Technically it's not bad, but the game is quite drawn out. I really wish there was a sprint. The boss is epic

Hey! I remember you from the last jam. You make great greybox levels with interesting mechanics, and I recognized your style right away. I enjoyed it and I finished the game.

The “signal gun” is an interesting concept, although I’d like a bit more pressure from enemies while you’re tuning the frequency. There were a few moments where I got stuck and didn’t understand what to do next. It felt like the tutorial could lean a bit more into “show, don’t tell.”

One example I can recall right away is the levers you have to press multiple times. I got stuck at the first door like that, because I thought I had to sprint between them quickly. And in the final boss fight, it made sense to use the cannon, but for it to work I had to get right up close to the boss. At first I was afraid to do that and assumed there was a hidden door somewhere.

But those are just nitpicks. As always, you made a great game with an original mechanic. Congrats!

Okay, full review and details below, but I want to say this is your best entry so far. Very rounded in terms of mechanics, feel and mood. Almost the complete package! You can really see how your skills are developing on the modelling front too which is lovely to see.

Let's start with the bad, as there is so little
The music! Firstly, I LOVE that you have some. Just that gets you three stars. But after a few doors, the music was really grating on me. A really simple solution here when you do minimal notes like this is to feed them into unreal and have it randomise which notes it plays. Can completely transform a soundscape.

now the little issues
The "Yellow" colour of the tuning light on enemies and locks is really too close to the green, so that both are very difficult to tell apart. I lost a few moments and points of frustration with the locks when I thought I was on green and wasn't. Worse as the device puts out a light that washes the colour out, but when I knew to look for it, I was able to adjust.
Sometimes the enemies didn't have a tune in frequency? but I think this might have been when they weren't aware of me. I would like to be able to zap em when they are not aware.
The health bars on them were GREAT but as I tended to be underneath them a lot, it made them harder to see.
The game was a little too drawn out on that last level... I think you only needed two sets of gates or them closer together, but I enjoyed how they all worked together. It was very well done.

Now the good
AAAAH THE MODELS ARE GREAT! :D It's so nice to see the whole world you built feeling real and moody, the doors, the levers, the cells, the enemies, all of it! The Level design is excellent as always and I never felt stuck or lost for too long. Smart lines of sight and elevation got me to where I needed to be.
The art style and choice of colours was spot on for this game, the bloom on the lens gave it a very cinematic / Kubrick feel and those titles really tied it all together. Vibes from Control/Routine and other horror titles. Very nicely done.
Sound was basic but used well and brought just enough crunch to the gameplay

The core mechanic though was Chef's kiss good. I know its only in prototype form but it was instantly understandable and fun to use. It's great to see one of your games with mechanic depth like that and so well implemented.
Tutorials were at just the right level and the world design and flow was spot on.

An excellent a The Creed game.

The game feels really unfinished, but idea is interesting and I had fun trying the game.

Defeated the bot that was signalled down from heaven!

Very intense game, I love the signal weapon. It made for tense battles, I think it solves a fundamental issue of gun gameplay, that you have nothing to do while it reloads, with the signal gun, you are tuning it, trying to get it to the right frequency before you can fire again, that's awesome! Plus how you can keep it ready and humming, it's really an awesome weapon that makes its presence felt, reminds me of some of the more iconic halo weapons. And in addition to all that, it's also a flashlight so it makes the dark sections even more tense with your weapon drawn by default. Awesome design all around!

Also loved how everything looked, it perfectly portrayed the sci-fi feeling of a space station with its lowpoly art style, I really liked the colors used as well. With that and the sound design you really managed to build a great sci-fi atmosphere. Had a great time playing this game, very well done!

@nit Thanks for playing, I think I went a bit overboard with the level design and drew it out too much. It interfered with the pacing.

@bereg Thanks for playing, those are some really cool suggestions. I tried to focus so much on the main mechanics use and how it affected the world that when I needed some extra lock and key items, they fell by the wayside.

@designernap Thank you as always.

@jk5000 Hey, can I ask what is really unfinished with it? I guess the art is a blockout level of art, but I felt like there was a lot of content in there. Just want to pick your brain. Thanks for playing.

@captaindreamcast Thanks for playing! My games are usually fairly simple, I felt this was one of the first times where I have focused on the design of a single mechanic that the player controls and how it encompasses the whole game. Some really big praise in there :D

Interesting game. I liked the design.

Good concept, i like it

This seems like a really well-polished game, I love the simple art style, and the in-game tutorial texts are very welcome! It's really impressive for a compo entry. But unfortunately, I got stuck at the "Weapon" chapter, it's not clear what to do in an open area with the enemy (the one on the first screenshot). :sweat_smile: Also, the game is a bit too dark at times, the shadows are pitch black for me. Not sure if it's intended or just my monitor settings.

Loved the aesthetics on this one! The lowpoly sci-fi atmosphere is solid. Tuning the frequency on the gun is a fun innovative mechanic. The music is simple but eerie and reminds me of 70s SciFi. Well, the whole thing reminds me of that! Of course there could be a lot of polishing, but a strong entry overall.