Reviews - akaito

PRE: I recommend trying the demo, in case my experience was an uncommonly bad one.

I like the look of the world, and I like the music. I _want_ to like the game, but couldn't for the following reasons:

1) I experienced an absolutely terrible framerate.
I have a reasonable machine that can run other, resource-expensive 3D Unity games smoothly. Given when the poor framerate of around 10-15 FPS was occurring (most of the time), and not occurring (60 FPS, rarely and when looking down or away from the level), it feels like a culling issue. It also feels related to the very nice-looking post-processing effect that draws a repeated, modified version of the brighter elements of the scene (the slowdown was vicious in the first "tutorial" area, and not as bad in Construct 01).

2) At lower framerates, input becomes messy. (Note: I'm guessing this is Unity's fault).
Jumping would sometimes even play the sound immediately (even if I press it rapidly during one jump, that's the programmer's fault), while the actual force of the jump wouldn't happen until the next time I came into contact with the ground. This occurred while trying to jump off a ledge. Sound played, fell off it without jumping, jumped on landing in the pit.

3) I have no idea how to play this.
Note: potential spoiler? In Construct 01, I don't know how to get past either body of water. Am I missing an important button (see 4)c.)? Is it an "illusion"?

4) Feels like mediocre code overall.
a. There are nice, smooth transitions to go away from one menu towards the next (though they take _slightly_ too long), then a harsh cut both visually and audibly to get to the menu. Why even have the fade in the first place if it's still going to cut?
b. As noted, jump sound plays as often as you press spacebar, not just when you actually jump.
c. Game showed me an Xbox 360 controller and what buttons did what. Then it didn't respond to my controller, and I had no idea what the matching keyboard/mouse buttons were.

I love Rogue-likes, and was excited to see one with a nice graphical style. The simple interface also makes this game more approachable than most games in that genre.

However, what I enjoy about Rogue-likes is their complexity of interaction. This game is closer to the complete lack of complexity of "Gauntlet." Which is perfectly fine if that's what one enjoys.

"Hack, Slash, Loot" has the classic "NetHack" keys available for movement and attacking. But this just makes it feel like that much more of a betrayal of style, when you realize that some information can only be gained through use of the mouse.

Unlike the very well-matured "Nethack," "Hack, Slash, Loot" also feels entirely unbalanced. In my decent handful of attempts at enjoying the game, I was killed (seemingly without option of escape) within the first 10 monster encounters. Granted that Rogue-likes are supposed to be very difficult. However, while trying only to "grind" on the weakest of monsters, I was still slain quite quickly.