to be added into this section.
Overall:
This game is very much a quick project that feels like a tester of "can I make a game?" and the answer is yes you totally can and did for this jam, well done. The next steps are building more into this game and really pushing what you think you can or cant do. Good job on making this game!