Posted May 09, 2020
For the creator of this game, congratulations! I bought it like 2 weeks ago and im progressing through the third chapter as im not playing it that often, but im really enjoying it! the maps nail it thematically, the sound design is good enough and and the monster design is pretty neat, however the game has quite a good ammount of flaws, not big enough to stop me from playing it, but if you plan to ever make a sequel maybe you should take a look at them and fix them, cause i can see a game style with big potential:
-Map Design: the first thing that bothered me about the maps were how plain almost all of them were. As far as i can remember, only the some of the few maps had actual 3D design with elevators and at least 2 floors, the rest of them were just one single floor in a maze. I could understand that, as your first game, you tried to make it simple and functional, but if your game has mouselook, give it a good reason to have it, cause at no point so far i had to aim really high or really low to defend myself. Also, making all the maps just close space mazes makes it kind of bland, i understand the retro aspect you were going with it, but there is a point where you have to variate it in more than just decorations and ambient color.
-Balance: When Id Software made Doom Eternal they paid attention to one aspect of Doom 2016 that was very popular and used: the Super Shotgun. They noticed how almost every player used the SSG as their primary weapon to deal with...well, everything. The weapon was over powered enough to be useful, specially upgraded, ammo was plentiful and the aggressiveness of the enemies made it a weapon useful for almost all occasion, and they took note of it by heavely lowering the ammo capacity in Doom Eternal. Im mentioning this because Project Warlock has the same issue. Your Super Shotgun is a great weapon, but ammo is so plentiful and most maps are so closed that i barely have any reason to use a none shotgun weapon. Damn, this SSG was so good that i couldnt have defeated the first two bosses whitow it. The best solution i can think for this is by heavely lowering not just the ammo capacity, but also the ammo pickups scattered around the maps. You can take another note from Doom Eternal and make a magic melee attack that makes an enemy drop lots of ammo for example. And speaking about, give us more reasons to use magic, so far now i only have Light, Bomberman and Execution, and i only use Execution to quickly kill close enemies while the SSG is reloading, make it, as i said, drop ammo from enemies, absorb health or something alike. Oh and Light should have a bigger use than just enlighten the already bright environment, pretty sure you added this for really dark areas that you had removed during development, for good reasons likely.
-Variability: The second biggest issue that i have with this game is how bland and repetitive it gets over time, its not as bland as to get boring, but it barely pushes me forward to play for over 30 minutes. All enemies do almost the same, a melee attack, a projectile attack or a big line attack. The only reason this doesnt gets tiringly shallow is because each chapter has different reskinned enemies, and thats fine(so far now, my favorite theme is the second chapter ones, though most likely because The Thing is my favorite movie), but maybe giving more kind of patterns to the enemies would help, like leaping attacks, grabs and debuffs. And talking about debuffs, despite having RPG elements, you barely use them, yes there is a level up system that allows you to upgrade both yourself and your weapons and get magic abilities, but thats it. You barely get or develop any kind of ability that makes your progress more dynamic.
-The Shotgun sprites: This is the BIGGEST issue i have with Project Warlock, the sprites. They are not bad, maybe a bit bland design wise, but both of them have one little issue that really bothers me whenever i use them: they bob out of the hud, yes, you can actually see the point in the bobbing where they stick out of the hud leaving a blank space between the weapon sprites and the HUD. If you ever release a patch or make a sequel, FIX. THIS. UP!!! IT FREAKING TRIGGERS ME WHENEVER I NOTICE!
-Map Design: the first thing that bothered me about the maps were how plain almost all of them were. As far as i can remember, only the some of the few maps had actual 3D design with elevators and at least 2 floors, the rest of them were just one single floor in a maze. I could understand that, as your first game, you tried to make it simple and functional, but if your game has mouselook, give it a good reason to have it, cause at no point so far i had to aim really high or really low to defend myself. Also, making all the maps just close space mazes makes it kind of bland, i understand the retro aspect you were going with it, but there is a point where you have to variate it in more than just decorations and ambient color.
-Balance: When Id Software made Doom Eternal they paid attention to one aspect of Doom 2016 that was very popular and used: the Super Shotgun. They noticed how almost every player used the SSG as their primary weapon to deal with...well, everything. The weapon was over powered enough to be useful, specially upgraded, ammo was plentiful and the aggressiveness of the enemies made it a weapon useful for almost all occasion, and they took note of it by heavely lowering the ammo capacity in Doom Eternal. Im mentioning this because Project Warlock has the same issue. Your Super Shotgun is a great weapon, but ammo is so plentiful and most maps are so closed that i barely have any reason to use a none shotgun weapon. Damn, this SSG was so good that i couldnt have defeated the first two bosses whitow it. The best solution i can think for this is by heavely lowering not just the ammo capacity, but also the ammo pickups scattered around the maps. You can take another note from Doom Eternal and make a magic melee attack that makes an enemy drop lots of ammo for example. And speaking about, give us more reasons to use magic, so far now i only have Light, Bomberman and Execution, and i only use Execution to quickly kill close enemies while the SSG is reloading, make it, as i said, drop ammo from enemies, absorb health or something alike. Oh and Light should have a bigger use than just enlighten the already bright environment, pretty sure you added this for really dark areas that you had removed during development, for good reasons likely.
-Variability: The second biggest issue that i have with this game is how bland and repetitive it gets over time, its not as bland as to get boring, but it barely pushes me forward to play for over 30 minutes. All enemies do almost the same, a melee attack, a projectile attack or a big line attack. The only reason this doesnt gets tiringly shallow is because each chapter has different reskinned enemies, and thats fine(so far now, my favorite theme is the second chapter ones, though most likely because The Thing is my favorite movie), but maybe giving more kind of patterns to the enemies would help, like leaping attacks, grabs and debuffs. And talking about debuffs, despite having RPG elements, you barely use them, yes there is a level up system that allows you to upgrade both yourself and your weapons and get magic abilities, but thats it. You barely get or develop any kind of ability that makes your progress more dynamic.
-The Shotgun sprites: This is the BIGGEST issue i have with Project Warlock, the sprites. They are not bad, maybe a bit bland design wise, but both of them have one little issue that really bothers me whenever i use them: they bob out of the hud, yes, you can actually see the point in the bobbing where they stick out of the hud leaving a blank space between the weapon sprites and the HUD. If you ever release a patch or make a sequel, FIX. THIS. UP!!! IT FREAKING TRIGGERS ME WHENEVER I NOTICE!
Post edited May 09, 2020 by Lord_of_SadFace