You're pretty good.
Reviews for "Rum & Gun DEMO"
Really cool!
This is a pretty neat lil' brawler aside from a few issues, most minor. Don't take the fact that this review seems long and critical the wrong way; it's just that all the things this game does right are pretty obvious and don't need me to spell them out. It's got solid mechanics, responsive controls, beautiful graphics, pretty good auditory feedback, and -- most importantly -- stylin' hats. So here are the things to improve and make it close to perfect.
Slow movement from place to place makes the game feel kinda sluggish. A non-combat movement speed boost would be nice (ie, you move faster if you haven't attacked or been attacked in the last three seconds), to assist in travel without making kiting too easy. Perhaps the Agility upgrades would help if they weren't glitched. They provide a brief movement boost, but it goes away after some event (perhaps changing weapons or acquiring a different perk); I did a timed comparison of an Agility I + Agility II character against a brand new game, so I'm quite sure.
The Rifle feels terrible, even with its Pierce upgrade, as compared to either the Pistol or Blunderbuss. The latter is obviously vastly better at close- and mid-range, and the former is just better in all contexts due to its fire rate and access to the sword charge. The Rifle needs something unique to differentiate it from the Pistol, and Pierce is insufficient due to the higher fire rate, higher ammo count, and larger projectile hitbox of the Pistol making it better against crowds anyway. Perhaps switching Pierce to "ignore bullet reflection" and increasing the frequency of enemies who can reflect bullets (why don't cannons, for example?) would help, as would increasing the damage and greatly decreasing ammo availability so that it feels more like a proper sniping weapon.
Holding Q to see enemy lifebars is super awkward. Make that a toggle button instead of a hold button, like the fiddle.
Melee allies need a lot more max health (and should heal the same percentage of max health from the Fiddle as they do currently). Protecting your gunners is fine and all, but sword allies seem strictly worse than gunners: they run into massive swarms of enemies and there's no way to protect them as they insta-die, other than playing the Fiddle...which prevents you from helping them dish out damage in the process.
I think that's mostly it. Again, solid work. Looking forward to more from you.
Borington responds:
Thanks . I can'imagine how Agility lost its effect. Maybe it's too subtle? (no agility is 0.09 speed, Agility II is 0.096). Anyways, this has been a very helpful review! Glad you liked it.
Edit: in version 1.0.2 the agility perk has been slightly boosted, and Q has been changed from hold to toggle. Also, the rifle bullet's collision size has been increased. There actually was a coding mistake there.
Great game! Had tons of fun playing it, one of the best experiences iv'e had on Newgrounds in a while!
Here's some feedback or small changes I would love to see for the next game!
1. Make teammates health higher: Teammates would die very fast, I loved the aspect of having a crew with me, but they often died before I was able to do much with them.
2. Find teammates more often: I think it would be awesome to have a ton of teammates with you, and when getting into big battles it would be more like a war with teammates and enemies brawling it out as you led the fight!
3. Increase accuracy on rifle: It seemed the rifle was a lot less accurate then other weapons.
4. Do not respond previously killed enemies: Now I do understand that without this, it would be difficult to re-up on supplies if you need it, but on the "Forgotten Shire" I think it was called, I would often run back through the level trying to dodge enemies, and end up running into many, many more. This ended up sending what seemed like 30+ enemies at me at once, and seemed almost impossible to beat, that was definitely the hardest level on the game.
5: Add secrets: Now maybe there are some secrets that I just happened to miss, but it would be awesome to stumble upon secret caves/areas with lots of loot or little easter eggs! This is no big deal but would love to see it done! :)
6: Maybe add a home port: This would be a great feature I think! In between levels if you went to a safe home port where you could shop with your coins, talk to other pirates, and hire teammates for the next level that would be an awesome addition! It would give the player a little time to recuperate and prepare for the next level, as well as spend coins on something different than level ups.
7. Add Trophies: Would love to have some trophies or achievements added!
That's all my feedback for the next game! Again great job I had a lot of fun playing it and I can't wait for the next one! Keep up the great work! :)
Borington responds:
Thank you so much! I thought for a long time about whether or not enemies should respawn, as well as about the hp of your followers. I didn't want the player to rely too much on AI, but I'm planning to make maps where you have an entire ship and a crew, and ones with huge endless battles.
Make sure to check out the continuation of the story in a week.
The game is really impressive. I think I'd prefer to play it in a bigger window, it's hard to fully immerse and appreciate the amazing graphics when it's this size. Also, it would be easier if the Q button was toggled, not held.
I love how rum makes all your troubles go away.
Borington responds:
Thank you for the feedback. So glad you liked it!
Edit: Full screen option has been added.