It's... An okay game. The ideas and the effort are nice, but to try and sum up EVERYTHING into one word, it is: frustrating.
Direction, enemies, length, etc.
Also, to note, I was playing on Normal.
Gameplay, 2/5: Bulk of the Issue
So, everything controls fine. There's a bit of delay between swinging and hitting with melee weapons, katana being fastest, guns are fine to shoot, but... That's about it.
Game balance is a problem as in, just running and not dealing with anything seems to be the best course of action: fuck the timer, (don't) fuck the enemies, fuck the chests (after you get what you need). Enemies range from non-issue to annoying, and the bosses are easy to annoying. As I played, the more I got frustrated at everything, because it was easy, but tedious as hell. 10 levels, 1 run to get 1 orb, you need 2, 3, then 4 orbs to open boss rooms.
But just to give an in-depth view of one thing, I'll talk about stealth:
Stealth is an issue; enemies have (about) a 150 degree viewing angle? And a VERY long range so they can see you down a corridor. This becomes an issue in the VERY FIRST LEVEL. One of the possible rooms is that, there's a prison(?) right next to a corridor. You literally cannot sneak past because the wall is transparent and even crouching they spot you, meaning you are GUARANTEED to lose time. BUT it is a non-issue because once you run through a few times and get a weapon and some items, just speedrunning and spamming the map to get to the exit is all that's needed. You can get to the end without the timer running out, you can pick up a few chests on the way for whatever you find, and you can tank or parry a few hits and be on your merry way.
Enemies become tanky, but still have very good hearing and sight, so stealth STILL is not a solution, so hitting the legs (running) still is the best answer. BUT one of the enemies has long range and shakes your camera around, leading to it becoming frustrating because there's too many enemies to fight, not enough time to fight, stealth is not a solution, fucking the enemies and being "unnoticed" doesn't pause the timer, and it just trickles down to everything sort of not meshing well together
In short, the systems and balance of the game do NOT synergize with each other. I'm not running because "ooh scary" I'm running because I just want this to be over already. The tutorial was more tense and creepy than the rest of the game.
There are a lot more that I can complain and go in-depth about, like chest loot, money, boss fights, but I've talked enough and will also give the game this, it has surprisingly few bugs and I only came across a door that lead into an impassable wall once.
I'm giving it a 2 because it all still works like guns shoot, crouching behind is stealthy, and hiding when nothing sees you go in works. But again, there are flaws in the foundation.
Visuals, 4/5: Cool Designs, but Re-Used (Re-color)
I understand that making new assets are tough, and that it's still alpha state, however, it's always a bit disappointing to see what are essentially re-skinned enemies. While I did find that many did not really tickle my boner, I must admit that the variety and overall design still hits a pretty good balance of "ooh you freaky" and "OH YOU'RE A FREAK" There is a bit of awkward clipping like when you just start fucking and how it just kind of instantly gets into position but overall is fine.
Audio, 4/5: Good, but also Re-Used
So, the re-skinned enemies also have the same moans. There's even one enemy that has the same voice but different attack (but also same sex position) and that is the gunner in the 4th level. Ambience is nice.
Story, 3/5: Average
It tries to be serious and mysterious, but it feels a little bit... Generic? Each "Stalker" has their own backstory, which is nice, but none of them really spoke out to me or stuck with me, just general, "Oh this one, her lover cheated on her so now she's evil" and that's about the only story I remember.
Overall, 3/5: Half the Foundation is Good, the Other Half is Bad
The main bulk of the issue is just gameplay because it's piss easy, but also tedious as fuck or annoying, such as the enemy that moves your camera around. Bosses too. Too many re-runs just to fight a boss. The visual direction and the sound design is good. The voice acting could be a bit better, but is perfectly serviceable.
I do not know which direction the game should go, whether it should embrace the action side of things, or stealth-horror, but I really hope it gets a major rebalancing.
I feel like I should say this too, but I really do feel like it has potential to be far better than it currently is. As I've said, half it's foundation is good, I think the tutorial really gets that "Horror Game but with freaky, freaky, monsters" down well.
