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Part 6/6 That helps lots, since you don't need to learn a new set of keys. That allows you to jump into the game and just play it, as opposed to jumping into a learn-fest for ages.
So, all in all, the game IS quite solid. It works quite fine. and just needs some tweaking. SPECIALLY the armor system, AND the shop screen.
And I guess I just turned this comment into a review... damn xD
So I'll finish it with your score 4/5. Just need some minor improvement, and you can have a REAL GOOD game on your hands.
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Part 5/6 The music may not be top quality, but it's there, and... kinda helps. It's not obnoxious, but not specially catchy. Sure the game could use more variety of songs, but it works like it is already, that'd be just nitpicking. The sound effects are perfectly fine as they are. Please, DO NOT CHANGE THEM.
The enemies work too. There's enough variety of them. And in some cases they are quite nasty... which is the idea. Maybe make them red? again, that's nitpicking. They're fine as they are. As well as the map. I like it with the branching paths... In fact, the only way I think the map system could be improved is adding multiple ways to get to the emperor. That would make EVERY path optional. And you could, dunno... make one path fcused on fast melee critters, and another path on powerful snipers or something. So, yes, the map works well enough. Culd be improved, but EVERYTHING can always be improved.
The controls are... well, the standard, so everyone has them memoried by now.
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Part 4/6 I bought it expecting something like the autogun, but with more firepower. Well. It's not like that. That firerate SURE is fast for a pulse... but then you need to wait in between pulses, making the overall firerate lower than it shows. It's missleading, and that should be addresed Adding a couple lines of text in the pop up would help this. Or even better. a full revamp of the shop screen, showing the info of the piece you have selected in a little window.
So this is what needs tweaking, but there are lots of things in this game that work perfectly fine.
The difficulty curve is there. And it's... all over the place, but in a good way. Every path has an increasing difficulty curve, finely tuned. I liked that. Sure took me some effort to get the loser achivement... in fact I didn't get it. Just died twice, and once was cause I ws coughing hard for 1 minute. But yeah, the game was becoming more and more challenging slowly... Except for bosses. They need more HP.
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Part 3/6
That's not "being hard to dodge because enemies aim better" that's "being hard to dodge because I'm playing by ear, since I can't see at all what's going on". And I can't see what's going on because, when you have 4 big melee weapons, or 4 big guns, you take like 20 or 25 % of the screen. And the enemies take like 5 % of the screen, more if they have big weapons, too. So it's like too busy to dodge properly or even see what's going on. That's what makes some people unmotivated to play it.
Money is overabundant, also. By the end of the game, I had like 80 K sitting on my lap, unable to use it. Being able to upgrade some of your guns, or your armor (not buy something new, but an upgrading system) would both solve this issue and add to the game.
some of the weapons... are plain silly or badly explained. Take the plasmagun, for example. It fires in pulses, but it shows the firerate bar almost full. So
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Part 2/6
You have no way to know. It's been pointed already, but showing either the numerical values, or the full stats n equipment WOULD HELP LOTS.
Armor, also, has little to no effect. I was getting more or less the same damage with Cruiser + 4 thrusters and with Cruiser + 4 armor plates.
Now, cruiser. That's a fake upgrade. In fact, is a downgrade. The fact that armor desn't help enough is what kills the upgrade. sure, cruiser is bigger to balance fr the extra armor... WHICH ISN'T THE IDEA AT ALL. You're buying an ARMOR, one that focuses on protection, rather than damage. THERE'S THE BALANCE ALREADY. Basically, you compensated for the armor TWICE: once when it doesn't add the firepower, and a second time when increasing the size. This makes the "upgrade" an actual downgrade
The zoom level makes the screen look too busy, too, which makes hard for dodging sometimes. That's fake difficulty.
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Part 1/6
I find this game too easy, mostly because of unbalance issues. Just get some money upgrades at the start, and you'll be using the big guns (I personally used multi for non bosses) in no time. And the time stop skill is OVERKILL. BIG TIME. Time Stop + Energy = spam time stop = ultra easy wins. So yes, that needs to be tweaked.
But it's not the only thing needing tweaks. The aura skill is completly pointless by the time you get it. You need to be level 12 to use it. By that time you're either spaming time stop, or using big guns/sowrds, and enemies won't get close enough. So either increase the range, or the damage, or just don't make it tier 4. It's just silly for that skill to be tier 4.
I don't like the fact that armors are.... almost not tiered. AND it doesn't show the full stats for the armor. Sure, The guns armor shows the gun damage it adds, but HOW MUCH ARMOR DOES IT ADD?
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heres a tip - try put the mouse in the middle of your gunbot and whatever item equipped on the side will spin around! Great for sword lovers.
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@Hakoten:The 15 deaths achievement is there to do 3 things--1:Cheer you up when you lose.2:Reward you for trying to win very hard and 3:Tell you NOT to grind as losing can be fun at times.
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I'm finding that as long as you 1)but a vacuum and fully upgrade it asap 2)put about 8 skill points into $$$ and then the rest into health 3)buy the shotguns then final gun for the remaining 3 slots 4)buy the Gunpower Hull, NOT the Cruiser; this same is really easy and you can skip almost all the extra parts.
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Having to grind the achievement for losing 15 times is pretty stupid. Dying should never have an achievement attached to it.
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oh great, i get free slow-motion even without equipping the skill! oh wait, that's called LAG! where's the quality setting when you need it?
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I like that you get the full resale value to try new weapons. I also like the visual of the parts breaking off of the baddies when you kill them. Nice touch.
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I agree about biggest hull -- I saved up for it and hugely regret it. I'm dying constantly, and before then had no problems. I've tried many builds. At least let me sell it back! I feel like otherwise I'll need to start over, and I don't think the fun/time ratio will be in my favor then. Usually when there is a mega-expensive item, its downsides aren't so ... huge.
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The Final hull's Armour bonus is definitely bugged. There's no way it can be adding to my armour, i'm taking much more damage than normal.
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grind level 6 (gunners) to the right after first boss, with a med sucker and whatever else for weapons. Buy hull with bonus to energy weapons and four blasters. Upgrade health and speed only. easy peezy!
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Ok, I know exactly why the heavy armor/best hull thing is so terrible; armor simply sucks really badly. I seriously have to equip, like, 2 sets of armor plating from the "stuff" menu to even see a difference due to armor, and the amount of armor you gain from the hull is infinitesimal compared to the disadvantage of the size increase. As for the whole thing...I liked the last game a lot, and all I can say right now that this one is just frustrating me a lot.
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Can... I have a mute button that actually keeps things muted? As opposed to having to reclick it for every single screen?
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Slow-mo breaks the game. Slow-mo + battery level completely breaks the game. You can just stay in slow-mo mode all the time and the enemies can't move.
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"I think it`s just because this hull is bigger than another hulls :)" you spelled ">:}" wrong. seriously, that sucks ... a bigger hull shall compensate that - fix it ;)
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o.0 THE OPTIONS, THE COMBINATIONS, the possibilities.... its so much in one game :D That's a good thing though. I agree, there SHOULD be a skill reset button please :) But aside from that, I truly feel that I don't get punished for any "Mistake" in buying an item. It's simple enough to understand. So two thumbs up.
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Is there some sort of armor cap? The large hull does not decrease the damage i take by any amount, it only makes me bigger. Don't buy it.
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One more thing, the game lags quite a bit. May just be me but given the amount of projectiles and enemies you can face a quality option would've been nice.