I just played the
Level 5 demo a couple of times and here is my review. Because I think the game has great potential while still lacking a lot, I'll add some advice in every paragraph.
The Good:
- Variety
You have to upgrade your PBC, switch off force fields and get past enemies. Thats more than most games offer in a single level.
- Proximity Hud
The basic idea is good, adds atmosphere and it works perfectly ingame. However it looks very basic.
Advice: give it a graphic overhowl to make it look more like an actual device, instead of a hud. Try to ad a "bip...bip...bip..." sound - permanent and/or accelerating when enemies are near(the sound shouldn't be annoying though)
- Enemy AI
I am not sure yet, if its your room design/placement, the beta DarkAI, luck (or a mixture of all that) but the enemies follow the player relentlessly and shoot on sight. Cleverly you held their advance paths free of obstacles. Unfortunately they don't seem to be able to open doors, which is illogical at least for the security bots.
Advice: Either change the enemy scripts (the community guide has a section on AI opening doors afair) or make the doors auto-open (you could even script a trigger zone to destroy the use-doors and spawn auto-doors instead after the alert is triggered)
The Bad:
- Lighting
The overall level look is very unimpressive. Colourful segments without any contrasts, coloured lights that don't really change the rooms colour.
Advice: Tone down the overall ambience level to 10-20. Use basic white lights for ligthing the level and reserve coloured lights for special things like doors or alarms. It's some work but you could script the alarm trigger zone to destroy white lights and spawn red ones instead - it would change the atmosphere completely. For the room with the force field you should use a bright blue light, that gets destroyed along with the force field decals.
- Room Design
It's a cardinal sin to make every exit a usable part of the level - nothing gives more railroad feeling. Also cluttered boxes and drums alone don't create an atmosphere of chaos or destruction. And although I love CPs SF cockpit, it's the most out-of-place entity I've seen in a long time.
Advice: Include non-functioning or blocked doors in your level (best with a short corridor). The gallery in the last room even SHOULD have doors at each end to make it appear logic. Add some destroyed stuff, torn out cables, smoke decals etc. to add atmosphere. And get rid of the cockpit...
- The Ugly
- Enemy Models
The Mob Zombies are NOT dressed for the occasion of fighting in a high-tech area. I also don't understand why the zombies and the secure bots are playing on the same team
Advice: Put the secure bots and zombies in different areas to straigthen up the logic (personally I'd put the secure bots into the LAST room). Think about retexturing the Colonel X models and give them the zombie soundset. Or use the stock zombies without weapons (to have shooting secure bots and melee zombies makes for more variety than to have only shooters imo).
- Weapons & Equipment
The grenades are useless. In 4 runs I tried everything but either did I get shot at while throwing...or they didn't du enough damage to pay off....or I got in the blast radius myself - which was more damaging, than being shot by the enemies. The health kit is SO easily overlooked and misplaced inthe first room.
Advice: Get rid of the grenades (or at least give the player only a single one). Place the health kit somewehere in the middle of the level and make it more visible. Think about giving the secure bots energy weapons (the player cant take) for consistency.
Overall it's a just-so 3 out of 5 on my peronal demo scale and I'd call it "A very ambitious project that, if given enough time to get polished, could really shine".
In case you find my grammar and spelling weird ---> native German speaker ^^
