izigame.me

you don't have to listen to all of the feedback during beta, but the rating here will speak for itself.
let's admit this new map is an unfinished mess.
edit: I really understand a lot of the positive reviews that "don't understand those negative reviews."
the thing they are missing is: you being able to clear a game does not make the game mechanics healthy.
this DLC receiving so much hate comparing to the base game despite those players yelling they can clear it, proves my point.
looking down on the negative reviews while failing to notice the unhealthy design(s) in the DLC is indeed, a skill issue.
edit2:
now that the economy/shop makes more sense, let's talk about curse.
the design is pretty cool to begin with. when cursed, a lot of items/weapons become stronger, therefore making them more useful and that allows more diverse builds across runs.
on top of that, cursed enemies have more stats and drop more materials.
so in theory, curse should make the runs more fun on average, right?
no.
1. cursed enemies have 2x the hp, some extra damage&speed but only drop 33% more materials (after it was buffed from 20%, yes, 20%).
that 33% more materials usually won't make a noticeable difference because most of the time you will only have 1 cursed enemy coming towards you with its non-cursed allies.
but it is this 1 cursed enemy with extra hp & other stats who can ruin your plan.
if you used to be able to one-shot this enemy, now you probably don't. and the extra firepower/time you need to invest into killing this one can easily start a chain reaction.
the trouble caused by this one cursed enemy greatly outvalues the extra material(s) it drops.
2. curse is really really hard to build up when you are not playing as certain characters. you need more curse to gain access to more curse but you start with 0.
currently we only have limited ways to get the curse stat. when you don't have a significant amount of curse, you can:
kill sea pigs to get curse+1, buy corrupted shard for curse+1 or hope for rare curse items to show up.
and you need to get, like, alot of them. or you are lucky enough to encounter fish hook.
for the majority of the runs, even if you grab all curse available, you still won't get enough curse to make it significant.
but when you do grab all curse available, it is pretty certain that you will encounter cursed enemies that can ruin your run.
3. when you do get lucky, you are still not there yet.
say you happen to be lucky enough to buy a fish hook at wave 14. you lock your dream weapon for 5 waves straight. what is the chance that it is still not cursed?
0.8^5=32.768%.
and then there is the -1 shop slot debuff you give yourself just for this nonsense.
cursed weapons are indeed strong. but in this dlc, dice rolls you!
same thing with the curse stat in general, how often is it for a random item/weapon you can't use to be cursed and those in your build isn't cursed? after you got so much curse stat?

at this stage I really can't say curse is healthy for the gameplay. too much risks and sacrifices required but often no significant reward. and then if you hit the jackpot, difficulty 5 becomes a walk in the park because cursed weapons are just ridiculous. 3 common scenarios exist here:
1. player tries to avoid the curse stat, resulting in reduced map size for the player because player has to dodge sea pigs at the edges of the map. also some items can't be purchased.
2. player has low curse, nothing significant in the shop gets cursed, player fights against cursed angler fish/summoners/etc for no significant reward.
3. player gets a lot of curse/ gets fish hook early, destroys everything in difficulty 5, game becomes boring.
in all three scenarios, the curse stat makes the game less fun. and actually getting a healthy amount of curse usually lead to scenario 3 because why shouldn't you buy more when they show up all the time?

here are some ways to fix it:
1. sea pigs drop a corrupted shard item instead of giving 1 curse on kill. (and players can choose to recycle it after the wave finishes)
this allows players to choose to play a run without curse at all while not required to dodge the sea pigs.
2. force a fish hook to appear in the shop at wave X if the player has no fish hook in the inventory.
maybe wave 10 is a good place, when players have elites/hordes to deal with very soon, and will need to decide if they want to lock something for long-term gains.
if players don't want it, they can simply reroll the shop.
alternatively, a fish hook can appear in the shop when a player reaches X curse for the first time in a run. this can boost their curse building significantly.
this change makes it possible for more runs to actually use the curse mechanism at all. and it makes curse builds way more consistent.
this also will not make runs too identical, because cursed items/weapons are still randomized every run.
3. pity mechanism for fish hook(s).
every time a locked item/weapon fails to be cursed, the chance for it to be cursed in the next shop increases (by like at least 20%).
pretty straightforward change. 32.768% chance to still not be cursed after being locked for 5 waves is pretty much nonsense to begin with.
4. nerf cursed weapons. they are simply too strong.

I really like this game and I hate to see it fail like this.
even if the devs won't read this I still have people liking my review, so whatever.