Direction, enemies, length, etc.
Also, to note, I was playing on Normal.
Gameplay, 2/5: Bulk of the Issue
So, everything controls fine. There's a bit of delay between swinging and hitting with melee weapons, katana being fastest, guns are fine to shoot, but... That's about it.
Game balance is a problem as in, just running and not dealing with anything seems to be the best course of action: fuck the timer, (don't) fuck the enemies, fuck the chests (after you get what you need). Enemies range from non-issue to annoying, and the bosses are easy to annoying. As I played, the more I got frustrated at everything, because it was easy, but tedious as hell. 10 levels, 1 run to get 1 orb, you need 2, 3, then 4 orbs to open boss rooms.
But just to give an in-depth view of one thing, I'll talk about stealth:
Stealth is an issue; enemies have (about) a 150 degree viewing angle? And a VERY long range so they can see you down a corridor. This becomes an issue in the VERY FIRST LEVEL. One of the possible rooms is that, there's a prison(?) right next to a corridor. You literally cannot sneak past because the wall is transparent and even crouching they spot you, meaning you are GUARANTEED to lose time. BUT it is a non-issue because once you run through a few times and get a weapon and some items, just speedrunning and spamming the map to get to the exit is all that's needed. You can get to the end without the timer running out, you can pick up a few chests on the way for whatever you find, and you can tank or parry a few hits and be on your merry way.
Enemies become tanky, but still have very good hearing and sight, so stealth STILL is not a solution, so hitting the legs (running) still is the best answer. BUT one of the enemies has long range and shakes your camera around, leading to it becoming frustrating because there's too many enemies to fight, not enough time to fight, stealth is not a solution, fucking the enemies and being "unnoticed" doesn't pause the timer, and it just trickles down to everything sort of not meshing well together
In short, the systems and balance of the game do NOT synergize with each other. I'm not running because "ooh scary" I'm running because I just want this to be over already. The tutorial was more tense and creepy than the rest of the game.
There are a lot more that I can complain and go in-depth about, like chest loot, money, boss fights, but I've talked enough and will also give the game this, it has surprisingly few bugs and I only came across a door that lead into an impassable wall once.
I'm giving it a 2 because it all still works like guns shoot, crouching behind is stealthy, and hiding when nothing sees you go in works. But again, there are flaws in the foundation.
Visuals, 4/5: Cool Designs, but Re-Used (Re-color)
I understand that making new assets are tough, and that it's still alpha state, however, it's always a bit disappointing to see what are essentially re-skinned enemies. While I did find that many did not really tickle my boner, I must admit that the variety and overall design still hits a pretty good balance of "ooh you freaky" and "OH YOU'RE A FREAK" There is a bit of awkward clipping like when you just start fucking and how it just kind of instantly gets into position but overall is fine.
Audio, 4/5: Good, but also Re-Used
So, the re-skinned enemies also have the same moans. There's even one enemy that has the same voice but different attack (but also same sex position) and that is the gunner in the 4th level. Ambience is nice.
Story, 3/5: Average
It tries to be serious and mysterious, but it feels a little bit... Generic? Each "Stalker" has their own backstory, which is nice, but none of them really spoke out to me or stuck with me, just general, "Oh this one, her lover cheated on her so now she's evil" and that's about the only story I remember.
Overall, 3/5: Half the Foundation is Good, the Other Half is Bad
The main bulk of the issue is just gameplay because it's piss easy, but also tedious as fuck or annoying, such as the enemy that moves your camera around. Bosses too. Too many re-runs just to fight a boss. The visual direction and the sound design is good. The voice acting could be a bit better, but is perfectly serviceable.
I do not know which direction the game should go, whether it should embrace the action side of things, or stealth-horror, but I really hope it gets a major rebalancing.
I feel like I should say this too, but I really do feel like it has potential to be far better than it currently is. As I've said, half it's foundation is good, I think the tutorial really gets that "Horror Game but with freaky, freaky, monsters" down well.