Também faço reviews em um site de playtesting. Aqui está uma lista!
https://gameround.co/detail/325/info - The Sacred Acorn
The Sacred Acorn presents itself in a very cinematically satisfying way and eases the player slowly into everything in fitting manner. I see some potential here.
Positive points:
The beginning cutscene looks beautiful and does explain the story enjoyably.
Not exactly my favorite art style, but the game is pretty good looking in general and usually communicates things visually with efficacy.
I see a lot of Hollow Knight in this game which, intentional or not, are amazing but difficult feels to replicate and here this is done pleasingly well.
The mushroom boss' mechanics, on paper, are great. I'd consider them unique, while still simple and easy to understand, additionally being a culmination of mechanics the game had previously introduced.
Nice, fitting sounds and music in general.
Design issues:
Starting with the most important: the combat. There's some nice ideas for challenges, the enemies all work with each other and I do enjoy the acorn system. But attacking, in itself, feels extremely stiff and unresponsive. The attack rate limit is very strangely timed, so VERY often you try to attack and nothing happens. Try pressing attack and a movement button at the same time. Do that multiple times, and you'll realize the character only actually attacks about half of those times. If you try attacking the direction you're moving at and then move back another way immediately after attacking you'll usually just not hit at all or do so the wrong way. Alrnost no batttles I had in the entiregame felt fluid or smooth at all, so with the current attack system, I don't think I'd be up for playing the full game.
The small purple mushroom enemies make a "yuh" sound after dying and since they usually come in groups, if you kill them all with one hit you'll just hear a choir of "yuh"'s simultaneously which is not great for immersion. Not to mention the exact same sound of human voice moaning feels a little silly to hear after killing this enemy enough times.
Killing those poison mushrooms is terribly tedious and exhausting. In my opinion, the game benefits nothing from forcing me to repeat the same exact movement to attack it so many times. 3 to five hits would work fine while much more enjoyable. Just feels like the game is stalling for time killing those guys.
In the short section where the spikes fall in the cave, I almost always end up taking damage because of how fast they are. Just feels like a game of luck going through that. Additionally, the spikes' shadows don't really contrast too much with the ground and are often hard to see coming.
There was a single "burrowing" hole at the beginning of the game to get acorns and then the game seemed to just completely forget about that mechanic for the rest of the demo. I do understand, but it's still weird.
Personally, I dislike the default controls and would like if there was a way to change them at least.
There should be something telling the player the button for essence blast.
Bugs/Other problems:
The movement could be more fluid visually.
At the first area with two enemies, for me only one enemy and since the rocks in area only get out of the way for you to progress after both of them die, I was just soft-locked and had to restart again and again until two spawned.
This might be completely intentional, but I think Mushla could a little difficult to notice is even there for sorne players due to how similar it looks to the other mushrooms around. Additionally, it's dialogue had weird english, lacking an interrogation point.
Some npcs make sound, others don't.
When you take a rest, the character will do the laying down animation no matter where you are, so if you don't stand perfectly in the middle, he just lays on the ground instead of the rock
After pressing esc, pressing it again should close the menu. Secondly, this menu's text has weird english: it should be "This represents how many health orb pieces you have." Thirdly, you get to the rnenu with the keyboard and switch menus with Q and E of all keys, but can only interact with it using the mouse. You should able to navigate with arrow keys.
As it is, I'll rate this game a 4/10. Although unbalanced and imperfect, game design-wise it's pretty creative and I could absolutely see myself loving this game if the developers overhauled all combat systems. I will looking out for the full release.
https://gameround.co/detail/316/info - Arran: The Book of Heroes
Arran: The Book of Heroes is the best game I've reviewed on this site. The amount of potential here is immense, I wasn't suprised to find the developers are very experienced and clearly know what they are doing.
