Feedback/early impressions & thoughts

1

Firstly I'd like to preface this by saying that I'm fully aware the game is in alpha and that I bought it knowing this. I know that things are likely to change over the course of development and It's not my intention to complain about or dishearten the devs I just want to help if possible because I think Inquisitor Martyr has potential to be an amazing game with plenty of breadth and depth.

First up I love the setting, I've never done any tabletop wargaming with 40k but I find the setting incredible, for me it's a massive selling point. I do wonder though, how tightly bound to the lore are you? Have Games Workshop stated that you must stick to it to the letter? I hope they haven't because I think fun and engaging gameplay should come first and foremost and there may be occasions whereby sticking so tightly to predetermined lore could actually do more harm than good. Also the 40k setting seems pretty malleable in itself so there should be plenty of room to experiment regardless.

Next up the combat mechanics. It may not be for everyone but I do like the slower, slightly more methodical combat and I appreciate that with the cover system and ability to control turrets you guys and girls at Neocore are going at the ARPG genre from a slightly different angle, which isn't a bad thing, however some things just don't feel right. I personally feel that as it currently stands the ability to control turrets doesn't add anything to the game and feel they perhaps should be left as just enemies. The control scheme (I am using gamepad) doesn't really make sense to me, it isn't intuitive, also enemies tend to just rush you and end up behind the turret before it even has chance to get a shot off (perhaps in co-op they are better). 

The cover system I would say is sub-par currently although I do think it's a good idea, especially for a game with much shooting. The thing is, with so many enemies firing at you cover often gets blown up mere seconds after you hide behind it, which means most of the time I just don't bother with it. Same goes for enemies hiding behind it, 9 times out of 10 it doesn't stop me from killing them. On top of this it's not always clear if you can shoot an enemy from behind cover, sometimes I can sometimes I cant. there doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. Basically as it currently stands I find the cover system to have a very minor impact on gameplay and would not miss it if it were removed (perhaps it could be reworked, more durability for some tougher parts of cover? deployable strong cover?)

Combat range seems a bit short, even sniper rifles cant target enemies that are near the edge of the screen and often enemies can out-range me with the same or similar guns to what I have. I'm not sure what the deal is there but perhaps the range could be extended and perhaps the camera angle lowered slightly so you can see a bit further.

I quite like the fact you unlock skill trees by performing heroic deeds however I find many of the skill nodes themselves to be underwhelming at the moment which takes away from the pleasure of levelling up and gaining skill points. Perhaps there could be more build enabling skills and more skills that change how certain weapons/abilities function.

I really like the enemy designs and the ranged combat (not tried melee yet) feels nice with most of the weapons (autogun, shotgun and sniper especially feel good) but I feel that perhaps Inquisitor Martyr would benefit from having some mobs or enemies be abit different (special abilities or weapons, varied and random, different levels of rarity, offer better rewards but be more challenging)

Next up the combat skills (guns and melee), they make perfect sense and are perfectly useful in each of their given situations however I think there is something missing. Most ARPG's have a fairly large amount of skills and varying levels of skill customisation but at the minute Inquisitor Martyr doesn't have any of this (If I'm wrong feel free to correct me) I know there are the innoculator skills which can be switched around but I'm referring to the combat skills of the guns and melee weapons. I appreciate that 40k is it's own game but skill customisation is in quite a few of the big ARPG's (Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, Diablo 3) perhaps a system whereby you modify the weapons themselves with different elemental effects, ammunition types, parts, etc could fill this role?

From what I've seen and read crafting look promising and seems to have a fair few layers which is always nice. In all honesty I think that customisation, whether it be of skills, weapons/armor (both how they function and how they look... visual and functional mods, dyes to change colours, etc) missions, male and female for all classes, etc are all big selling points for current ARPG's, it seems that people like to be able to tailor things to their specific playstyle/preference, well that's the impression I get at least. I would love to see this implemented in Inquisitor Martyr. 

I love the design for the sub sectors/systems/planets, I think it is very aesthetically pleasing and clearly displays the information you need to know too. I like the fact there are numerous layers as well. The glory points, fate points, tarot mission crafting, influence, leaderboards, the plans for seasons and new factions/storylines/content/features (being able to buy certain things with fate that you earned is a good call as well in my opinion) are all fantastic plans/features and at the minute I feel these are some of the strongest features of the game.

And finally of course there are bugs and glitches and optimisation issues however it's an alpha so thats to be expected and I have full confidence the devs will address them as they proceed though development.


All in all I think Inquisitor Martyr has a solid base of features and plans and loads of potential but perhaps needs more focus in regards to combat and skills and could also benefit from more customisation options.

Much love and respect to the devs for all their hard work hope you don't mind the feedback, keep at it and I'm sure you'll have a best seller with 40k Inquisitor Martyr.

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Feedback/early impressions & thoughts
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7 years 13 days ago
+1
Very nice write-up, thanks a lot :)