Overall
Graphics-5
Good graphics, but during shooting FPS would drop like a stone, and I could find no graphics option
Gamplay 9
No Improvements to be made except maybe the abillity to name your character and some more background info.
Sounds10
Nuf said. They were good sounding and appropriate.
Overall Score-8
Fantastic Atmosphere
It's not easy to make a top-down shooter scary, but boy have you guys succeeded anyway. Those over-the-top alien growls, roars, and hisses really made me fear for my life!
Only problem I encountered was the aforementioned diary note hacking glitch - I actually ended up losing all of my lives in the span of five seconds because the note wouldn't go the hell away!
Solid game, below is only constructive criticism
This was a very challenging, interesting game. I did get the DeadSpace vibes, as you descend lower and lower, the situation becomes more and more chaotic, but it was not linear, but rather in jumps when it came to difficulty.
Weapon selection was pretty cool, but made things too easy, as you could restock at nearly every point in the levels. The shotgun and RPG are cute, but are worthless because there rarely is an enemy that requires significant damage, and there are 100s of grunts that require a decent ammo pool to kill without losing health. Thus, I found the Vulcan to be pretty useless, as by the time I started firing, I was already being swarmed to death. Best weapon was the SMG with the damage upgrade, as it was superior to the rifle, and you could shoot 120 bullets without reloading. Not that it matters, reloading was super fast, too fast. Ammo was never an issue in the game, as it could be purchased, and was lying all over the floor. This made it easy as well, and I wasn't forced to conserve ammo. The pistol was laughably useless, but I think you meant it to be like that. Ammo can be used as it is infinite to open doors, so that should be fixed.
When it comes to monsters: It got pretty repetitive after level 3, as there was nearly nothing new, and same strategies were employed over and over again. The dark enemies with red eyes were awesome, great job there. The giant sacs were too easy to kill, as they only fired forwards. They should be given a room to chase you and aim slowly, because they can be sniped from a distance, like the endgame boss. Endgame boss was simple to kill, as I merely had to hide behind a box, peep out, and shoot my ammo in bursts. Coming closer spelt death, and I barely saw him. For me, the maddeningly difficult portions were maneuvering boxes to prevent the turrets from killing you (either too many boxes, or too few), and the night vision level. I'd carefully comb through the area, wait for the door to be "unhacked," and then everything would surround me and I would die. Death was pretty interesting in this game, and I probably ended up playing some levels 2-3 times as I'd keep dying =P
I liked the difficulty, in that if you don't kill the stuff infront of you, you become too slow to run away, making things very tough. It was repetitive though, waiting for the swarm to die down as they came from the hive, just waiting for one, shooting it, and keeping my scope on their nest for an entire minute. The lasers fired in my opinion were too slow. They were easy to dodge. The explosion radius made things a little better, but it was still way too simple to avoid. I think that the radar was just perfect. It was live or die with that thing, and it wasn't too frequent in its pulses =P The game should be made a bit darker in other levels. I also find that the red eyed stealth enemies are too easily spotted, and the surprise wears off after you first see them. Their eyes should never appear, until you're close to their corner. Then, they appear, and they leap out at you. A flaw with them is that you can happily shoot them with anything from a distance, and they won't charge at you. Maybe make stealth versions of the mini locusts?
Plotwise, it had a solid buildup, but too many jumps. There needed to be more of the blue chips, I still don't understand the story. Make it more horrific, with humanlike enemies, maybe a room where you see humans being turned into scorpions, etc. It was just next level, do this, ooh crew is becoming untrusting/what is ule/scary stuff, next level, do this, final level, bodies/enemies everywhere, enemy is a giant baby, what? Plot was lacking, ending suffered because of it. Having CPU to lead you with greentext is cool, but shouldn't be there in last level. Last level should be pitch black like night vision level, its too bright.
The mad rush to elevator is epic in the end, but not if you're replaying. Make it so that not getting to elevator in time = death. I wish there was some ending cutscene, but its okay. It was a solid game, and I enjoyed it! Thank you.
Excellent review, thank you mate.
Its funny you said you didn't really like the shotgun and preferred the SMG, the shotgun with FMJ is awesome for when there aren't too many baddies, then when they increase in number the pulse rifle does it for me every time ( I never use the SMG, it's got to be the least used in testing weapon ).
The Vulcan you've just got to keep revving it up so it's ready, it is really powerful once it gets going.
As to the story, and the whole cult of the owlmen / Ule stuff, I wanted to drip feed the story but not explain it all, I didn't want it neatly tied up in a bow, as in real life you never know all the facts.
Thanks again for taking the time to complete the game, and the excellent review, makes it all worth while.
Review
You really need to put a "you are here" beacon when the map is viewed.
Good, but some bugs were annoying
First bug was on the second level where you have to wait for the doors to be hacked. Got a notification that the door was about to be hacked, then ran down and picked up a diary note, except the spawning aliens still attacked me. Died, screen went to black and stayed that way.
On the level with the turrents, on the way out to the bottom lift a hole in the floor opens up, it seems I was too close and am stuck on top of it.
Both of these were annoying, given that I had to re-do the whole level again.