Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
http://store.steampowered.com/app/275060
EDIT 04/10: Multiplayer Beta is live. Have impressions soon.
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This is a thread for those who are playing Alone in the Dark: Illumination's beta to post impressions for the game. This first beta features the first campaign of the game (of four campaigns), which is composed of four levels. It will be followed by some other betas (I will repurpose this topic at that time for those future betas), but this first beta is single-player only, and you can only play as the Hunter class. The first beta runs to February 2nd.
I pre-ordered and am in the beta, and I have some pretty in-depth thoughts now after playing it for about two hours on it.
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So, I'm going to work my impressions a little bit backwards. I'm going to start with what I thought in basic, and then go more into specifics. Well, a lot of people thought this game was going to be downright terrible, and honestly it isn't. In it's current state, I couldn't recommend it, but if they polish it more and listen to some feedback in the next few months leading up to release, it could actually end up being a pretty good & fun game with tense moments and some pretty good diversity in levels for some good co-op fun. I actually had fun playing it, and was surprised at the slower-pace, atmosphere, and level design of the title, but there's somethings that need some fine tuning to help the title become a pretty decent co-op horror game.
The stages in the game open up with a page of dialogue written by some character named, "The Author". These appear to be different between characters you can play as, which I'm assuming since for the four stages I played the pages were all directed at the character playable in the beta, "Carnby," or The Hunter. All are immediately skipable, but actually aren't all that badly written and I found fairly interesting to read as they developed. It's not quite how I expected the game to play off it's narrative, but I came out enjoying these well enough, and as you start off in a safe room, there's no worry about getting hurt while you read it.
The biggest thing that just downright impressed me was the lighting. Now, this is an Unreal Engine 4 game, so I figure that has something to do with it. The game is actually very dark, which most of the time would maybe be a con, but I actually thought it was well used here. Some environments are more well-lit naturally than others, but a lot of the game is dark and makes it that if you aren't paying attention, looking around with your flashlight (which is only directly ahead of you when you pull out your gun and at your feet when walking or running), or using the lights you can turn on in the environment, it can conceal a lot of things. There were a number of times I'd pull out my flashlight to skim around and be surprised to find something coming at me in the darkness. It added more than I would of expected, but more than just the darkness, the lighting is handled pretty well. Between flashes of thunder to give you a complete look around you in the first level, and even lightning striking somewhere randomly in the level and giving off a flash to stuff nearby. Or in the second level, in the tunnels where you can burn trash-bins or activate construction zone lights switches connected to wires that turn light on elsewhere, the game gave off mystifying glows, and how the light reflected off the water, floors, walls, the monsters and characters, all was very impressive.
The game itself doesn't look bad, I notice the screens I took through Steam makes it look a bit worse than how I recall in gameplay and more compressed and jaggy (likely Steam screenshots), it's not some amazing looking game, but it looks solid, a bit low budget but not to some extreme or anything, the stand-out of the graphics being the lighting.
A simple example;
Doorway before the light is turned on:
Doorway after the light is turned on:
Lights also play a very important role in gameplay, and is what the game is named after ("Illumination"). Inspired by a twist in Alan Wake, enemies in this game are invulnerable when they're not in a light source, they cannot be killed. However, when they step into the light, they then can be dispatched pretty easily, though they can come in large numbers. To help with this, there is a visual cue on the enemies when they are vulnerable, and when they're not. The enemies, when they're glowing a bright yellow color, means that they can be shot and killed, but if their glow dims down, that means they are currently invincible. They aren't vulnerable forever once they step into the light, only when they're glowing and in light in question. This actually did help to keep the gameplay feeling balanced and tense. There is, however, a way for characters to dispatch enemies in darkness, but it has very limited use. The character in the beta, The Hunter, has a flamethrower. He starts with no ammo for the thing, but can find it in the level, and as the flamethrower will cause natural light in the darkness and set enemies aflame, it can kill them pretty well in the shadows, and a good emergency tool, though it uses its flames up quickly.
