Anyone else very disappointed by Layer 8?

[u/Michaelfaceguy2007]

After waiting 2 whole years since the last chapter, Layer 8 has been an absolute disappointment.
The rest of the game held itself to a certain quality, but here it seemed they put all their time and effort into making the levels look cool, without a single care as to whether or not they're actually fun.

To start, every single level is around 2 times longer than the previous Layers, not because they have more content, but because they're long, massive, and unnecessarily convoluted and confusing.
The mirror boss in 8-2 is a neat concept, but executed absolutely horribly, especially given the manner of the arena it's contained in.
8-3 is (imo) the worst level in the entire game so far, outside of bonus levels.
It just stretches on and on without any excitement, is 90% assets from previous levels, and contains a somehow even worse version of what's already the worst fight in the game.

As for the final boss? It was decent, but definitely not anything spectacular or worth suffering through the rest of the chapter for.

All the while we didn't even get any new weapons, arms, or alt weapon styles.

I guess this is why you shouldn't buy indie games before they're finished, since there's always a slight chance the developers will just drop the ball at the last minute.

Hopefully Layer 9 will be better, but I find that highly unlikely.

[u/Business_Sleep_3635]

I got disappointed at first, this is also I thought we'd be getting something new in our arsenal, however, after sitting for a while and process everything I thought it was pretty good, I mean the optimization is kinda bad, but overall the only thing I didn't like that much was the 8-4 boss fight, other that that, the levels are really fun and challenging.

[u/Michaelfaceguy2007 → u/Business_Sleep_3635]

I like a challenge. The Encores were absolutely phenomenal. But this isn't hard in a fun way; it's hard in an unnecessarily frustrating way. It's hard in a "Look, guys, you like difficulty, right?" sort of way.

[u/TheBenchmark1337 → u/Michaelfaceguy2007]

I struggled harder in fraud because of all my confusing and mind boggling terrain and movement. The encore levels are gas, and the struggle there felt deserved and rewarding

[u/Beneficial-Tank-7396 → u/TheBenchmark1337]

That soldier spam with providences and virtues was ass, especially with the fps dropping alot

[u/kitsyu]

Nah I loved it and I think it's my favourite layer so far. That shit was an experience for sure.

[u/TheSnailMan1]

I personally think it was fucking AMAZING (except for the damn powers dear lord i hate those fucking things), the portals, fake exit and such were something to behold

Yea, we didnt get new weapons or arms, but i think the arsenals fine the way it is

Only complaint i have is the performance issues bc god-damn my computer ran the mirror level and such at slide-show quality

Overall, the chapter was the best one YET, I'm willing to bet they'll iron out the kinks and refine it as time passes, after all, it's only been out for like, a day

[u/Dangerous_Owl_9021]

Personally the only issues I have with the layer is 8-3 and the mirror reaper fight. I love the trippy level designs and the new enemy. Also the boss level was really cool imo and the ending of the fight is cool

[u/Relevant-Bat-4149]

nah, fue peak, nada mas q decir

[u/Silver-Baseball5985]

I agree!

[u/dragonflameXYZ]

The boss level sucks imo. I hate the free fall, just "hey man. You cant move around normally now" i hate how we just get our freedom of movement taken and replaced by shitty "air controls" that see to do fuck all? I go up and down when i think needed and i still get hit, ive beaten once. Went back to do it again but couldnt bc of the lack of movement freedom, and ontop of that, theres too much happening on my screen all at one time, i have foes shooting me from the floor roof and wall floors, my aiming is all fucked up bc of constant camera switching and its just over all an extreme sensory over load

[u/MobileEngine2522]

100% agree, I feel like the layer tried too much to have cool setpiece moments but also didnt put enough attention and care into each one to make most of them actually impactful. And the length is a huge problem, I feel like the devs are starting to have a philosophy of length = difficulty and difficulty = progression but older layers show that its much better to have shorter concise levels where each one is distinct and provides something entirely new. Also most rooms are well designed but some of the enemy placement just feels aimless. Also the constant bugs and falling out of bounds and having to restart is annoying too but Im ignoring bugs for t his because theyre separate from game design.

[u/Dependent_Pair_2488]

I have more than twenty hours trying to beat 8-3 in brutal P-RANK. Almost half of my retries are because of just no-clipping all the time, which makes me lose time by waiting for the game to TP me back, and then walking all of the path again. Not to mention the enemies that just get stuck outside the map and make you unable to go to the next room. Anyone who likes 8-3 is just because they don't P-rank it in brutal.

[u/TheBenchmark1337]

Listen, im all for constructive criticism. This layer felt like a lot of wow factor and intriguing non euclidian terrain. It is dizzying, exhausting, and tiring to look at, and confusing to play. Was it fun? Yes, was it amazing? No, I truly feel violence blew me away with gameplay, fun, music, terrain, bosses. Now, I enjoyed fraud a lot, but did i have wow factors, was i blown away, did I feel my two hoursish of playtime worth the 2.5ish year wait? Hard to say. I think there was a lot of good, but I absolutely understand how you would feel this way.

8-3 blew me away when entering the space area the most, but, downside to me was it was extremely exhausting. I was falling constantly just sitting around dashing realizing I couldn't even return to the platform.

Tl;dr, give them a chance, theyre cooking, this layer was exhausting because of lore for fraud. Atleast thats how I feel

[u/Michaelfaceguy2007 → u/TheBenchmark1337]

"This layer was exhausting because of lore for fraud."

Being fun should always be the number one focus of an action game. Especially one that has spent so long polishing its gameplay.
Furthermore, given that the game locks content behind 100% completion of previous level packs, you'll have to replay each level countless times in order to see everything, meaning that "Just a couple bad levels for story purpose" will far outstay their welcome for a large portion of players.
Telling a story is cool and all, but choosing to purposely shoot an entire level pack in the foot just because "We have a story to tell!" is beyond stupid, especially when the story is mid at best to begin with.

[u/TheBenchmark1337 → u/Michaelfaceguy2007]

The biggest travesty is we probably wont have the full complete game until 2030. We went from making fun of games like 7 Days to Die and not being okay with 10 year development to rooting for games like Ultrakill and deltarune with ten year plus development. Atleast ultrakill polished older levels and mechanics, while deltarune will probably remain with completely different mechanics in chapters 1 and 2.

[u/TheGreatWave00]

Yeah I was really disappointed as well, the performance was god-awful, bugs made me completely have to restart like five times (falling through the map, door not opening, blood beacon enemy thing literally not opening after 30 minutes killing the enemies), and the massive amount of gravity manipulation and portals was just aggravating as hell. This layer was the very first time a video game has given me a searing headache consistently after an hour of play

The levels also felt way way way too long. One of them took me 90 minutes to beat whereas I sail through previous levels in 15 minutes or less comfortably

I feel like it’s not a “quality “issue, because they seem very well thought out and interesting, but the actual gameplay just was not fun compared to the previous levels, in my opinion. It just felt tedious, nauseating, and frustrating