The First Impressions Thread

[fangorn-forrest]

Hi all!

This thread is meant for players to voice their initial thoughts on Pit of Doom. The game is still in production, so your initial impression of the game is important for us to hear. It's important to note however, that this is NOT the Suggestions forum, so if you have something you think we should add, head over there.

And a reminder to keep it civil!

Cheers!

[ZedF]

First impression after spending an hour or so wandering about the first level:
- The environment was suitably creepy. Overall the art matched up with what I would have expected from the Pit.
- I am rubbish at this game. Not only am I trying to play 1-handed (switching between mouse to turn and keyboard to walk forward) but I am so rusty at FPS games that I can't even aim properly anymore. I managed to lose a quarter of Travis's health and a third of his food bar just exploring the top floor, which doesn't even have a lot in it to find. Whenever difficulty levels get implemented I will probably have to play on "baby mode."
- Despite this I had a sense that the game wouldn't be difficult to navigate if I were more practiced at this sort of game, and had full use of both hands. Even with my flailing around I managed to hit enemies in melee combat somewhat reliably. (I was mostly focused on using the blade so I didn't really try much shooting yet.)
- I didn't run across anything unintuitive during my tour of the first floor; everything seemed pretty straightforward, which is probably what you want in the introductory level.

[CrystalDragonSora]

I haven't gotten a chance to play yet (too busy with college currently ), but my friend who introduced me to SotS has been playing, and since he's not much of a forum goer, I figured I'd pass on his impressions to you lovely folks

Overall, he's liking what he's seeing (and I'm liking what I'm hearing from him). He's enjoying the atmosphere especially, from the sounds of it, and is eager to see the game develop. His main concern right now is, in his own words "personally i would ask kerberos to make attacks like the fast response bot's stun ray much less blinding". That's really his only criticism, and I'll admit it worries me a little because my eyes are very light sensitive, so those attacks sound... uncomfortable, from the way he's describing them. Is it possible to add an option to adjust the brightness of lighting effects like that?

Also, for what it's worth, we both are hoping to see the safe room added eventually, because we did use it a lot.

(I really can't wait to sit down and try this game for myself)

[RobAK801]

First impression: totally awesome!

Mood/atmosphere are spot on.

Combat is fast and nerve wracking, as it should be in a FP perspective game. Seems to me your biggest concern for first impressions with new players is that this is an RPG and NOT an FPS game, when Fallout 3 released Bethesda had to beat that point like a dead horse to get players to understand that your aim isn’t just the reticule on screen but the weapon accuracy and character skill as well. The “accuracy ring” was a good addition to the HUD to help communicate that point, kudos to whoever thought of that. It can still be frustrating to aim carefully and see the hit land at the extremes of the ring, but at least we can’t say you didn’t warn us.

I look forward to playing more, my first run was cut short by a crash while fixing a recharging station, not that my marine was likely to succeed mind you. On that note, the inclusion of a crash report function in the game code was a welcome sight; it allows for bug reports to go where they are needed right away instead of the all to common “I’ll send it later” that some players succumb to.

Keep up the good work!

[Khrowe]

What an wild change from The Pit to The Pit of Doom.

I found it very exciting to wander around in first person interacting with some great model work for familiar props fleshed out with the broken lockers, chairs and other debris. Wandering into a cafeteria for the first time was great when it was arranged as you would expect such a room. I found it to be mush for fun to search the rooms manually than to just peek in the door and evaluate from a distance.

The dilapidated corridors with smoke, fire effects, dangling cables make the corridors more interesting. The map gen is throwing me through a loop though because the maps have a tendency to be a bit more snake-like. Exploring every nook and cranny ends up with a tour of the cleared level back to the exit elevator which happened to spawn next to the entrance elevator. Very happy to not have to spawn into a floor in the middle of ten angry mobs.

The art style is very appealing; it the coloring feels like a good mix between the Pit and Doom. It's got that comic book like shading reminiscent of Borderlands, but suited for this theme. Moon bears are terrifyingly large. Its clear that all the mobs tricks and AI is not complete, but fun so far dealing with their different tankyness and speeds of the mobs. My favorite model so far is the medical bot.

I hope the component drops are placeholder for now. I enjoyed the difficulty in picking and choosing what to carry forward until I can find the appropriate crafting center.

Looking forward to seeing this develop up to and beyond The Pit. Playing the Pit multiplayer was always a wish of mine and it looks like it may come true with this iteration.

[Lmaoboat]

The first person model seems a bit janky and sometimes jumps around for no reason. Obviously it's an early alpha, but making sure the game simply feels smooth is satisfying to control is one of the important and subtly tricky things to nail down, but it's the foundation everything else is built on.

[Mecron]

thats a loading pause. It will be eliminated. And clearly, there is a reason...its loading something. The movement is fine, the fact that the game is stopping for a 1/4 second in the middle of you moving is the problem.

[Lmaoboat]

I didn't actually notice any loading. I meant more my character model seems to jerk around slightly sometimes.
Edit:
After paying closer attention, it seems to be a combination of the model lagging behind the crosshair and bumping into geometry.

[Mecron]

no it isn't

[Lmaoboat]

Err, maybe it's just a problem with my machine. All I can tell you is the model follows the crosshair with a slight lag and in a stuttery way, and sometimes when I bump into or walk over something. It looks perfectly fine when just moving about normally with the keys.

[Mecron]

the cross hair motion is caused by your inaccuracy based on your skill level.

[Lmaoboat]

Erm, the crosshair moves fine, the weapon model slightly lags behind it moves jittery.

[Mecron]

do you mean that jitter when you whip the mouse around really fast?

[Lmaoboat]

It tends to be more noticeable if I move the mouse faster. I tried to make a recording, but PlaysTV doesn't play nice with most of my games.

[skugge]

Why steam havent recommended me this game until today is beyond me. It is what it is though. I have been playing for 3 hours or so and so far im loving it. The atmosphere is eerie and it feels tense. Looking forward to see more content added.