Interestingly, the lights you turn on can be destroyed by enemies, which I think is an interesting mechanic and makes it so in some instances you have to try and fend off enemies destroying a light as to keep them vulnerable for you to hit, or in some instances you can try to turn a light on to be a distraction from you so some of the enemies will go to it and try to destroy the light.
Speaking of the enemies, they had some interesting variety though I will hope for a few more in the final. There's seven different kinds of enemy in the beta, three are a variation of the basic 'zombie' enemy type that simply comes for you to thrash at you (one is weaker with no special markings, one is red and has more health and I believe does more damage, one has smoke rising out of it and slightly yellow and will explode when killed), the second being this gremlin-looking thing that can spit acid at you from a distance. Personal thought right now is that the 'Spitters' maybe can spit you from way too far a distance right now, I found them to be a bit too good at their jobs. These are the only enemies you'll meet in the first stage of the campaign, but one new enemy type gets introduced in each level. The 2nd of four levels in the campaign introduces these rat-type monsters, that are pretty fast and will leap and lash out on you if you get close, the 3rd level introduced these giant golem-like enemies that are slower, a lot more durable, bigger, and pack a punch, and the final level introduces these dog-type enemies, I didn't quite figure out what they did as I usually burned them on sight (due to a purple glow and a unique howling sound they make, they're a lot easier to see right now, in my opinion).
An enemy in the Darkness that cannot be slain by normal methods:
Enemies revealed in light, and now vulnerable:
The levels themselves actually presented a pretty good range of differences between them, which I was appreciative for. Firstly, each level has a level of randomness to what path you take through the level. At first, this comes off as a bit confusing, because one time playing it, a door will be wide open and you can go through it, the next time it's just closed and unopenable, but you soon pick up that the way that's open for you will always have it's doors open if it's the right way to go, and the game does some good things to direct you in the general right direction, either by something highlighted and glowing in the distance, lighting in the game, pathways to follow like railroads or the like, this sort of thing, though in a few areas I did end up getting a bit lost (the second level being an example as I wasn't sure if you had to jump down mine holes or not).
The levels are a fair bit larger and longer than I was expecting, and several of them utilize back-tracking in them, which actually wasn't a negative for me in most cases as it was well defined where you needed to back-track, and utilized some twists in gameplay to make back-tracking more fun, such as changes in the environment or different areas being opened up to reach. A lot of the time, you have to go around and collect some item, either just go back and collect a piece of dynamite to blow up some rubble in your way, or a church was opened up with some wire you need so you need to head into the church and get it, or go and connect the wires to light sources to lead them to a generator to restore power. You can only carry 1 wire/battery/TNT/lump of charcoal at a time, so I'm wondering how the balance will be struck between single player and co-op as I think these sequences as they are would be far easier in co-op when you have people you could split-up with to pick-up the different things as each person can only carry one at a time, but to be seen. The amount of back-tracking differed from level to level, some were far more straight-forward and more you just following a path to get to the goal, with only occasional obstacle, I appreciated the change of pace in-between levels.
Each level also looked a fair bit different and introduced a different sort of mechanic to the level which seemed unique to the level in question. The first level takes place above-ground, in a city, with multiple buildings that you enter, pathways through the streets, and when you get to the end of the level, where you have to go to the end and collect wires from different buildings and connect them to these power poles to re-ignite a generator that dies on you, when a light pole is re-generated, it creates a lasting light source and when it first turns out, it shoots out lightning from the light which kills any nearby enemies. The second level had an elevator at its center, which you had to keep either returning power too or reaching to get to lower floors in the mines. you'd have to go and get three batteries, or be tossed out and have to go down holes in the mines manually to catch-up with the elevator that continued going down floors. In the third level, the game became more labyrinth like with twisting corridors and introduced water, which slows you down as you walk through it, and also had tunnels where rocks would collapse. The final level had you traversing magma-filled chambers in narrow, high-up areas where you'd have to be far more careful of your footing.
