Finally got around to Act II, and my opinion still stands that this is a good ass shooter. The new weapons are ridiculously cool, the new enemies remain creative, Gabriel has a surprising amount of character development which I never expected, the Dante's-inferno stylized settings continue to be evocative and creative allegory, the reworks to certain enemies and mechanics are welcome, and the soundtrack just... oh my god. Greed and Wrath are fantastic layers that I don't have many complaints about, and Heresy is still awesome, but I'll get back to what I didn't like about it later.
Considering the game is now a larger, longer product, some small problems have arised.
The joke bosses still stand out like a sore thumb in a game with atmosphere this rich, but that's a pretty small problem.
Boss runbacks are annoying making P-ranking more of a chore. With Minos I guess it's fine considering you still have to fight the hand before the actual boss but Gluttony Gabriel, Greed V2, and the Leviathan could have used shortcuts to make P-rankings less grindy. It's weird that this exists considering the game is paced pretty much flawlessly otherwise.
I await the enemy AI updates that Hakita wants to implement as well, considering some enemies like Schisms and Strays could use a rework. Soldiers having explosion immunity was a small change but added many more layers to the combat and incentives the airshot mechanic of the new rocket launcher.
The only major issue I have is that there really isn't anything fresh involved with Heresy. Considering the dense, rich setting of the level I expected maybe a new demon type? At least Swordmachine returned but for such a cool map it's kinda a shame 6-1 didn't get a new enemy type. I think again the demon/husk enemy types feel very boring and homogenous especially compared to the machine enemies.
This act had a lot of refights and while V2 was a very good rematch, I don't think Gabe was distinct enough from his first fight to take a boss slot, even if it was climactic plot-wise. So I hope that the next act doesn't lean as far into that and the next two layers at the very least get completely new and unique final bosses and a couple new enemies each (because Treachery will probably end up looking similar to Greed and Heresy with a Gabe refight). I really do hope that new ideas continue to come out at a good pace cause that's what really excites me when it comes to this game: seeing what new fucking crazy-ass horseshit New Blood comes up with.
If Act III continues the insane momentum, this can easily be the best game ever created. I've really been scraping the bottom of the barrel for any complaints but that's only because I fucking love what we've been getting here and I want to make sure that it remains near-perfect as the game expands. Just continue with the creativity, keep injecting new ideas, and this already fantastic early access title will be hands down the best game of the year it releases in. Can't wait to see the new secret levels soon as well!
Considering the game is now a larger, longer product, some small problems have arised.
The joke bosses still stand out like a sore thumb in a game with atmosphere this rich, but that's a pretty small problem.
Boss runbacks are annoying making P-ranking more of a chore. With Minos I guess it's fine considering you still have to fight the hand before the actual boss but Gluttony Gabriel, Greed V2, and the Leviathan could have used shortcuts to make P-rankings less grindy. It's weird that this exists considering the game is paced pretty much flawlessly otherwise.
I await the enemy AI updates that Hakita wants to implement as well, considering some enemies like Schisms and Strays could use a rework. Soldiers having explosion immunity was a small change but added many more layers to the combat and incentives the airshot mechanic of the new rocket launcher.
The only major issue I have is that there really isn't anything fresh involved with Heresy. Considering the dense, rich setting of the level I expected maybe a new demon type? At least Swordmachine returned but for such a cool map it's kinda a shame 6-1 didn't get a new enemy type. I think again the demon/husk enemy types feel very boring and homogenous especially compared to the machine enemies.
This act had a lot of refights and while V2 was a very good rematch, I don't think Gabe was distinct enough from his first fight to take a boss slot, even if it was climactic plot-wise. So I hope that the next act doesn't lean as far into that and the next two layers at the very least get completely new and unique final bosses and a couple new enemies each (because Treachery will probably end up looking similar to Greed and Heresy with a Gabe refight). I really do hope that new ideas continue to come out at a good pace cause that's what really excites me when it comes to this game: seeing what new fucking crazy-ass horseshit New Blood comes up with.
If Act III continues the insane momentum, this can easily be the best game ever created. I've really been scraping the bottom of the barrel for any complaints but that's only because I fucking love what we've been getting here and I want to make sure that it remains near-perfect as the game expands. Just continue with the creativity, keep injecting new ideas, and this already fantastic early access title will be hands down the best game of the year it releases in. Can't wait to see the new secret levels soon as well!