izigame.me

Overall, I really REALLY want to love this game. I love the procedural generated aspect of it. I love the atmosphere. I love the overall aesthetic. But there is so many little things in this game that just drive me and my friends up the wall whenever we try to play it for any long term sessions (instead of just leaving the game open in the background).
First and foremost, the game is just unbearably dark. I am on a VA panel based monitor and any indoor map even with the brightness set to max is just basically impossible to see, even with the flashlight or lantern sometimes. I think this has something to do with how Unity handles global lighting / gamma since I have experienced similar issues in other Unity-based games, but there really needs to be some sort of additional ambient light sources for indoor maps like Sewer and the Crypts, be it candles, emergency lights, anything. You are at such an overwhelming disadvantage on those maps my friend group and I just end up skipping them almost every time.
There are also just several quality of life things that would improve this game immensely:
- Map names below the photo thumbnails in the case files so we can see what map is being picked. Some of the photo thumbnails are so dark they end up looking the same as other maps.
- Improved single use map item with a player marker on it that periodically fades into focus. Doesn't need to be constant, but as soon as you fill in the map it becomes pretty much useless without any sense of direction of where you are, especially on the MASSIVE maps.
- Massive maps in general are horrifically awful to play because of how difficult they are to navigate. There is basically no incentive right now to play massive maps aside from novelty. Maps above a certain size need additional navigational guides and ease of pathing so that players can navigate them more readily and frequently without getting caught in endless loops. Honestly, if a map is as massive as the Amazon temple nonsense, then it should have multiple escape avenues and puzzles that qualify. Give us 3-4 puzzles on a big map, but you only need to do 2 and then can escape. Or at least make it so that if you die on these maps, you spawn at the last saferoom you entered.
- Completing maps on a higher difficulty should ABSOLUTELY count for challenges that specify a lower difficulty. It is ridiculous that they don't and just pads out needless progressional tedium instead of rewarding people for playing on the higher difficulties.
- Sometimes there is just too much interaction between the monsters and player for a puzzle-based game. Some puzzles become a chore to try and complete because they don't qualify as safezones that the monsters steer clear of. There needs to be a better balance struck between the amount of engagement time between the monster and player vs downtime for the player so that they tackle some of the puzzles without being constantly harassed.
- Brick Maze safezones should have a different color from the rest of the map.
- Cosmetics should be highlighted. For certain maps it is incredibly easy to miss them since they blend into the background of the map.
Much of this game feels balanced around having a full stack party of 4 with next to no scaling mechanics. They should increase the player limit to 6 or at least make the player limit based on the size of the map (give an actual reason to play the massive maps as I wouldn't be opposed to playing them with 8+ people instead of just me and 1 other person).
I really want to love this game, but there is just so many little things holding it back. I don't even know why I am writing this considering only around 80 people, total, play this game anymore. I just can't recommend it until some basic amenities / quality of life things are met.
Update: Devs are taking feedback. Once most of these are addressed, I will change my review to a positive.