Schmeaty Feedback

[spiral iron]

I wanted to provide some early good, bad, and ugly feedback as someone who is enthralled with this theme, and found the demo to be enticing. I haven't sunk anywhere near the amount of time I'd normally forfeit to do this, but I felt enticed to do so given how open your team appears. If anything, take this as a first response interpretation of the game where I've played it both solo and with friends.

The good:
The aesthetic is very welcomed, and a return to older concepts which seem to be generally forgotten. It reminds me a lot of Stranger's Wrath, with sprinkles of early Insomniac Games (Ratchet and Clank the most immediate). It also has moments which feel kindred to older 2000s games like Armed and Dangerous with the absurdity and gung ho nature. Given there are references to Serious Sam minions, it's obvious to me that the developers have a solid palate to pull from. This makes me more excited for the growth than anything else. The little trinkets of joy found in the game - squeaky shoes, magical pigs, and so forth, is pleasing and actually gives me confidence that there is potential for novelty.

The bosses are a great addition, and are much welcomed. Co-op games can struggle with solid boss design especially without MMO-lite mechanics in play. While I would like for there to be more novelty to how they're handled - similar to something like Remnant - as is is still great.

The abilities are fun to use. The nuclear minions are a fun chaotic element. I like the horse - and the Witcher reference. I'd love for more unique weapons to be explored.

The (not so) bad:
My personal gripe and experience with the game is as follows. It's oozing with potential. There are a ton of ideas and expressions here which feel inviting. However, the game currently sits at a somewhat awkward crossroads - personally - between being a leveled boomer shooter, an arena extractor (Helldivers 1/2 the most obvious similarity, and DRG the one that's being forgotten), and roguelike without enough of the roguelike mechanics. Take a game like Abyssus. Each run is different enough, with the spells/abilities found mid run. There is something similar to this with the card drops, but they're not player specific (you could get a cooldown for a spell type you don't even have) or are cosmetic. Additionally, your loadout doesn't modify or change mid run. With games like DOOM, this is a non-issue because your arsenal is so large. Here, you're committing to an idea for 30+ minutes without an ability to easily share loadouts like with Helldivers. My solution: add unique weapons you can find mid match and make one (or a new slotted) spell slot which is found on the map that can subsequently advance. This would allow for Deep Dives down the road, where run advancement is properly explored.

Map progression - especially solo - is unfortunately boring. The actual fights and interactions are good. However, I've never felt inclined to explore even with the graves and hidden drops (which I love). This is a similar issue I have with Helldivers. There needs to be more of an incentive to explore the map beyond currency and RNG specific cards. To this point, I'd love for random events to make this a much more dynamic game. One of the reasons I fully explored RDR2 (not a fully fair comparison, but worth mentioning) was its ample unique encounters. This could be hidden side objectives, or hostage situations, or even NPCs you can interact with mid match for soft story telling beyond shop keepers. Alternatively, you could hide a modicum of unique weapon upgrades across the map like Mycopunk did. Things that legitimately make you play differently while also alllowing for unique expression and progression which incentivizes harder challenges. There are soft examples of this present, but not enough for me to feel like the time spent is worth it or even needed.

Next, I personally am not a fan of stat boosts as a primary progression in a game. Having to level up the weapons without there being some major payoff within reach (I know there are card adjustments at level 5 and so on) feels lame. If you keep this mechanic, I personally wouldn't lock the weapon stat upgrades to levels and keep it currency specific. Instead have the levels lead to alternative weapon modes, acid/electricity/fire adjacent paths, or even skill trees. Skill trees in general, even if simple, would be incredibly welcomed given a soft system like it is in place already. Keep the card options, as that is awesome. Ultimately, it's a bad feeling to have souls/gold and feel like you can't do anything with it because you didn't level up enough.

The (my middle ground) ugly:
Things I'd love to see added which complement or remediate my above points:
-Synergies not only across spells and weapons, but across player's abilities, map tools, and so on. If my friend throws an oil bomb, I want to be able to throw fire on it to make it even spicier. It doesn't need to be to the level of something like Divinity Original Sins, but even soft - but fleshed out - versions of this would be incredible and really accentuate working together.
-There need to be roaming objectives. The gameplay loop of go here, solve puzzle, grab this, drop here, and so on is boring after a while. The thrill of being a cowboy should be high-octane. Trains we can rob as they're chugging along. Elaborate bank heists. These don't need to be Payday graded either, but maps with a sole focus around the objective would go a far way.
-More randomness, coupled with unique characters and ways to interact with said randomness beyond run here, kill, and extract. I'd love if the squeaky shoes - for example - actually lead to reactions from certain NPCs which could spark unique storylines or quests.
-More neutral enemies. Why everything is hostile and evil isn't fully obvious. If that's just the way it is, then I'd like to know why or to be able to attack it otherwise. If there are factories making these enemies, out of theme locations would be welcomed special events.
-Ways that your spells uniquely interact with the environment. Maybe a lock, and therefore a shortcut, can only be opened if you use fire on it. Maybe a generator which can light up a pitch black location can be temporarily powered up with electricity. Maybe the voodoo can be used to get an answer out of a non-cooperative NPC which leads to a treasure chest hunt.