I gave the demo a try today, I've not tried any of the previous ones. So all of my feedback here is first impression of Em8er gameplay demos as a whole. Sort of off topic as far as this specific build I guess. As I was commenting on some of the things in discord, I was asked to repost my reactions to things here. So that's what I'll do. I'll leave them in their initial form in quotes so as not to dilute the initial reaction. Much of them will be disorganized thoughts that just hit me as I played.
I'll elaborate a bit beyond the initial thoughts as well.
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"oh wow, I love the pop up display for the guns. That's a bad ass way to do that"
This style of pop up ammo display just feels so nice and clean, I love the emersion of NOT sticking it somewhere on the side of the screen.
"oh man, how I've missed the good ol' plasma cannon"
The plasma cannon hits a near perfect nostalgia button, I feel like audio wise it's just missing a bit of a bass spectrum that gave that satisfying "Thwump-sizzle" on strike.
"I want to see bosses in here that make use of the sliding, for dodging attacks! lmao"
The sliding action when running is great. It's so fun to use, I'd love to see a little of that happen when you come to a stop with running momentum, or change direction (you are heavy after all). It would be so fantastic to see this in use as a dodge against some sort of boss with large projectile flying towards you and the like.
"The sound off the jumpjets feels so "Mecha" I love that! It needs just a little more of that firey deep jet hiss and crackle off of it though. "
-Question asked in discord conversation: 'Have you tried the jumpjets and gliding yet?'
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Reply: "I tried that, my first thought was that I needed an altimeter like system to know when I was too steep in my glide. but I need a moment to re-orient and see how I really feel about it. F*f*'s original glider system took me hours in it's first iteration to learn, so I'm reserving judgment until I play with it a little more. Jumpjets feel great, side to side strafing and sliding is extremely satisfying."
After playing around a bit, I found that there is an indicator for when you are getting too steep in your glide, however I feel like it pops up too late. I feel like there should be a little more feedback in this realm.
"Almost feels like there is a little motion blur, which I don't care for. it makes me feel like I'm not wearing my glasses. but it's not too bad in here, just noticable."
-Conversation: "Is there a free view? I need a free view, I want to see the front of my mech"
There needs to be a vanity camera within the game. I'd love to be able to see the front of my mech with my pilot sitting there looking sexy and ready for battle
I noticed that my pilot was falling out of her harness in flight. That looked pretty funny. I was afraid she would fall out.
"The running animation is fantastic, one of the best i've seen for this style of "Body/frame/mech", but the terrain needs "Lubricant" I keep getting stuck on polygons on hills when running "
"hmm, I can't engage 'overthrust' when gliding. that would have been cool"
"I feel like with those badass thrusters I should be able to engage them when gliding for a little bit more push even if for a limited time"
"So, I reflexively want to hold right click to gain a slight over shoulder zoom in with these guns, and I can't get past that." "What is the purpose of alt? It seems to both (take out/put away) my weapon and (zoom in/out) over shoulder at the same time" "that doesn't feel too good. I can reflex shoot and stay zoomed out or I can tap alt, pull out my gun and then be stuck in zoom unless I want to put the gun away too"
"Scan will eventually need it's own keybind so people don't have to hit a menu to use it. especially with in context of a larger map and more resources when players might just want one and are scanning a lot. but I really like the animation for it! Punch that ground!"
"Hello Beautiful."
I only got to try the thmpr once before everything bugged with a warning saying I was too close to another thmpr and couldn't drop another in. but it was pretty cool. It did feel weird to have to run around and grab the resources instead of them being auto deposited upon success. but I was also too busy getting the feel for the rockets (in my next comment) which didn't really work out as planned.
"The rockets (2) didn't quite function correctly for me, it was like they were trapped in the character model so they detonated in my face lmao"
"huh, random; but I think there needs to be a crouch key. I don't know why. just feels it lol. it needs crouch/sneak or slow movement"
UI feedback; Nice and clean, I would prefer to see my health on my left, and my shield on the right. and for them to be persistant but simi-transparent. The white indicators for Jumpjet energy and Weapon energy also need different colors or a darker simi-transparent background. in battle; in white box at least, they are hard to see.
Deepstryke: this ability feels quite nice to use and very nostalgic though I have to say I did really like the more drawn out wind up of it's spiritual predecessor. It just felt great to have a more dramatic wind up before that powerful impact.
Final thoughts: I like what I see! a lot of it is very "nostalgic but better" which excites me. Keep up the good work.
edit: misspelling or three...