Single Player was fun enough, but I was given the feeling a lot of this would be more enjoyable in co-op, and especially the sections where you had to go and collect things and bring them back to something would be more fun in co-op to strategize and handle rather than going back and forth solo. I also am curious how game balance will be changed between single player and co-op, but to be seen.
The other thing I'll mention is that the game was legitimately challenging and tense in areas, and I found myself in situations very low or out of ammo, or super low on health and desperately scouring around the level for supplies. The game actually incorporated something I appreciate from older horror games, which is that running from enemies is a liable strategy, and I actually had a lot of fun doing it, though requires some strategic bait-and-switch and being careful not to corner yourself. You can outrun the enemies, though have limited stamina that recharges, but you're never too fast so that you leave the enemies in the dust, or too slow you can't outrun them (with the possible exception of the rat enemy that's faster than the rest of the enemies).
To help with running, you can also shut doors behind you. The enemies take a bit to burst them open (though once they're busted, they cannot be closed again), and became a valuable tool to me in the scenarios I decided to just book it.
So, my opinion, there is a solid game here that actually does a pretty good mix-up of objectives, only The Hunter is playable right now but I can already tell how some of the other classes of characters (The Witch, The Priest, and The Technician) will be fun to play and add some different ways to approach the levels, has surprisingly good atmosphere and tension throughout, and if it continues, it could be a pretty solid co-op horror game that has vibes of old-school horror mixed with the sort of co-op L4D-esque elements of modern horror.
Which then comes to why I can't recommend this right now... It feels like it's in alpha, but it is labelled as beta. It needs a decent amount of polish and a few changes to really stand to be the game it can be. I think it's fun, but it's lacking the polish needed to really make this concept work, and a few design decisions I'm a bit less fond of.
The biggest things that stood out to me in the game; The hit reaction and detection. There were a number of times I was getting hit, and I wasn't even aware of it. Your character doesn't respond to getting hit, there's no screen cue, outside of your health ba going down. As the Spitters can shoot you with acid from a distance and some enemies can sneak-up behind you, I found myself dying sometimes simply because I wasn't aware I was being hurt. I feel this is something that can be easily fixed, and should be fixed, as it was the most immediately obvious flaw the game had and dragged down other elements of enemy encounters. It's also not just you who has weak shot reactions, the monsters in question also do. Now, they do get shot and go down and it seems where you shoot them does make a difference in how much it takes for them to go down (shooting them in the head seemed to take them out faster, that sort of thing), but the enemies don't respond to getting shot until they die. The death animations are fine, but the lack of reaction to being shot makes the combat feel a bit more empty than it should. also, while the enemy glowing to reveal it as vulnerable is a nice touch, I think maybe also if you shoot an enemy when it's invulnerable there be some reaction, like maybe some shadow break out to show that the enemy is invulnerable, would be helpful for hit reaction as well to visually demonstrate the enemy is invulnerable to normal bullets. This is my single biggest complaint that would help the game so much, you and the enemies need to have more visual reaction to being hurt, and in the enemies case, when they're invincible.
However, to this, the hit detection seems a bit wonky, not to the point it was broken or I was getting hit by enemies through the walls or anything, but like enemies destroying a gate I closed would be standing a meter away from the gate and slashing and getting hits on the door to break in, or they'd be standing in the light but not near the light source and be destroying it, and a bit more immediate is that the enemies had a similar reach in how far they could hit you. This wasn't as broken as it might sound, but was noticeable and I think could be tightened up a bit more to make the game's presentation better, as it looks a bit silly to see enemies standing swinging their arms with something nearby being destroyed, just closing in the distance of which this happens would help a lot I feel.
I actually didn't encounter much in the way of bugs, some of the animations could use some touching up... The two that come to mind is that a melee move you can do looks incredibly weak and lacks any impact. There's also an animation of when you're character falls down when hit by the exploding enemies, that's more humorous than anything.
