Here is my second full playthrough of this upcoming game Portal Brawlers by Crystal Spider Games. In this playthrough I did my best to utilize all features of the game in its current state, but there are a few features I just couldn't seem to find. Below is my feedback that will hopefully be perceived as both constructive and useful in the continued development.
If you're not already familiar with Crystal Spider Games' work, here are a couple of useful links for you + a couple of recent threads by CEO @simplegame:
- https://crystalspidergames.itch.io/portal-brawlers-public-playtest
- https://thunkgaria.world/
- https://darkcloaks.io
@simplegame/re-leothreads-2jblkvtr1
@simplegame/re-leothreads-2dsjr95jj
PS: Apologies in advance for the low volume. There is audio there, it's just a bit low
Feedback
Things I couldn't find:
- There is apparently an attack where you can slam the ground and stun surrounding enemies, but I can't figure out how to do it.
Things I like:
- One-shot enemies with throwing knives (very satisfying! -- see beginning of video for example)
- Rushing into a bunch of enemies damaging 4-5 simultaneously with the charge attack (quite satisfying)
- Damaging several players at once, i.e. splash attacks
- the special attacks (a perfectly executed one at 09:53)
- the graphics style and animations / parallax background
- the spin attack of the sword
- Ability to sheate main weapon
Things I dislike:
- Block parry: Feels a bit slow and unresponsive/useless. When block button is pressed, the block sort of lags a few milliseconds. Currently feels like blocking is not worth it and just slows progress down, since you can't really do anything with/in/from it. Improvement suggestions: 1. the shield blocks/unblocks immediately with button press/release 2. a from-block-into-attack combo or something? 3. Ability to move while blocking instead of locking the player in place
- Special attacks sometimes misses the target miserably even though it feels like they shouldn't (see 06:17)
- The music. I really dislike the music track (I know it's not the final one), but also found that it was too quiet without it. Then I remebered the atmospheric sounds of the first rayman game on ps1 and decided to try and add some ambient sounds instead too hear how that felt. For the ambient sounds you hear in this playthrough, I used the open source app moodist.app. I think it added quite a bit to the atmosphere. Maybe something to consider
- It's a bit of hassle to move around obstacles. Perhaps make the bounding boxes of static game objects a little smaller/more forgiving? Alternatively make it possible to pass through broken barrels, similar to broken weapon stands
Suggestions/Things I'd love to see down the road:
- More weapon combos: Each combo has at least two different animations to make it feel less repetitive when you keep mashing the buttons. For instance at timestamp 06:22: It would be cool if every other combo had a high punch at the end instead of a ground punch.
- That the sword spin attack only happens with a joystick combo + button mashing. For instance joystick left/right/left (or v.v.) + button mashing. When not doing the combo, the sword will not spin when mashing, but simply produce a simple 3 sword combo
- Additional similar joystick combo suggestion: Add similar combo possibilities for other weapons in ways that make sense for them. A 360 degree club punch. With the spear, if you hold the joystick down while mashing, it will stab to the ground on the last attack of the combo.
- More possibilities for splash attacks
▶️ 3Speak