~ Pre-Playthrough | Lobby
- Map & Atmosphere
Personally, it feels extremely empty, everything out of bounds is extremely spacious and anyone with low brightness settings would most likely accidently miss what’s going on in the background as it’s not upfront and all over the place due to the fact it’s also extremely dark, and even with a fair amount of brightness you can barely make out that there’s any kind of trees.
You should lessen the gap between the bounds and the outside areas, or change out the lighting for something that’s more visible regarding the background’s visibility.
- UI
Based on the lack of any kind of setting awareness, the UI looks extremely out of place just like the map itself, and doesn’t seem to make sense regarding what’s going on around it, for a UI to work, it has to fit the theme of the game.
And rather the sound effects, seem unfitting for the UI at hand, as the buttons look like their either “torn paper”, or “smoke”, which would neither fit the heavy button sound going on when clicking.
You should add some animation instead of still UI visibility when clicking, and make the buttons sound like how they look regarding their theme.
~ Gameplay
- Initial Intro UI
Regarding the UI, if the game is meant to be set around the 1950s, the UI itself should’ve been set as a “VHS” or a “TV” effect in the background instead of blank tweening texts on a black background, this makes the story telling feel off as the game is meant to be set around a specific time period where there would most likely not be less grainy Televisions, but still color regarding the UI itself, as the 1950s is when color came to Television.
Based on this video of a 1952 TV show you can see that there’s grain, and the intro itself looks shaken and has a distinct “white noise” sound, this should be possibly implemented if what the intro sequence is supposed to be all about, or just overall make the feeling of the game have an effect of it’s current era.
- Map & Atmosphere
The map itself looks extremely rushed, the trees are randomly placed around and this doesn’t feel like it should be the case for an actual forest area which would have trees basically all around instead of in specific slots.
The key for the Graveyard is sort of hard to look for and a possibility for this should’ve been that they drove up in their car, and it was the players objective to get the key from the glove compartment/pocket and to investigate the noise in the Graveyard.
The Graveyard looks alright, but the fact it needs objectively unlocked when it has no sign of a chain w/ a lock on it is off and kind of ruins the immersion, especially inside where the graves are extremely randomly placed despite the genuine need for people to be buried in specific rows as to not be buried on-top of someone else’s body, as well as the lack of path and general atmospheric sounds to hint where the player is supposed to be going.
The darkness itself already presents a scary atmosphere, but the sounds give a hint of modernity as it relays way too clearly, and should have some kind of “1950s” muffle to it such as how the video previously sent is sounding, if it’s meant to be a “body camera”, which would be overall flawed due to the fact that these were not invented until 2005, though the sounds themselves are fine, the flashlight’s one sounds obnoxiously loud.
(You Should Really Add Wind!)
- Investigation Area & Ghost
It feels extremely strange that someone would rob a grave and then leave evidence for the police to come get them, I do applaud the entire design of the “ghost” (?) but with the actual lack of sounds regarding any kind of footsteps, or sounds pertaining to it’s location, it’s kind of hard to tell if it’s coming after you or not, I also don’t see how the gate could be locked as the player did unlock the gate, and there isn’t necessarily a key hole in these type of gates which it could be re-locked.
The jump-scare was just a still camera shot of the ghost, I’m unaware if there was any sound to this, but I overall think there should’ve been a death animation with the fictional body camera’s screen going to static instead of a blank black background for “you died”.
The ghost itself also had a hard time getting me as it basically just walked into me for 10 seconds until triggering the jump-scare, which should be fixed regarding it’s hit-box.
I had a hard time trying to navigate the Graveyard just as I did the first time I entered, it should be more clear where the player should have to find a specific object inside of an extremely messy Graveyard.
- UI
Not really much I could’ve said about the misc UI, I’m unaware what the whole grain is supposed to mean if body cameras weren’t invented at that point, but if it’s meant to be a general camera then it would’ve been cool to see the ghost coming for the player during specific flashes within the cameras view.
The text appearing at the bottom of the screen seemed like a cheap story game tecnique that most games use which shouldn’t be the case, and there should be a different way that the player’s speech is portrayed, such as voice acting, or a fake reflection in the chat. “[Security Guard]: Blah”
The death screen seems kind of cheap as well, based on the setting it just feels cartoony instead of horror-esque, it should feel like the player died, or overall the fictional body camera was broken followed with vintage static.
~ Overall
Lobby | Other
The lobby needs to look nicer and less spacious, it’s hard to tell what’s going on in the background to get a feel for what the player might be getting into, and it’s way too dark, or too spaced (again) to see what might be going on out of bounds.
Lobby | UI
The UI feels unfitting for the setting of the actual game-play and just overall empty, though the opened UI looks way nicer than the buttons do.
The UI should’ve been the main event as that should’ve been where you find queues or make you’re lobby for people to join, instead of generic teleporters on the map that look out of place.
Map | Other
The map feels way too spaced out and the bounds feel way too far away, or less explained, if the player goes out of bounds, it should stop them and say, “Maybe I Shouldn’t Go There”, or something along the lines of not wandering off for no reason.
There should be more trees and a clearer more organized Graveyard as it was a mess to find where to go for the objectives. (Disable The Leaves Collision On The Trees!!!)
Add more atmospheric sounds such as wind, footsteps for the ghost, or a jumpscare sound or death animation as these fields feel very lacked in immersion.
Map | UI
The UI itself seems kind of empty, even if slightly grainy there wouldn’t have been actual body cameras in that time period so it doesn’t really make sense, the death and story telling UI seem generic as many. many story games use the typewriter text to portray speaking, and it should be different for a game like this as it’s not meant to be cartoony. (as is the death screen)
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I feel like I got too off with it, but I hope it’s understandable within some aspect.