I'd been meaning to play Exanima since the beta released, and I finished The Old City Leviathan over the weekend so Exanima came up next on my to-play list.
1. Combat is hard as balls. I keep going back to Arena mode and playing 10 rounds with mace guy (myself armed with sword+shield), and so far I'm averaging about 60% chance of a win, in the open, no worrying about light. Now, obviously this is a completely unique combat system which I've no experience with, I'm sure I will improve with time and practice, but it feels to me like it's balanced for thaumaturgy, which is missing from exanima right now and without it the player is left at a very high disadvantage in natural play. It is very nice to watch though, and as a result of the difficulty, supremely satisfying to get in a kill or even a good hit. Looking forward to dismemberment too.
2. The campaign: I basically played it like a stealth game, thankfully most of the monsters don't aggro you and if you're quick you can close the door between you in time. I only found one
so with no checkpoints to speak of combat was simply never worth it, especially since you might get mobbed and then my chances of victory were 0%. I made pencil+paper maps to go along with it, which was fun, but I wouldn't want to play the whole campaign trial-and-erroring it like that.
3. While everything was a bit brown/grey, there was a huge amount of detail in the level construction and everywhere felt like it had a purpose which I admire.
4. Obviously, the UI is not finished yet, but it needs (largely just by adding more cursors)
Looking forward to further development! It's so awesome to see a game push the limits of a genre and put in new technology affecting gameplay. Long live physics-driven games!
Some questions:
1. Combat is hard as balls. I keep going back to Arena mode and playing 10 rounds with mace guy (myself armed with sword+shield), and so far I'm averaging about 60% chance of a win, in the open, no worrying about light. Now, obviously this is a completely unique combat system which I've no experience with, I'm sure I will improve with time and practice, but it feels to me like it's balanced for thaumaturgy, which is missing from exanima right now and without it the player is left at a very high disadvantage in natural play. It is very nice to watch though, and as a result of the difficulty, supremely satisfying to get in a kill or even a good hit. Looking forward to dismemberment too.
2. The campaign: I basically played it like a stealth game, thankfully most of the monsters don't aggro you and if you're quick you can close the door between you in time. I only found one
health potion
3. While everything was a bit brown/grey, there was a huge amount of detail in the level construction and everywhere felt like it had a purpose which I admire.
4. Obviously, the UI is not finished yet, but it needs (largely just by adding more cursors)
- distinction between grabbable and inventory-able objects
- indication of container objects
- indication of sphere of influence of moving items
- some way just to click something and inventory it, no dragging required
- make explicit the clothing layering/slot system in-game
- quick swaps for inventory items eg torch/shield
- some way to place torches in holders on the walls
Looking forward to further development! It's so awesome to see a game push the limits of a genre and put in new technology affecting gameplay. Long live physics-driven games!
Some questions:
What's the special weapon mentioned in a scroll in level 3? Where's the magic helmet mentioned in a scroll in that room, too?
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