First of all, the combat: I might have never played a more fluid, responsive and fair combat system in any indie hack and slash. Every single time I take damage, I feel completely that it's my fault, which is a big feat in any type of game. I'm glad they kept full focus on the currently simple combat during the demo and it still held itself up perfectly all the way through, leaving me wanting more even though up until then the only new mechanics it had introduced were a few slightly different enemies and breaking gates. They were right to do that, I think it helps make the game feel like it doesn't need to add a bunch of other mechanics in order to good, but the current rate with which new things are introduced is low for a full game, so I hope the developers don't let it become repetitive.
The game looks absolutely beautiful. The Ul is very readable and fitting. In my opinion the aesthetic feels unique and, unlike a gigantic portion of indies, has an actual whole identity behind it, following a consistent art direction that I think helps give this game a very distinct feeling as a whole and I hope they keep up in the full version.
Level design is solid. I'm mentioning this because I've played so, so many hack and slashes in my life and this is so easy for developers to rness up or, most frequently, disregard. Of course, starting with the fact that it's not procedural, which let's all agree that in most cases it's just done so the developers don't have to worry about level design as much and the amount of hack and slash games that unfittingly choose this is very big, so I applaud the Arran devs for going the harder way that makes the better game. The level design here goes further than not being randomized, though; all areas are big enough I can move around with the enemies in them and small enough that I have to think about the walls, and ranged ammo is mostly placed in the right places to keep challenge while being forgiving, and I could go on and on this.
Design issues:
There's a severe lack of distinction between classes. The furthest apart seem to the barbarian and huntress; one attacks slowly but with a lot of reach and damage, while the other, quickly but with less reach and damage. The problem here is that speed, reach and damage are the essentially the only three factors ALL the classes ever differ by, yet the differences in those numbers are still very small. Furthermore, mostly the class skill attacks are also very similar. More damage and area of attack, while the huntress at least seems to freeze enemies in place for a while, but that's as far as it goes.
Of course, it's just a demo but just in case this is an insane development oversight, currently there is no reward at all for killing enemies since there's no leveling up or such and the gold you earn has no use, so there's no encouragement at all to be killing all or even most of them. You lose nothing from just running through the levels, which brings me to:
Currently the best strategy to kill as many enemies as possible quickly is to just run by all of them along the level. They'll keep following you and slowly create a giant horde that you can kill all at once with a few hits if you have a big enough weapon to reach them. This is a big, big problem because I see no reason not to do it and I just felt ridiculous forcing myself to keep killing enemies in their respective groups after I noticed I could do that, even though it was more fun not to exploit the game's trust in me not to put a barrier that forces me to finish the enemies in an area before continuing. (Which many dungeon crawlers do.)
I don't like the system that some barrels are openable while the others not, so you just have to awkwardly run by every single one to check. There should be at least some visual indication. It was also confusing to me at first that they dropped weapons that you can't pick up, which is because they're for other classes. maybe these should have a red outline or something when the player can't use them.
I'm not sure if the loot is randomized at all, (in my opinion it shouldn't be) but if not, there seem to be a lot more javelins/arrows in barrels and chests than hatchets, which is unfair. Is that intentional for some balancing reason or did the devs just not notice it?
I considerably miss a sprint button or at least higher speed when not in battle, currently walking through empty pathways is just extremely tedious.
There's very little decision making in the game outside of combat itself so it's not like I have anything to think about while exploring, and at least if dashing endlessly was faster than holding forward, there'd be something for me to do in that time but there isn't, so I was slowly just more and more inclined to give up exploring towards the end of the demo, simply of how long it would take.
I kept finding many keys and making myself leave potions in order to carry these I felt I'd rewarded, but I'd almost never find their even though I searched very thorougly. Is this intentional or are there just not enough doors to in the game currently? Either way, this is a problem.
There needs to be some explanation about how the healing works. No matter how much I try, I still can't figure out if there's any system deciding how much the shrines or potions will heal you at all. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it's nothing. Additionally, I'd like if the character had an animation for drinking potions.
Would be great to have more visual and sound representation both for when the skill attack is full and when the shield is broken. I often didn't notice these and had to keep checking constantly.
