Re: parasite in city
Alright, well I got this game yesterday and immediately fell in love with the controls. Uses almost entirely 3 keys on the left side, other than the A-key stomp, which is still ergonomic given the layout-- that's the most important thing in any game, of any genre: not being screwed by floaty or unnecessarily difficult controls. For that matter, the creator succeeded in something I never thought possible: Making an up-key jump -feel- comfortable. The controls have a great pseudo-horror vibe by being slightly limiting, making jumps require controlled presses else while you're being chased by a horde is great, and the ability to kick every enemy in the game to death after a little look at their attack pattern, but not by running up and blind-kicking? Brilliance. Having the reload burn the rest of the ammo in a clip, making it more of a decision-making process, having just enough ammo to get by if you're sparing with it, and having health pickups juuuust often enough... all great things. I specifically remember one fly trap that pulled an old horror standard: you walk past, gun drawn... nothing. But when you head back after picking up a clip of ammo, it pops, leaving you between it and a wall. Not that the game is scary, but it has a nice stress to it by minimizing checkpoints and such. In fact, the nearest to poor design practice I can find is that the hose-heads throw a bit too many huggers if you dawdle or go the wrong way, and it can be hard to clear those out as they keep being thrown. Still, hardly game-breaking, albeit I've yet to find a way to clear what I presume is the final boss (has a health bar, tentacles).
I've been seeing more and more high-quality RoR sort of games lately-- although, by 'lately', I suppose I mean in the past year or so. Not sure why, might just be narcissism of a twisted nature, but I'm really enjoying the female-protagonist trend in them, too. Then again, my preferences are more sapphic in nature, so perhaps that explains it... speaking of, the female zombie's animation comes across as somewhat... brief. Contrast to the flies, which have two sex animations and the 'birthing' animation, any of the three of which are twice the duration. Just to nitpick a bit. Speaking of, is there a use/purpose for the 'C' command? I mean, beyond the, um, obvious fanservice-- by all means, it'd be a shame not to have the animations, but I'm just curious as to if there's any in-game reason to use it (invincibility frames or canceling some vaguely stated status effect or whatever).
Anywhos, but my actual -reason- for posting was originally to ask if a guide for this game had any demand. I've written some pretty elaborate guides in the past, and I think I could make a walkthrough if anyone's interested. I myself only need help with the boss, but even so, I could get past that with a bit more trial-and-error, I'm sure. But with a few replays, I can do the levels prior to that point practically blindfolded (beat level 1 without the gun on a whim-- flies are a pain to stomp), and so I can give broad-range advice (say, for example, if someone somehow burns all their ammo at the start of a level and 'needs' to know how to kick, punch, turn and chop... their way through the level). Could also provide directions through level 1 (I'm sure people get lost their first time through), point out where foreground foes emerge in stage 2, and basically make a speedrun guide for stage 3, since that's what it rather requires to get through with any ease.
As a sample, here's an unarmed combat guide:
Key Terms:
Kick: The Z-key straight kick attack.
Stomp: The A-key low kick attack.
Duck/Crouch Kick: While holding DOWN, the A-key kick attack.
Jump: The UP key high jump.
Leap: The UP key while running long jump.
Chain-Kick: Kicking a hit-stunned enemy, pausing for a half-second to move slightly forwards, then kicking again, locking them in hit-stun. Any standing foe is generally defeated by dodging their attack and following up with this.
Quick-Turn: While running, switching instantly to the opposite movement key (RIGHT to LEFT, or LEFT to RIGHT), causing the protagonist to use the 'turn' animation. Useful for baiting out and dodging standing foes' attacks.
Zombie: Pretty simple, they start their attack assuming you'll run into them. Use the quick-turn to run at them and turn back right before you 'reach' them, then just quick-turn back and kick them. After the hit-stun, simply chain-kick them to death. Six kicks to kill; no need to stomp the corpses.
Fat Zombie: A bit more difficult, as their charge covers quite some distance and they have more health, but the same idea applies. Don't run too close to them, and give them time to charge (it has a startup delay) before moving in for the chain-kicks. 10 kicks to kill [needs citation, estimate].
Female Zombie: A bit more difficult, but with the same HP as the normal zombie. They attack with a wrench from about twice the distance, and have a slight startup delay for their attack. While chain-kicking after the hit-stun, you can still mash the kick key, but keep in mind that they have invulnerability frames after being hit-- it may be safer to time your kicks with a slight delay, or to use the quicker-animation stomp. Interesting note, during those invulnerability frames, you can move through them sometimes, which is handy if surrounded.
(With a gun, standing enemies are as easy as firing straight ahead, generally, and take half the kick count to kill. Only use the gun if against more than one foe at a time unless there's a difference in height, i.e. you're on top of a bus).
Flies: True to their name, they fly erratically about the area. Luckily, they don't do much to chase you, outside of the first few moments after spawning a nest. Keep your distance at max gun range and fire as they're at a near-perfect diagonal or straight ahead (you may need to duck while shooting for some angles). They only take one bullet, so you can generally afford to shoot them. If you're without bullets, however, it becomes a bit riskier, especially fighting multiple. Remember that you can only kick one at a time, but you can stomp any number at-once [needs citation]. Ideally, you let them come to you after getting in-range, and hit them at a chest-height level with a kick, then stomp them on the ground for the kill (they take 2 kicks to kill, or one stomp [needs citation]). Take your time and be methodical about stomping their corpses. Not that if they land, they cannot be hit by any attack, and their movement becomes less patterned, so be careful of when they start walking on the walls-- wait for them to take off. If caught by a fly and it 'finishes', be sure to wait for a while for the status to wear off, or it may kick in at a bad time later.
Huggers: The floor-crawling worm-ish creatures that hop in a little flipping movement at you. Takes one bullet or two kicks or one stomp [needs citation] to kill, as with flies, but they move more predictably. The tradeoff is that they're harder to pick off at a range before they start after you. The easiest way to hit them is to shoot at chest-height as they jump when you move into range, but sometimes they hop low-- generally when under platforms. In that case, fire downwards after that jump, which shouldn't reach you. If you're so unlucky as to be without bullets, they become much more problematic. You can time a kick for their jump, but you must stomp them afterwards, and they land a distance away. Add to that their tendency to attack in swarms due to the hose-heads, and you have yourself a nice reason to retry the level, more often than not. Their range will always be more than you expect it to be, and their attack always sooner; don't drop your guard around these annoying buggers. The bright side, however, is that if surrounded, you can escape by jumping/leaping for the invincibility frames, as you can phase through them, unlike standing foes.
Hose-Heads: Chain-kick them to death. Unless you stand still in front of them, I've not seen one able to attack first. Generally, the huggers mean you'd rather shoot hose-heads, so just aim for chest-height to hit the huggers out of the air as well. Takes 4 bullets or 8 kicks, discounting shots burnt on huggers. The key is to reach their platform quickly, not stopping to fight any huggers that aren't directly in your way, or the hugger buildup will become all but insurmountable.
Tentacle Boss: Coming soon! For now, just know that melee range is a poor choice, and standing still a worse one.
Welp, that's my wall-of-text for the day. Tl;dr: fun game, wish more followed this winning formula of solid controls, nice animeted H, and fun gameplay. Let me know if you'd like a guide written up, and any tips on the boss are welcome.