The levels feel they need to be tightened up just a bit more. One area in level 2 where you have to go collect batteries had a few variations of how this area was randomized so that the one room in this section that had supplies would not be accessible, which made the sequence a lot harder than it should of been, and could easily be fixed if the supplies were either scattered around the area more, were in a room that was always accessible no matter the random pathway the game chooses through the level (like the room with the elevator). Some areas would help maybe with a bit more direction, the two that come to mind being the same second level where it wasn't visually obvious I needed to jump down holes to get to the lower levels (I was a bit afraid it'd kill me), or in the third level there was a sequence I was going in circles for a bit and a bit later didn't spot a staircase I was searching for in the corner of a room as there were no cues to lead to it besides searching around.
Which leads me to sound. I think the sound may still be being worked on as I noticed the sound menu wasn't selectable in the options, so I hope it's a beta thing, but the game needs more sounds. There were certain things the game lacked any audio in, such as in the fourth level a platform you get working that moves is absolutely silent, in the third levels the rocks collapsing was missing sound, I also think the game would be a bit better with some music in places... there's a drone in some areas, but it was very quiet, and while I liked the title screen theme, I'd think the game would benefit from some subtle music in places so I wasn't just hearing the sounds of enemies most of the time. Also things like going through the water, or maybe just the sound of water itself, would lend itself well to some audio. Basically, the sound design needs touching up, though as the audio options in the game weren't selectable I feel they may be aware of this, and hope they work on this area more. The sounds that are there are fine (though I might suggest some draw distance to the sounds of enemies breaking doors, and maybe a sound of door breaking as when the enemies are attacking it they almost sound like they're barking, but the sound carries a distance). Some music when you fail or succeed might be nice, too, to give more of a feeling for when it happens.
And the final thing, something I think could be handled a bit better, is how enemies spawn in. A shroud of darkness appears and the enemies come from the ground.... That's fine, but especially in level 2 I felt the enemies could spawn way too close to me at a sudden's notice. I appreciated that some areas didn't spawn enemies, or spawned far less enemies, while some areas enemies seemed to infinitely respawn, but I think a bit more indication which is which might be appreciated, and while the enemy 'cooldown' for spawning is a nice touch). I think some areas could do with enemies spawning so frequently (a few sections that come to mind is the very beginning of the first level, where you go through either the building or down the train tracks, I felt enemies were spawning too quickly there for the very beginning, and I think in the level 2 caves I disliked the enemies being able to spawn by the elevator or spawn really close to where the batteries you picked up were, I think them spawning in the tunnels would be enough).
I feel if Pure FPS can tighten their game up more, it actually will be a pretty solid co-op horror game, it has a bit more horror elements than your typical co-op horror game, I didn't even touch on a few cool moments and, "Oh, shit," things they have happen in the levels, like a fun elevator ride or making you weary of collapses in the tunnels. Touches like these were nice, and unexpected. And I actually had fun playing it once I overcame some of the annoyance of lack of hit reaction for me and the monsters and a few other things. I found myself panicking in a few sequences to reach certain places, the levels actually were a bit fun to explore, and the variety kept things interesting, as well as the atmosphere in places was pretty good.
If Pure FPS continue to polish and work out kinks in the game, I actually think this game can find an audience and be enjoyable. Even better if they release it and don't abandon it, as some post-support for new campaigns or enemies or whatever could be fun. However, this is all in Pure FPS's ballpark. At the very moment, some of the kinks would make me not recommend it, but I did have fun, and if they polish it and continue with making the other campaigns enjoyable and tightening up the animations in the game, hit reaction, a few little annoyances here and there, this could be enjoyable, good even. It's better than I expected, but needs more time in the oven I feel.
Call me cautiously optimistic, it can be fun, but if they fix up elements of the game or not will make it if I can really recommend it or not.
