Obligatory 1st play comments

[Cat]

Congrats on the new title, and thank you for releasing the open beta

Playing on Hard, time played circa 1 hr.

- Having to hold down left click definitely annoying, esp using a laptop / touch sensitive pad. Perhaps add a toggle in the options menu (one click on / off, like DoP alt - display items)?

- Scoring is a bit odd. 1st level I found 4/6 secrets and the super-secret, and cleared every enemy I could find. My score was over 5,500 - 6,500 (I ended the mission, cannot remember or have displayed the exact score); I received only a silver chalice. This suggests to me that getting a gold chalice requires almost 100% score possible on a level - which given that random drops such as coins / gems, might vary a lot.

- Traps with durational damage (DoTs) are far harder than anything else. Main reason being that health + drops are randomised and poison especially is both very hard to dodge / avoid and does long lasting damage. I'd tone down the time aspect on these, as they're currently annoying and almost unavoidable. A cure potion drop that triggers on player condition (i.e. If player = condition X, then add Cure X potion drop to table) would also be a nice solution.

- Quests. Don't seem to do anything, not even a ++ to score. I completed several on each level, and got nothing. Perhaps there should be a Quests: X/X tab as well as a Secrets?

- Likewise, champions. Apart from being slightly tougher, and giving x4 the score (I *think*) they don't really do much. I'd vote for renaming them. e.g. Instead of "Champion Skeleton Archer" (2nd level, lots of them at the end) I'd use something less "unique" sounding. This might be skewed because I play DoP and expect them to be a) rare and b) goodie bags on legs.

- I was able to finish the 2nd level without getting any of the colour coded keys. Going back and searching through the entire level, whilst clearing it (and finding a couple of secrets), I couldn't find any of them. Is this intentional? Added to this, reaching the last room with skeleton archers seemed to finish the level rather than any other condition - ?

- Combos are currently a little unbalanced. AoE ones > all. I have got some pretty impressive combos (including "Massacre" and multiple barrel breaking ones at the same time) by getting an AoE special. On this, the barrel combo doesn't trigger with more barrels, it just repeats. It would be nice if there were steps to it a la UT; i.e. 5 barrels = X, 10 = Y, ... 40 = Z.


Anyhow, back to it. I'll save the critique until I've finished it

[Cat]

Edit post isn't working :/

However, have finished the beta with 3 golds, rest silver. I've found only two SS' so far, but hey.

- Unlocked the 40k and 80k chars, and the thief, priest and mage.

After playing the 1st level with one of the unlockable chars, I've managed to get my score on the 1st level to 25,001 - this was by excessive use of combos. I'm wondering if this is any kind of record

http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dophighcp9.jpg

I also found +4 extra lives. However, all of these extra lives were from normal mobs / non-hidden areas, which was disappointing: I'd much rather have been rewarded for finding secrets with those lives than having them randomly drop. Re-playing the level each time, this is the most I've had drop for me - and given the game mechanics, I don't think that extra lives should be so random. Either rewards for secrets or combos ?

Extra lives also seem not to go toward your next adventure... Ho-hum. Does this mean that 2 lives @ the start of a mission is the most you can have? I have to say this is horribly artificial, and annoying for players. If you're going to have a "life" system, then the bonus "extra life" should be rare, and desirable. Having it as a normal (?!?) power-up that disappears for the next adventure is... meh.

- Just saw that quests can be a conditional for a mission complete. Yet on other levels they have no function? This seems some-what confused.

- I understand the 2nd level now

- Chars are somewhat unbalanced. Unlike in DoP, mages here definitely give you the highest scores, as bait mobs & AoE = massive double combos (usually +200 killing spree, then +200 killing spree of particular mob, so you get +400)

- Having said that, once you've completed a mission with a gold chalice & finding all the secrets, there's not much incentive to return to them, at all. This will be a major problem in the final game, imo, given that within a week (perhaps less), someone will have written a walkthrough containing all the locations of secret doors. The rest of the game will be getting the awards - I've managed to get all (I *think*) of the ones available in the beta already. It would have been interesting if the character selected actually impacted the mission, even if it was only by a simplistic method of a char unlocking new areas in them.

- Lack of puzzles was disappointing. At first I was Using every torch and item I could find, thinking that this was the road to discovering the secrets. Once I realised that secret doors actually come up at the top labelled "door" when hovered over, finding them was all too easy. The interactivity of the game, barring a couple of the super-secrets was much less than DoP, imo. Worse, the tutorial shows you how to step on switches - and there's no switches in the beta barring that one!! >.<

- Replayability is my major concern at the moment. Then again, the pace / style seems perfect for gamer-popcorn, which seems to sell well atm.

- Small bug: AI which get "stuck" pathing to you either by terrain or by you being mobbed often suddenly "zoom" towards you at x10 speed when the AI twigs there's a path now clear. This is most noticeable with the orc warriors.

- Lack of an undo button on the char skill screen does need fixing. I clicked on the plus of a skill I was considering at least twice without wanting to, and couldn't change it. A cancel button on the screen that undid any changes might be a good addition!

- Lack of environmental dangers, barring traps. e.g. lava, burning oil etc etc. I was hoping for at least a couple of puzzles relating to environments, but they don't seem to exist.

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by Cat

- Quests. Don't seem to do anything, not even a ++ to score. I completed several on each level, and got nothing. Perhaps there should be a Quests: X/X tab as well as a Secrets?

You do get a score bonus for each quest. It shows up in the final score, but it doesn't tell you about it. It does tell you what each quest is worth on the quest screen.

Originally Posted by Cat

- I was able to finish the 2nd level without getting any of the colour coded keys. Going back and searching through the entire level, whilst clearing it (and finding a couple of secrets), I couldn't find any of them. Is this intentional?

SPOILER: The keys are in secret areas in that adventure.

Originally Posted by Cat

Added to this, reaching the last room with skeleton archers seemed to finish the level rather than any other condition - ?

The required quest to finish this adventure is to kill a certain amount of skeletons and skeleton bowmen.