Theyest Thou

unique gameplay mechanic

I quit [i]Theyest Thou[/i] about 1/3rd through, having only made it to the [i]"Wrench"[/i] level. The concept, the graphics, the audio, the setting, the protagonist, the writing, and even the title are all good, but [b][i]TT[/i] itself is downright painful to play[/b]. [h1][i]TT[/i] fits "up the ♥♥♥♥ creek without a paddle" to a T.[/h1] There are three design elements that - if only one or two of them were present - would probably make a fine game. The one you might think [i]TT[/i] is from watching the trailer: the one about setting up a perfect ambush or the one about [i]Hotline Miami[/i]-like stunts. Unfortunately, these three elements form together a brick wall, on which both of these potential games crack their heads. [h2]Brick #1: Your tools are weak.[/h2] Guns - when wielded by you - have abysmal accuracy. [i]"Oh Dragomok, you silly goose"[/i], I can hear you saying, [i]"of course subsequent shots from a levitating gun - that's being hurled back by recoil - would be inaccurate!"[/i] Which of course answers why the [b]first[/b] shot so frequently misses. From a body-length away. [i]From a shotgun.[/i] And accuracy from normally-held guns is not better. If it was, I [i]wouldn't[/i] have initially thought that there was a cheeky hidden mechanic that guarantees a miss if you fire a gun from your meaty arms. Your guns move in awkward manner and, obviously, shatter from getting hit [i]once[/i] - just like you,. [h2]Brick #2: Your enemies are strong.[/h2] Of course, these very same guns transform into [i]faultless machines of death[/i] in the hands of the enemies. They have pinpoint accuracy - in the [i]"BayView"[/i] level, the guard [i]across the room[/i] kept destroying my gun with the very [b]first shot[/b] of [i]the very same [b]shotgun[/b] that can't hit enemy from a step away![/i] They have inhuman reflexes - if they spot you, they will immediately shoot you, without giving you any window of reaction. They have great senses - not only their peripheral vision is top-notch, they can somehow detect when your gun floats behind them. [h2]Brick #3: From robot to savant in under 5s.[/h2] Enemies start each level doing standard videogamey routine of either standing motionlessly in place or following a perfectly looped straight-lined patrol routes. (Pretty standard stuff.) At the sound of your gun firing, they beeline towards it and attempt to shoot it. (Nothing out of ordinary so far.) However, as soon as they (very easily) eliminate said gun, they... they... You know, it feels like one of these things that's really easy to understate, so let me try again: They enter the [b]Elite Anti-Psychic Kill Squad[/b] mode. Their tactics become faultless and unexploitable. They become a bastion of difficulty that can only be broken by sheer blind luck. They suddenly adopt [b]the[/b] optimal - as in, [b]dictionary-definition, pedantic, capital-O "Optimal"[/b] - strategy within the realities of [i]TT[/i]'s mechanics to counter you specifically. (Which means they all pair up, start rapidly spinning out-of-sync, and walking in random directions. It sounds silly, but that means they [i]are[/i] able to shoot all of your guns - and finally you - before you'll be able to shoot them.) [h2]The Three-Brick Wall[/h2] Taken together, it means you're guaranteed to fail in direct combat, a tiny mistake in setting up ambush is likely to warrant a restrat, and the ambush itself is likely to fail without a chance for recovery. Virtually all games with adversarial challenges I've ever played can be thought as an obstacle with some crack in the armour that you can exploit. That is, when you're given faulty tools and pitted against superior enemies, you can at least overcome them with fast reflexes or superior tactics. I can't seem to do that here. [b][i]TT[/i] feels like it's all armour, no crack[/b], and playing it brings no joy, only frustration. [hr][/hr] {PS. There's also a [b]keybinding[/b] complaint. While changing the keys is fast and easy (with no needless prompts about duplicate keys), it turns out you can't change the keys for weapon slots [i]and[/i] all button prompts show only [b]default[/b] keys. Which is an odd mix of exemplary and incompetent.}