Impressions after 9 hours (0.52)

[comham]

I'd been meaning to play Exanima since the beta released, and I finished The Old City Leviathan over the weekend so Exanima came up next on my to-play list.

1. Combat is hard as balls. I keep going back to Arena mode and playing 10 rounds with mace guy (myself armed with sword+shield), and so far I'm averaging about 60% chance of a win, in the open, no worrying about light. Now, obviously this is a completely unique combat system which I've no experience with, I'm sure I will improve with time and practice, but it feels to me like it's balanced for thaumaturgy, which is missing from exanima right now and without it the player is left at a very high disadvantage in natural play. It is very nice to watch though, and as a result of the difficulty, supremely satisfying to get in a kill or even a good hit. Looking forward to dismemberment too.

2. The campaign: I basically played it like a stealth game, thankfully most of the monsters don't aggro you and if you're quick you can close the door between you in time. I only found one

Spoiler

health potion

so with no checkpoints to speak of combat was simply never worth it, especially since you might get mobbed and then my chances of victory were 0%. I made pencil+paper maps to go along with it, which was fun, but I wouldn't want to play the whole campaign trial-and-erroring it like that.

3. While everything was a bit brown/grey, there was a huge amount of detail in the level construction and everywhere felt like it had a purpose which I admire.

4. Obviously, the UI is not finished yet, but it needs (largely just by adding more cursors)

• distinction between grabbable and inventory-able objects
• indication of container objects
  
• indication of sphere of influence of moving items
  
• some way just to click something and inventory it, no dragging required
• make explicit the clothing layering/slot system in-game
• quick swaps for inventory items eg torch/shield
• some way to place torches in holders on the walls

Looking forward to further development! It's so awesome to see a game push the limits of a genre and put in new technology affecting gameplay. Long live physics-driven games!

Some questions:

Spoiler

What's the special weapon mentioned in a scroll in level 3? Where's the magic helmet mentioned in a scroll in that room, too?

 

[Sir NotABot]

I'd been meaning to play Exanima since the beta released, and I finished The Old City Leviathan over the weekend so Exanima came up next on my to-play list.

1. Combat is hard as balls. I keep going back to Arena mode and playing 10 rounds with mace guy (myself armed with sword+shield), and so far I'm averaging about 60% chance of a win, in the open, no worrying about light. Now, obviously this is a completely unique combat system which I've no experience with, I'm sure I will improve with time and practice, but it feels to me like it's balanced for thaumaturgy, which is missing from exanima right now and without it the player is left at a very high disadvantage in natural play. It is very nice to watch though, and as a result of the difficulty, supremely satisfying to get in a kill or even a good hit. Looking forward to dismemberment too.

2. The campaign: I basically played it like a stealth game, thankfully most of the monsters don't aggro you and if you're quick you can close the door between you in time. I only found one

Spoiler

health potion

so with no checkpoints to speak of combat was simply never worth it, especially since you might get mobbed and then my chances of victory were 0%. I made pencil+paper maps to go along with it, which was fun, but I wouldn't want to play the whole campaign trial-and-erroring it like that.

3. While everything was a bit brown/grey, there was a huge amount of detail in the level construction and everywhere felt like it had a purpose which I admire.

4. Obviously, the UI is not finished yet, but it needs (largely just by adding more cursors)

• distinction between grabbable and inventory-able objects
• indication of container objects
  
• indication of sphere of influence of moving items
  
• some way just to click something and inventory it, no dragging required
• make explicit the clothing layering/slot system in-game
• quick swaps for inventory items eg torch/shield
• some way to place torches in holders on the walls

Looking forward to further development! It's so awesome to see a game push the limits of a genre and put in new technology affecting gameplay. Long live physics-driven games!

Some questions:

Spoiler

What's the special weapon mentioned in a scroll in level 3? Where's the magic helmet mentioned in a scroll in that room, too?

Great feedback! It's nice to see a fresh perspective on the game. Some thoughts:

1. You'll get better with practice. It is hard, but you will come to a point will you will own the zombies and even skellies 90% or more of the time.

2. Stealth/non aggo is the way to go until you get better. Once you get better, I would recommend killing everything. A, so you control when and where combat takes place, and B) it's fun! Maps with the locations of every item are here.

4. Those are all good suggestions. Someone did manage to put a torch in a torch holder. Give it a try.

As for your spoiler question, the answer is in the maps link I provided above.

 

[Guy]

We need more torches and more holders. But some of the darkness is at least broken glow lamps. So there would not be holders naturally in the walls. Also, the "scholars" or whatever that lived there since more than likely made due in the semi light with candles (in evidence) and torches (there are scones on private rooms, indicating that it was a location in need of a permanent light source), if not lanterns (none noticed so far, but we are not done yet). Remember, they probably were not skulking around dodging and/or fighting zombies, but moving relaxed among friends/colleagues. Plus, they probably were not the most industrious of home owners anyway. After that it was zombies vs. looters and people like us with amnesia. Go figure.

That was all conjecture that I was already poking holes in as I wrote it, but I was amused, so I am sharing anyway.

BTW, in experimenting with the light, I put the torch in a bucket so the head was up off the ground. Nice, we know, right? But when I picked up the bucket to move it, to my dismay, the torch fell right out of the bottom.