The option to see the full dungeon map instead of only the minimap would be very useful.
The coins don't look very distinct to the ground so it's very easy to miss them.
Bugs:
Low graphics setting didn't seem to change much for me visually. Framerate was the same.
For some reason, the framerate drops considerably when in the in-game menu, then goes perfectly fine when out of it. Maybe some computers don't handle the blurry background effect well.
You can attack while in the loading screen. I still hear the swooshing sword sounds when I click.
Messing with alt tab and ESC menu I got a bug where no matter how much I moved my mouse, the character wouldn't turn. I managed to replicate this consistently.
The game always forgets my settings. From the main menu to the game, from the lobby to the level, and so on. I have to set them back every single time.
I'll definitely play the full game when it's out!
https://gameround.co/detail/317/info - Atak
Atak is a lot of fun, kept me insterested the whole time and I was disappointed when it ended. But there are a few problems, which I'll go through first:
The tutorial scroll in the beggining of the campaign, explaining how the map works is extremely unnecessary. Most games do perfectly fine without having to explain that - finding out for themselves that they can move and select a level will usually take any player just as long as to read all that text. It's understandable to teach the chicken mechanic, but in my opinion there are better ways than making the player read about it right at the beggining. Throughout the whole game, every time that scroll appears I just sigh, knowing I'll have to read a bunch of text and probably get no information at all that couldn't have been taught to me in a better way or simply allowed for me to discover myself.
It's often really difficult to figure out what my arrows' actual hitboxes are and whether they'll hit a target. They're either very small or buggy, so archer troop battles are often just an awkward little dance of moving slightly to catch up with each other until someone gets lucky enough to hit, which I don't think the game benefits from at all.
Before every battle, a menu shows the player what troops the player and enemy will have. But why? It's no use at all to know that before the battle starts if I can make no choices at all at that moment. I simply read all the info and go "Okay", then see all of that same information represented by the actual troops in game a second later. Does it make any difference knowing if it's a clear or rainy day beforehand? I assume that this exists because there will some element of preparing before the battle in the full game, maybe adding/removing troops os something, but if not, it's just unnecessary.
I did not enjoy jousting. It was the single only time in the game where that scroll tutorial could be necessary, but instead at least in my case it was very unsuccessful in teaching me how to play. It took me a long time to it through simple trial and error. Also, in my opinion the enemy's meter, at least just visually, should show him trying to handle the spear up and down like we have to do instead of just dropping it in place, which I tried for a while to emulate before realizing is impossible for the player.
There's a mouse on the screen even though it has no use during battle nowhere in the whole game. Why is the default movement WASD then? Many people, like me, would prefer to move with the arrow keys and do all the separate stuff with their other hand. Also, the mouse is a sword, which especially in the single knight minigame made me think I could attack towards my mouse which would be more fun and very helpful, but you can't.
The single knight wasp boss was torturous to rne. I had to spend an insane amount of time to it not of difficulty at all, instead because the boss was unpredictable in the worst possible way. There's no timing or indication at all to when it'll hold still by attacking, so you essentially just have to be lucky it'll be in your way when you shoot. The arrow is also very strange since due to the camera angle, many times it will look like your arrow just went right through the boss which I don't think is
very fair. I won by taking the wasp all the way to one side of the then running all the way back and shooting it as it catches up to me. The problem was that this, (the best strategy I could find), was still incredibly inconsistent the wasp seemed to do something different every single time, so you just have to try many times until it does what you want.
I don't like the default single knight controls. Makes no sense to make me press Q and A at the same time if I want to block left.
The normal battles are probably going to become very repetitive with time in a bigger game. I definitely wouldn't have been kept entertained all the way to the end if not for the creative yet simple minigames, but that's an unreliable game design pillar to stand your game on if it the rest of it's structure doesn't get built upon. I hope the core of the game is more mechanically explored in the full version.
