So, from the first few hours of playing:
- NON-REBINDABLE KEYS. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. WHY?! WHY DO DEVS KEEP DOING THIS. REBINDABLE KEYS ARE LIKE 1 OR 2 DAY OF WORK TO IMPLEMENT!!!!! FFS!!$%!&/(&/!)(&/)(ZHUOHJlkJKBLghdfjklghjhkl
- Default keys are inane. Q for quicksave, right next to the camera movement/driving keys. Oh, and there's only one slot for quicksaves. L to enter the Load menu - which is the only way to get there. Yup, ESC does not let you enter a menu that would let you save/load. Nothing is bound to F1-12 keys...
- There's quicksave - but not quickload.
- Not sure what the 2x/4x/8x entries in the menu do. I assume anti-aliasing? Not that it matters, as the game will just reset whatever you select to nothing.
- Loading a game removes all items from the ground, found that out after throwing a bunch of knives. All knives gone after reload.
- Navigating in the game is an absolute PITA: You cannot click where you cannot see (not even if you've been somewhere already). Click behind a door to walk through it? Nah. Good luck trying to open a window to jump through it without having your char walk around the entire building to go outside the window instead.
- ESC closes menus. Sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't - within the same menu. It's like ESC also needs to roll some dice to work. Very meta
- Enemies respawn at the speed of light. Don't blink or they'll be back. Makes armor entirely useless as the relentlessly respawning enemies will eventually wear it down.
- You need to roll the dice to repair an item. Which consumes a repair kit - even on failure. Did I mention there's no quickload?
- Tutorial gives misleading advice and tends to bug out.
- There's a map, but it doesn't let you add notes.
- There's a notepad - but no quest log whatsoever.
- Wasn't able to convince a single vagrant to join me or tell me rumors (despite being specced for social).
- Trying to aim at two-pixel-large body parts while enemies walk around in real-time is a wonderful experience - if you enjoy grinding your teeth on sand paper, anyway.
- Art style makes it VERY hard to make anything out. No key to highlight interactable items. Opening lockers and picking up items is SUPER fun - did I mention sand paper already?
- No combat or dice roll log. Why did you fail a hack/lockpick/charm/etc.? Game won't tell you.
- Reload to find your character suddenly surrounded by nobody, by some enemies, by like a hundred vagrants. ???
- Sometimes, your character just stops moving. That's it, time for a reload.
- No telling what chances of success for an action are beforehand. No % indicator, nothing.
About the actual gameplay...
Got no clue whatsoever on how to proceed in the starting area.
I found PC to lower the bridges, but despite a char specializing in hacking, learning & social, I was unable to hack it after multiple attempts. I can only assume you need to find the password. You even need to guess the username in order to attempt hacking...
Searched the entire level for password hints, been in every room, nothing. Although I guess it is possible I missed some rooms as the graphics and map make it barely possible to tell where you can actually go... or that I missed some three-pixel-large items as there's no way to highlight what is interactable. Or that I loaded a save and the game removed some vital item on the ground.
Got to the boss - unkillable, takes no damage from anything. Or my char does not do enough damage. Who knows, the game sure won't tell you... Knockout works every time though, so he's completely harmless
Doesn't matter, as he doesn't have anything useful, either.
As a small bonus: Knock out the boss and reload to have him walk to you, talk to you and initiate combat again - even if you are in another room
Yeah, I know, Serpent was also obnoxiously opaque in wtf you are supposed to do, but come on, this is the starting area.
People are going to play this, get stuck, downvote and move on to more joyful endeavors...
