Recent reviews by Demolishment

I want to recommend this game, however there is currently to many issues with the game. Ignoring performance, bugs, and crashing issues, here's my take on the game:

First, the current gameplay seems too easy in some parts, yet too difficult in others. There does not seem to be much in between, nor much separating these two difficulties. In solo play, the data disc objective is relatively easy, search some bodies, walk across to one side of the ship, walk across to the other, smack creepers in the way. While malfunctions will appear, most are simple and in the way or not to far out. With multiplayer, the only issue becomes adults killing those with needed items, which the extra hike usually isn't too bad. The egg mission however is an extreme jump in difficulty. You have to hike around the ship to find certain eggs which are not marked on the map. Assuming you get these eggs, you have to go to a research station where you stand still and do nothing while adults come to try and kill you. In solo, you could tap the research station and then hide nearby until the adults leave, which is a somewhat safe method, but extremely boring and time consuming. I can only assume what can happen if multiple people are working on it, but from my assumption it would fall apart due to lack of teamwork and skill. (As a side note, I'm fairly certain the game is actually quite easy for the survivors once you learn the mechanics)

Second, the team mission and secret missions are strange to work with. Essentially, you either focus on doing the team mission or your secret missions. The thing is, you need to do your secret mission first, because once the main mission is completed, your time to do it is basically up. Some secret missions are simple, like kill 5 creepers, or whatnot. Yet missions to have someone survive are difficult as you can't keep other players completely safe, a good portion of the mission is out of your control, especially since adults insta-kill. You'd have to get the loot to keep them alive, but to do so you either have to loot faster than the person you're with or break off from them, but if you break off from them then you'd have to catch up before they get themselves killed. Its somewhat of a lose-lose scenario. Now for kill objectives, while it is essentially an easy completion, its unsatisfying, as usually the intruders do all the killing while you're prepping across the ship. There's no build up, no betrayal, no connection.

Third, the computers have so much potential to do a lot, yet currently are basically worthless. Computers can open and close doors, lock doors, see intruders and players on the ship, use cameras, and have some info on them (There is also a fire protection system and shoulder camera thing, but I have yet to use them or see their purpose). Opening and closing doors could be a good way to help people who are running from adults or open doors for adults trying to kill people. The kicker is that most doors are automatic, so you have to use the lock door feature instead. For locking doors, you could close a door between a person and an adult, in front of a person and adult, or block access to a person or whatnot. For the first two, you'll rarely be at a computer while someone is being chased. For the third one, you could block access to someone, but you usually won't reap any perceivable reward or you'll need them to complete the team objective. Besides, they might have a lock pick or the like. For the cameras, you usually don't have the time to justify looking through the cameras for tidbits of info which are marginally useful if at all. For the info, you could find something to help with one of the malfunctions (which does not seem to ever be mentioned, you just have to explore around in the computer). There is also small bits of info about the intruders and stuff, things which are already taught or implied (This kind of info needs to be available outside of matches, as you shouldn't have to be inside the match and waste precious time to read about basic game mechanics).

Finally, this does not seem to be a great game to play with random folk, but at the same time, not a game which many friends (at least my friends) would get. Playing with random folk, there is usually no communication or connection. This could be due to introvertedness, language barriers, lack of mic (you can't always type while doing important things in game), or other factors. This hurts teamwork and cooperation which in turn leaves no room for deception and betrayal. You can't really deceive or betray those who never worked with you to begin with. On the flip side, playing with friends could solve these issues, but reveals more issues. If you can only play this game with friends, then this would essentially just be a party game, which unfortunately don't last. Getting a lot of friends the same game together at the same time is already difficult, as people have lives to live, things to do. If we look at the viewership of party games like Among Us or Friday The 13th on Twitch, the popularity of these games have dwindled dramatically after their release (Among Us is only popular now because of memes, not the gameplay itself). In addition, to play this game with friends, your friends have to actually have the game to begin with. This could either be done by chance due to tons of people getting the game or by recommending your friends to get this game. The first part of this needs to be done through marketing, which is not done (I assume due to it currently being early access). The second part is hard for me to do because I cannot recommend this game in this unfinished state.

There are some more issues I see with the game, but these are the ones a felt like writing a bit about. Some other issues I currently see are:
- Progression feels strange. Its as if the goal of the game is to grind XP, not to "win". (To me a "Victory" screen would be more rewarding)
- Lack of nuance to the gameplay.

For the issues I mentioned earlier, here are some potential solutions to them:
1. There needs to be steadier difficulty increase over time. You could make adults less lethal, but in turn add breeders (quite a bit more lethal), and the Queen (stronger than the current adult, perhaps you can't run from the queen, only hide.)
2. Remove team missions, make secret missions more important. Present more benefits to sticking together.
3. Add room specific computers which can do special things, such as an alarm room to alert an adult to a room.
4. This should come with improvements to the game combined with marketing.

Some more potential improvements could be:
- In addition to specialized computer rooms, maybe make room locations random across the ship, increasing replayability.
- Implement simple mechanics which can create many complexities. (Like serious wounds)
- Make character/class specific abilities or traits.
- More lobby tools, such as randomize characters or objectives.

Let me just skim over some performance issues and the like real quick:
- Half of the games I try to play end up crashing the game.
- Performance hit around the center of the ship (between The Spine and The Warehouse)(changing to low settings seems to have fixed that)
- Occasionally unable to connect to multiplayer games with some strange error.

From my experience with this game, it feels very unfinished that I feel it is too soon to say this game is in early access. However, I also feel that there is so much potential with the game, that there is so many things which can be done to make this game a truly enjoyable experience. Perhaps more inspiration could be taken from Nemesis the board game.

Absolutely amazing. Definitely worth picking up.