When you lose, it says "Oh Damn you lost" which is funny but weirdly capitalized, especially when compared to "Congratulations You won". Just not sure if it's intentional.
There's a lot of places in the map that look like you can walk in between two trees, but in fact there's an invisible wall there. In my opinion, the game doesn't benefit from making me walk the whole way around a giant clump of trees instead of simply letting be go through what would otherwise a big enough space.
There should be settings, at least for volume when not in the main menu.
I got the credits secret level but then was unable to find it in the actual game. Can't play it in Player vs AI or in the map. Is it supposed to be difficult or was it just me?
Just a typo I found: "Be CAREFULL not to hit your own towers!" in medieval dodgeball level.
- Now some positive I haven't mentioned yet:
I've found no bugs in the game at all.
The "story" or, the lack of one, is surprisingly entertaining. There wasn't really a lot of plot in the dialogue at all, just some funny little lines I assume are there to show the developers intend to have SOME narrative in the full garne, but that made me really trust they'll make a good one.
First game I review in this site where all the music and sounds are this fitting. I never felt the music was distracting me too much but it was also consistently entertaining and always playing nicely into the mood.
The Ul especially looks very good.
I'll definitely try the full game when it comes out!
https://gameround.co/detail/319/info - Goat's Tale 2
Goat's Tale 2 definitely won't be my pick for a relaxing experience in the future. This game requires a lot of precision and is quite unforgiving, qualities that can be properly built into something enjoyable, and that although for me Goat's Tale is not fully there yet, I think it could with more careful design.
The main menu. To start, It's satisfying visually, but the music in it, although entertaining on itself, was very loud and even when turned down, very distracting which made the menu very uninviting to me. I felt urged to select anything just to get out of there. Doing this purposefully isn't always such a problem, but you can't throw such intense music over your menu and expect me to read a giant-blocks-of-text "instructions" section at the same time. There should at least be an "options" button to turn it down but there isn't, so what I did and assume many other players will do is just get through the menu without reading any of it.
The tutorial. It shouldn't be necessary: you'd think it'd explain the very confusing left-side menu and it's purposes, but instead it teaches the extremely simple movement mechanic, which generally any player would able to understand both faster and more engagingly simply by being taught the buttons and trying it out themselves.
Additionally, the tutorial dialogue frequently extends itself too much unnecessarily. Examplifying, I'd suggest instead of "By holding down the SPACE you load the power of your jump. You can see on the left side, the counter with the force which you jump, the higher of the counter, the stronger your jump wil be.", explain simply: "The SPACE key loads the power of your jump bar, which you can see on the left screen menu. The fuller it is, the higher you'll jump." Some mechanics like springboards, the sliding walls and "vertical special zones" are also explained, but that shouldn't be necessary either. Most platformers do fine by simply communicating those simple things to the player visually instead of those weird flowing rainbow textures, which are just confusing.
In my opinion the game is severely lacking a better difficulty curve. The challenges were said to be "recommended only for the best players!" but were far, far easier achieved than the rest of the game, so instead of making challenges, some time should be spent on a similar, more inviting start to the actual game.
I had no idea what and some of the other options did.
Every time, I had difficulty figuring out where I was actually going to go when jumping. I understand this purposefully makes the garne more difficult, but in my opinion it'd be much more playable and the level design could achieve a consistently higher difficulty roof if the jump itself felt more consistent or more visually represented.
I like the characters you encounter and their dialogue. They're satisfyingly written and it's always rewarding, a good way to breathe after all the pain the game causes. But in the very beginning of the game, making the player go into a hole all the way back to the bottom for one line of dialogue felt unnecessarily troublesome. The game hinges frequently on a bit too many cheap little "difficulty" tricks like that and in my opinion this inflicts the BAD kind of frustration onto the player.
I don't think the lack of checkpoints really benefits this game in general, but there should definitely at least be an option for a mode with SOME checkpoints.
If you already use the arrow keys, why not simply make the jump the up arrow key instead of forcing the player to use an additional hand for the space bar?
