So I received an invite to this game by my brother. I am very thankful and overall glad that I could take part in this closed beta.
Thus, I would like to share with the community and the devs my experience, in the hope that it will improve the game.

I should note that I played this game with a mouse and keyboard.

Let's not kid ourselves, the game has many, many flaws - and not just in game balance. First, I want to address technical issues:



- Every single time someone or I tried to leave a lobby either as a group or alone, I always got kicked out of the group. Without failure.

- The overall stability of servers and the net code has been pretty shoddy at best. It baffles me, seeing how Ubisoft has so many other seeminhly working multiplayer games.

- The menus are a mess. Not only is it convoluted, but I don't even know if there was ever a section that explained what, for example, block damage did exactly, or resist block damage.
And every time a match ends, the flash slide with what item or xp or whatever I received is PAINFULLY slow. How annoying it was that I had to click the tab that said Next Game before I could start queuing. Is it really that important to see what useless nick-nack I got? I just want to play the game!

- When you pick a hero for an impending game, an explanation what all the heroes feats does would be nice.

- The instructional videos is a last-minute after-thought at best. The fact that I cannot choose what section of the basic (or advanced video) I want to study in-depth, but I have to watch the whole clip until I get there without even a fast-forward or rewind button - is simply poor design.
In modern fighting games, you can see exactly when you should press a button or when you should delay the press. Why can you not do the same? Also, when you look at the move set, some instructions did not specify that some combos had to be left-right/right-left when these directions exclusively activate the chain combo.

- 90 degree field of view is maximum? Really?

- The War Assets screen can be more detailed, informative and interesting design-wise.

- I could not find anywhere that told me how to feint a heavy attack, or throw an opponent in another direction than forward. I figured it out by sheer practice and play alone. I'd presume a general gameplay instructional video could be in order.

- It's not really a concern, but all the menus dull grey really doesn't get you excited to play.

- The matchmaking is also pretty much a mess. For example, I couldn't find out how to alter the player level(s) being matchmade. And what does Player Level: Strict mean exactly? A due explanation ought to be available there.

- The menus can definitely load faster and be more responsive.

- I rarely experienced any crashes, but I have some friends that frequently had game crashes (one example claims 50/50 chance of game crash every time he left a group or went back to main menu. Yikes!). This is of course unacceptable.

- Greater freedom in garment/armor/tattoo/symbol coloring when playing team battles, please!

- More salvaged item attribute variety for all the characters!



These are just some of my suggestions and criticism. Now for the gameplay part:


- When you are out of stamina, you ought not be able to dodge 100% like that. When you are staggered like so, either remove the ability to dodge or significantly hamper it. There could be a perk that allows for dodging when out of stamina, or something, but as it stands now, the mistakes of the player is not punished enough here and especially the faster heroes like the Orochi have a very long dash.

- The Revenge system is not an easy issue to tackle. I don't know if it's better to significantly lower it's impact or just remove it altogether. It doesn't fit with the gameplay at all. It only serves to frustrate and deny good players their due reward. When heroes like the Conqueror and Warlord can 1v4 for 5 minutes in a lost game (only serve to delay the inevitable) because of Revenge, you have a serious problem.
My suggestion is that you remove the Revenge system altogether and make stamina a more prominent feature in the game.

- In my opinion, the game could be a lot more responsive. It just doesn't feel 'tight' to me. Some actions are not registered when they are engaged. And some combos are just a pain to execute. For example the "escape dodge roll" was not always pain-free to execute. Instead of having one evading escape maneuver, it is clearly segmented in a regular short back-dash in to another longer back roll.

- Guardbreaks and Counter-guardbreaks are not polished as they ought. The window that you have to counter-guardbreak someone is pathetically small, it's ridiculous. Throwing a grappled opponent in given direction is not always the easiest either.

- It'd be great if I could decide on my own if I want my mouse to have a certain sensitivity to the left, right or up. As of now, when the sensitivity allows for quick enough reflexes, it almost always goes through top stance (and sometimes even a full rotation). When it is lowered enough that it goes directly from side to side, the sensitivity is so low, that my reflexes are faster than the game allows me to be. It'd be awesome if I can have side-to-side sensitivity be high, but top sensitivity be slightly lowered. That would alleviate alot of problems I had during gameplay.

- There is such a noticeable delay when the Raider runs up to grab someone to run-throw them that it is silly. As soon as the Raider hits the opponent, they ought to be picked up. Now, there is a split second where the Raider are in contact with the opponent, but the throw does not trigger as it should.

- Attacks from behind should be unblockable. Now, I have seen 3 people stand in every direction of a defending player, and the defender blocks all 3 of the attacks, including from behind.

- The peacekeepers bleed damage needs to be significantly lowered. The guardbreak to triple rib stab's damage is just stupid.

- Another game mode where you can play 3v3 would be neat!


This is just some of the constructive criticism I have to share with you all. I want to stress that I have had a fun time overall with this game and am looking forward to purchasing it (especially if most, if not all, of the above points are resolved) come launch day. Thanks to the devs for making a game with promise and potential, thanks to the overall nice community of players, and thanks to my brother who invited me to the closed beta!


Thankfully,


Aesthetris