tall minnow
I'm loving it so far. even through it is fairly limited right now I find myself returning to the demo over and over, seeing how deep I can get in the limited time or how many crazy combos I can find with the combat perks.
There are three many points of feedback I would like to give.
Red blood cells. I assume these are going to be for meta upgrades or a shop in the full release as they are pooled between fights, but as for the perk unlocks from what I have found it is:
5 for Tier 1 perk
10 for Tier 2 perk
12 for Tier 3 perk
That is fine my issue is there is no way of knowing how many cells you will be given from the fight you are about to do. It seems to be a set number based on what fight it is it could be tied to some fight stats but if it is I can't seem to figure out what that would be. If it is based on fight it would be nice to know how many you will get maybe even a little UI element letting you know how many more till you get the next tier of perk. Another way to get the same effect is to have the evolution take place after the infect portion of Game play rather then after combat. Also an option to "downgrade a Tier" when getting a perk would be nice if there are no Tier 3 perks you want or if you just really want a tier 1 for your build without forcing players to avoid cells. It's especially helpful to getting Tier 2 perks as they have a very narrow window to get of 2 cells if my testing is correct. With no indication of how many cells you will get in the combat Tier 2 perks can't be gotten reliably.
Onto the next topic infection, it would be nice to see the whole level rather then an area around where you have already been. It could allow for more strategic thinking and long term planning rather then just seeing what comes up and hoping you went in a way with a "staircase" (hole?). On the topic of the stairs when infecting their tile it could be interesting to let the player decide when they descend to the next level, rather then being brought down right away, especially with the limited vision it can lead to a player seeing an upgrade they really wanted appear as they place the tile on the stairs forcing them to watch as it goes away forever. That has not happened to me yet but I am sure it could so might be worth looking into.
Finally just a request, meta run unlocks are not in the demo as of yet but I have seen they will be. I request that if any of the upgrades add to loot pools such as a new perk that there is an option even if in a separate mode to turn them off or choose which you want active. In quite a few games I feel as if unlocking things just makes your future runs weaker by diluting the pool with bad or non-synergistic choices. My favorite of these modes is done by Deadcells, it is practically a cheat mode but treats it as a normal run if you follow some criteria such as having a minimum amount of weapons selected and not turning on some far more cheaty settings. It allows you to experiment with new builds and lets you unlock things without worry of ruining every future run till you wipe your save. Please even if you take nothing else from my feedback PLEASE add a mode or options similar to this. You could even theme it around customizing your specific virus.
On a semi-related note it would be nice to have a seeded run as an option. Something where all the same random elements line up the same way every time with that seed. Something like Balatro's seeded run option.
I just thought of this so I'll just throw it in, would be nice to have run modifiers such as all healing in infection stage are replaced with cells and stuff like that just for some challenge, verity or personalization.