I'm not a programmer, but would it have been harder at all to make an options menu instead of shoving everything into the Ul at all times?
The springboards should be consistent in order to be predictable, but instead they do something different, specific to the level's need every next time.
Bugs:
A lot of typos and strange english. I'd advise getting a proofreader at the very least.
The air stream is very glitchy in general, but there were two consistent problems: It's very easy to fly by it at high speeds and sometimes if my character touches it too slow, he bounces off of it.
At first the power bar wasn't visually charging up for me in the first level, even though the tutorial made a point of teaching about it, but then after I tumed on noob mode it started doing so. Is that a bug or does the developer think the power bar is SO helpful as to be the only thing "noob mode" seems to actually do?
https://gameround.co/detail/320/info - Tavernacle!
Tavernacle has a lot of porential. The experience successfully achieved that flowing non-stop chaos feeling that is so justifiably strived for today and so easily misdesigned, but there's a lot in it that could better.
The starting dialogue itself at the beggining of the game was helpful as a non-invasive tutorial, but the pacing could use sorne work. Some lines are a bit too much to read in the time it gives you and some are way too little, making you wait several seconds for the next In a loading screen.
Information about what "Bomber Wasp" and "Larva Carrier" were vulnerable/resistant to appeared, and in no other place in the game can I ever get that information again about them or any other enemies. I understand that's a problem that couldn't be solved within the demo, but some solution to that like a bestiary for example would be good. At the very least, their color pallates should be correspondent to their strenghts and weaknesses like in every properly design elemental system. Bomber Wasp looks very fire-like, so players usually make the connection that it must be vulnerable to ice, but Larva Carrier, who is vulnerable to fire and you'd expect to be green, is instead just yellow, giving you no visual indication of this useful information in-game.
The archer tower arrow type button is a great idea mechanically, but as executed it's a wasted opportunity. When you press, it picks an arrow type at random, which takes away the player's tactical option for no reason at all. Having to think fast amidst the chaos, identify the enemy and quickly select the type of arrows that will be more effective at the moment would add to the fun, but randomness simply feels unfair. It also takes around 3-5 seconds of visually ciclying options before locking in it's selection, which I'd bet will annoy people over time.
My computer is mediocre and ran the entire game just fine, all but the very first level. For some reason, that area specifically had terrible performance.
The graphics themselves are very charming especially for an unfinished garne, but although the menus/GUl have extremely visually entertaining designs, the zepellin's commands menu was very confusing to me and I was never really sure I understood what exactly I was doing with it. You can make it pause/unpause but the symbols depicting that weren't very informative to me, so I played through almost a whole level without noticing it was paused all along. I'd suggest redesigning that into something more clear.
I see no reason for the object throwing direction to be controled with "A" and "D" keys instead of the mouse and although I've only played on the keyboard, I assume it's just as difficult with the controller so I'd definitely suggest that the aim is made freer somehow, or at least make this a toggleable option in the menu.
It's just a matter of visually clarifying it, but to me the dash length feels inconsistent even though it isn't. I was always having some trouble figuring out whether my dash was going to reach where I wanted it to or not and often miss, which doesn't happen in other games. It was often very difficult to see the resources needed for my buildings from afar, so it might be a good idea to make the icons/numbers scale slightly with the player's distance or solve this another way.
Additional suggestions:
- Dynamic and mechanics in enemies. Simply put I felt a lack of difference between them. I wasn't really acting much differently toward them outside of acknowledging their weaknesses/advantages, which even then I didn't have much choice on.
- Ways of affecting enemies and/or everything else without your turrets. Having made an entire 3d environment to play in third person, even if focus should stay on traditional tower defense, in my opinion it'd be a waste not to add some spells, skills or anything to use directly. I'm fairly certain I tried throwing resources at a boss in my playthrough and it did something, but that's not nearly enough.
I have a feeling this game is gonna be a success when it releases. Good luck to the devs!