Re: The Vale Demo
So, I've played what I presume is the newest demo, and here are my thoughts.
First, you give a lot of descriptions of things using controller feedback. This is cool and all, but while most PC users have access to a keyboard, many do not have access to a controller. This means that if you put controller info first, or in some cases do not mention the keyboard at all, you're catering to a smaller subset of your audience by default. If nothing else, my suggestion is a simple one. Where you do want to give tutorial info, put your keyboard shortcuts first, and controller shortcuts second.
Next, combat. I have only played on casual so far, so I'll have to see how higher difficulty looks, but on casual it's very, very easy. That's cool and all. I'm not going to throw stones on that point. You do spend a ton of time waiting though, and it takes a little of the realism out of it. If nothing else, it would be neat if enemies changed speeds a little.
That said, I tried the heavy attack tutorial and couldn't make it work. If I hold down arrow, Alex appears to charge up over and over again, sounds sometimes clipping over one another, and no matter when I hit the arrow to swing, I'm always blocked and counter-attacked by her uncle. I'm not sure if this is a glitch or if I'm doing it wrong, but I'm doing precisely as the tutorial says to do, and it's not working, so you may wish to look into that.
There's also one demo where you're surrounded by many enemies - I misremember its name right now - and you seemingly get attacked from multiple directions at once. i.e., you hear someone on your right wind up for a swing, you attack them first, and suddenly you're being attacked once or twice from the front when there was no windup from that direction. Are these combos from different sides, requiring you to block in multiple directions before striking? This isn't made clear.
Otherwise, I generally know what I'm getting on the tin, and it looks okay. If armour or weapons or shields are going to boost my performance, by the way, that should be stated somewhere. Having even some rough idea (i.e., this padded armour and bracers means you can take two extra hits) would be good; you don't need hard stats and advanced formulas or whatever, but knowing the benefit of the stuff I buy or find is a good thing.
Miscellaneous stuff last.
In my playthrough, I wasn't given a choice as to my gender, so I got Alex, female. I don't mind this, but is this deliberate (i.e., no choice)? Also, Shepherd is now male. I'm of mixed feelings on this, but I am not protesting in any case. I liked Shepherd being female if only because Alex (regardless of their gender) was being guided and enabled by men, and male Shepherd (god, I'm channelling Mass effect here by saying that) further hits on that. It's not a criticism, per se, it's a stylistic thing; if this is something that can switch, either at random or via specific parameters, cool. If it's just a straight choice you decided to make, also fine. This isn't game-breaking or anything, although I do want to point out that there's a cutscene which still refers to Shepherd as a "cloaked woman".
The repetition of "describe it to me" feels just a little forced. People who know Alex should know when and what she wants described, particularly if they've lived with her. Having them just flat-out mention stuff would be a bit less awkward than this, in my opinion.
The tutorial message when interacting with the map does not mention keyboard controls at all, and nor does the bow tutorial, I don't think.
I generally like what I see here, but I do have a concern. It may come across as confrontational, but I'll do my best here.
This demo is fairly similar to the demo that came many months ago. I was hoping for more/different things, and I got a few of them, and that's cool, but the wait time vs. the stuff that changed doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Is there a reason this took as long as it did? Was most of the time between demos spent polishing stuff we haven't even seen yet? I confess that while I did like what I experienced, I was hoping for different/more from this demo, didn't get it, and felt just a wee bit underwhelmed overall. I'm interested to see where the game goes, but my reaction to the demo itself is lukewarm.
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