Got this game via the Indie Bundle, and after spending a large portion of yesterday playing, I thought I'd drop in with my initial impressions while they were still fresh in my mind..
First off, loved the music and art style. I found myself drawn into the usual "get better gun, go kill alien, get even betterer gun" cycle while exploring around the initial town without feeling like I was grinding. Exploring was fun, even though I didn't end up traveling out very far (max level of gear I had before endgame was 3).
On the needs improvement side of things, the ending came as a bit of a surprise. Could just be because the game is in development, but the pacing of the game came to a standstill. So, here's what I ran into at that point of the game... (spoilers to avoid ruining peoples surprise if they haven't played that far yet)
I think the player needs more feedback after reducing the demon influence to 0%, I was about to continue slaughtering aliens before I noticed that all my allies had stopped fighting. Along with the text from the Demon King about continuing the war, maybe some messages from the local factions stating that they've been duped about the war and are now joining forces to fight off the real problem?
Fighting the Demon King could use feedback/explanation, I died about 8 times jumping around and loosing gear trying to thwack him, eventually gave up and hit the interwebs for advice, found out about him teleporting after a successful attack, etc.. I thought he just wasn't being hurt by my attacks.
I only discovered the "Leaders give free stuff" by reading the internet, the free gear was a lifesaver though.
General things that I considered "issues" would be...
It looks like your death pile can despawn, died up on a cliff side and lost my entire inventory full of good gear after going to get a grav pack so I could reach the location... not sure if this is really a problem, might just be a feature to punish us for trying to be Icarus.
The "Esc" key always brings up the quit screen, this was probably my biggest irritation.. Every single time I talked to a merchant, or accessed a supply chest, or opened my inventory, I'd habitually "Esc" from the screen.. Which worked, but then I had to Esc from the "Do you Want to quit" screen as well. I'd expect "Esc" to exit an active dialog/inventory, and only initiate the exit dialog from the base game state.
Tooltip on the construction tool states that the cost for a supply chest is 16, looks like it is actually 8.
Probably not a problem at all, iirc.. it seemed like doors I unlocked with a keycard would eventually re-lock. I didn't actually test in that really happened, but I recall being irritated at not being able to re-enter some spot in the city because of the issue. (Current game seems to be changing them to unlocked doors, I could be wrong on this)
Parked Mini-fighter spawned inside a building, instant red screen upon entering it (I assume it launched itself into the closest wall).
And a couple of things for my wish list...
Post "current game conclusion" game play... With no war, what do I do with my demon slaying bad ass?
Elevator components for the construction tool, That'd give the players all the basics to replicate the layouts for current buildings, and allow easier vertical construction.
Some variant of the miner tool, allow deconstruction of built blocks, maybe recover xx% (10%-25%?) of them. Tear down enemy bases and construct your own outpost from the ruins.
Along with that, quests to construct outposts for the factions, "Plant this flag at x/y location, we need a base to exert our control".. Not sure how you handle it, but whatever controls spawning merchants and leaders in building would then be applied at that location.
A map, I can't tell you how easily I got lost once I lost sight of the initial city.
All in all, the game is looking great, I was quite surprised by how polished it felt. Keep up the good work, I am now looking forward to see what you come up with next!