I am giving this 5 stars for the effort the team put in. It had its flaws but trust me, this was way way better than most of the high budget survival horror titles and even better than some from bigger giants in the industry. The game had heart to be honest and I had a blast playing it. This here is a huge step forward and it's a franchise in the making....
GOOD JOB INVADER STUDIOS, KUDOS TO THE DEVS AND PEOPLE WHO PUT THIS TOGETHER.
Now you finally have something here that can transform into a refined product soon. If the right steps are taken you guys can soon compete with the big guys and I am not kidding. As a die hard fan or RE, Deadspace, Silent Hill and what not ... I had very little hope but decided to play this anyway and I WAS SURPRISED AND I LOVED IT. I will let you guys in on to a few tips that could maybe help you polish the game further. Here goes:
1. The Character Design:
This definitely needs work. Improve the faces, the reactions, the interactions (I noticed our lead character staring at a wall instead of the guy in front and this happened a few times during conversation scenes). Another example is when she is crying, the hands dont mix well with the face, same goes for a scene when the other guy is trying to grab a hold off her and not let her fall, the physics are off and definitely need adjustments.
2. Immersive-ness:
You need to understand that many survival horror fans like to play slow and grind their way through every corner. I tried to click many things when the game started but there was absolutely no response. Maybe add some one liners, things to click with little info etc. All of this makes a game more immersive and real. You have a scanner which is great but you cannot scan anything that isnt scripted. I really wanted scan the giant octopus thing and maybe reveal some info. You can program the scanner to not only scan scripted objects but few other things also and reveal some details.
3. Enemies:
Definitely add more enemies, more variants, mini bosses with cutscenes and once killed maybe they drop rare items. At least 2 - 3 would be great. There are many wide / open areas which are ideal for boss fights, so why not. Some flying enemies would be nice to have.
4. Fight System:
Although I very much enjoyed the frustrating parts and died a lot (which is good as it should be difficult, but it gets boring as its all the same). There are few things that can be done to improve experience:
a) Maybe give her a quick action key right before she is about to be grabbed? This can do a roll or dodge or an animation pushing the enemy back and giving her time think and take action.
b) Maybe give has a special dodge the moment after she is grabbed and when her freeze is full. This can trigger a quick freeze / finisher and push the enemy back.
c) Add more finishers that change at random.
d) More weapons needed for sure.
4. Environment:
This is all nicely done but few things that I noticed that can be improved:
a) Some objects that a normal human can climb and jump over but instead the game here forced us to go around. Maybe consider this and add a crawl through or jump over animation? Maybe a jump down from certain heights? maybe take fall damage if done from a bit up?
b) Slide down a ladder, some of the ladders are insanely long.
c) Have a way to look around when climbing up or down a ladder
d) Lighting needs a little work as some areas are full dark and in a scene at the end she had no flashlight too.
Review limit reached. Good job again and good luck for the next title.