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Shout out to @travsaus for megaphone tankman!

Reviews for "NEO:YORK:KNIGHTS"

I don't get the main gameplay loop. When you have a sword, do you just... walk up to an enemy and mash a button? I strongly recommend you play some good beatemups like Devil May Cry, Batman Arkham City or God of War so you can learn how to design interesting melee combat. Interesting melee combat requires ability for the player to not get hit. Currently, surviving the first phase with Head Cutter is entirely random chance.

I also felt that damage and range of my Head Cutter attack was random or inconsistent, and sometimes I couldn't pick up weapons off the ground, which makes trying to throw them pointless.

In addition, once you actually get a steady loop of upgrading new guns, you are basically invincible, and the only thing that can kill you is running out of ammo - due to finding the +40HP upgrade. Ironically, that's the only thing that can kill you after first upgrade gives you your first gun. The only gun that requires any skill to use is Head Shooter, as it requires waiting for multiple enemies to line up, to use the ammo as efficiently as possible.

Big issue is lack of a difficulty curve. The game just doesn't get harder as it goes on - and if it does, it's too slow to notice. I say that every minute, the game should start dropping tougher enemies. Maybe they could get more health? Maybe they can have spears that are longer range than your Head Cutter? Maybe they're very fast? Maybe give player ability to jump, and give some enemies guns with projectiles player can jump over?

Or at the very least, make enemies spawn faster over time. Something to keep player interested.

Another problem is that enemies come only from one direction. Why? The game would be more exciting if pressing A turned the player around instead of backing away, and enemies came from both directions. Suddenly, the game would be kinda exciting!

Alternatively, if you really want enemies to come only from one direction, make it so that enemies don't actually attack you - instead, at the left edge of the screen there is something you need to protect (last human baby? Virus that can destroy robot hegemony? Resistance base?) and robots don't attack you, but run right past you to attack the base. So the goal would be to make sure that no robots make it past you.

Then there's the third solution - time limit. At first I was kind of excited because I thought that if the time limit in the center of the screen runs out, the game is over. But soon I realized it's just a combo multiplier. You could say that robots lacks power, and needs to kill other robots to steal their energy or something to survive - so if the countdown runs out, the game is over.

Any of these three solutions - adding enemies in both directions, making it a defense game, or adding a mandatory timer - would make it much more exciting.

I will give credit where it's due - all of the three stars you earned due to excellent graphics and atmosphere.

MoeAnguish responds:

Thanks for your input! I'll keep it in mind for next time.

Too small, and the controls kinda suck.
Which sucks, because the underlying game is reasonably fun.

MoeAnguish responds:

Sorry about that, but I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

I really want to like this game because it seems to ooze style with its cool art and aesthetic, and I love robots. It really makes me feel like I'm missing something, because at the moment it doesn't feel like you can do much in terms of combat. If you try to hit the enemies, they seem to hit back at you no matter how hard you try to hit before them. I try and outrange their swing with a backstep or whatever and they still hit me. Throwing your sword, while cool, just seems to lead to you getting dogpiled with no weapon. If you manage to survive and upgrade to a gun, then it's just a mindless slaughter as you gun them down without any challenge. If the combat system was reworked to have a bit more style and allow the player to control the situation more, maybe add some levels or something, this could be a robo Katana Zero in the making. I think this game has a lot of potential and I would love to see this worked on and come back in a more extended form!

MoeAnguish responds:

Thanks for your input! I'll keep this in mind if i work on this or any other platformer/fighter kinda game!

I feel like I’m missing something with this game. Without a jump button or a block button, it seems that an endless stream of enemies comes at you and you have to either spam attack or time your swing right? Every time I hit them, they hit me and there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop it from happening, so I just die.

Looks nice and sounds nice, I just wish I could play it.

MoeAnguish responds:

That's fair, thanks for your input. but to answer your question; you're supposed to use both in the right time. and also, remember to throw your shield. these things deal a good amount of damage.