-PREFACE-

I just spent a few hours playing and I am really appreciating the work that has gone into making a combat system that has so many choices of play style and captures a little of the strategy of sword combat.

The studying your opponent, the animations capturing the unique weight and presence of each style... it's really well done.

With all there is to appreciate, from the nuances in the animations for combat stances and where the next attack is coming from, to the atmosphere of the battlefield, it's no doubt tough to get the key information across to the player without spoiling the other work that has gone into the game.This is of course the job of the HUD... and some of the HUD sucks i'm afraid.

To be clear... the combat reticule is great...
Minimal, it provides just enough info without being too much in the way.
Off, you get to watch your opponents eb and flow providing a truly rewarding experience to master. I prefer off.

I would ask that since there is such an intrinsic reward to playing without the reticule (It makes the combat that much more immersive and strategic), could it be added as a multiplayer option... kinda like a hardcore combat mode? that'd be great.

Also I think there is currently a bug where turning off the combat HUD doesn't remove the target indicator... it's really irritating and pulls you out of the atmosphere. just remove the Giant white circle or something please, the outline is enough!

-ACTUAL COMPLAINT-

My issue is really with the "player widget".

Starting with the health bar. This needs to be toned down. Even on minimal it manages to do a great job of reminding you that you're in a game. It gets in the way and totally breaks immersion. Also... at least on minimal, it doesn't need faction indicators... in fact I don't think faction indicators and health bar info should be linked in the HUD.

Please allow for us to toggle the faction indicators and keep the health bar.

A solution for the health bar now, would be to add a transparency to it or redesign it so it's less removed from the world... Take dead space as an example with the health meter on the character's back. Use something more fitting to the theme indicate health level (not saying you should put pipes on the character models backs to be clear). Screen effects do this quite well, or perhaps the bloodiness of your character model could be used to greater effect to indicated health level. Right now it seems focused on the points of collision, but for the sake of visuals cues for health level I think a compromise could and should be made.

As for the revenge meter and abilities portion of the player widget, that seems fine... It suffers a little from the breaking immersion syndrome but not too much.

I always view game state indicators, or the HUD in games, in a similar way. If the goal is to put the player in your game then removing as many layers between them and the game is key. Speaking purely of the visuals, right now there are 3 layers in the equation;

My monitor,
the plane for the HUD,
the game world.

If you take all your crucial information and put it onto the world instead of some abstract plane between the player and the world, then that is one less layer your suspension of disbelief is wrestling with, hence a more immersive experience.

Thanks for taking the time and I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone may have on the subject.
zorilya