I posted this on Steam as a review for your game however in hopes that it is seen by you game devs I'm going to copy / paste it here. Loving the game so far, can't wait to see what comes next!
I picked this game up late Alpha 0.56a and I got very
addicted, very quickly. The game at the moment is riddled with bugs but for the
first full two days of gameplay, it didn’t bother me whatsoever, each time I
disconnected I found myself rushing to get back in to return my endless search
for keys and then the doors for those keys. One thing that I found that is a
bit negative towards the game is the Phantom, I don’t consider it overpowered
but I consider it is… how to put it. Not used correctly. The game is suppose,
in my mind be a survival horror. In other words I find that the goal of the
monster whatever type that may be, should be to try to scare the survivors in
any possible way, from talking creepy in the microphone to chasing a survivor,
and letting them get away. I’ve found the best matches I’ve had are with people
who just installed the game, the environment is new, they don’t know the
mechanics of it yet and pretty much anything give them a little jump. Nothing
is more satisfying as the monster to hear them scream and run when you spawn
behind them, and give them a little growl. I don’t think the majority of the community
follows this ideal of the monster however. I’ve noticed in most lobbies people
let everything stay on random. But, sometimes you have someone select
something, and nearly 99% of the time they choose the Phantom. Then exactly
what I expect happens, the phantom rushes the spawning points kills all the
survivors in cramped narrow hallways then proceeds to give remarks like. “Yes!”
and “Owned!” in the lobby, like they actually accomplished anything more than simple
spawn killing. The impact on the survivors is that they didn’t care, they didn’t
get scared, and it was a match that wasn’t worth there time or will ever stay
in their memory. Now, I’ve had a few good matches with the Phantom, but I can
count on my hand how many times it happens. Now I don’t think it should be
removed, it is a perfectly valid monster and I think it is quite well balanced
for what it is. But perhaps one thought. From my understanding the monster
works on player proximity and sound from traps, to footstep and flashlights
being turned on and off. We as a player base do not fully understand the
Phantom, but perhaps, the proximity effect should be removed, and replaced with
an ‘aura’ the Phantom could put up from time to time, anyone in that aura would
be detected. This move would need a decent cool down timer so that the Phantom
could just not hang out in doorways and spike it whenever. To balance this more
if a player springs any trap whatsoever the phantom should be alerted no matter
the distance, this would strike fear in the heart of the player not knowing how
far the phantom is, but knowing he is now on his way, and they need to calmly,
slowly move away. This effect could be done with something on the Phantoms over
display, perhaps a pulse that gives off slower intervals far away and faster
intervals closer. The trap and the player would have a shimmering outline
around it, the trap until the Phantom reached the location and the player the
standard time as currently. I feel as a
player the next thing that should be looked at should be the crashing issues,
and also allow players to save there log in information and password so on the
occasion they do crash, they are not scrambling to enter their information to
rejoin their friends. Once this is corrected I feel that monsters in general
should have scaring non damaging moves and abilities with great range to keep
the players on edge and fresh. Jump scares are great but if they are used over
and over again it loses its effect, think Dead Space. It would be great if for
example the lurker could enter a non-damage form, he could see the players but
they can’t see him. He could make things move, blood drip from the walls, doors
slam as players draw closer to them, fade a players vision to black, move them
to another location on the map and then allow them to see again. This games
potential is honestly non ending. I feel like this could turn out to be the
greatest horror game of the next decade. I wish the game developers much luck
and I hope they read all of this, and consider some of what I said.
Added a poll for the luls.
