I'm playing Maneater today and it's frustrating because I can tell that I'll love this game if I learn it, but it's doing a bad job teaching. It throws a big enemy at you immediately, gives you four combat tip prompts to somehow memorize, and then never tells you them again.
Usually in games like this the combat moves are somewhere in the pause screen but not here so it's like, okay, what did it say? Something about how if the enemy glows they're vulnerable? What does glowing look like?
There's a lock-on, but it disconnects and I have no idea why, so I'm constantly swinging the camera around trying to find and lock back on to the giant alligator biting me to death.
Also if you touch the surface of the water, which you will do because this environment is shallow, the game goes "oh okay you must be done fighting now." So you have to press the button to get out of surface mode and dive back down, while the alligator is eating parts of you.
I'm getting a little better but wow, this game is weirdly technical for being a goofy shark rpg. In water or air you really need a good lock-on, like in a Zelda game, but that is not how this works. Lock-on breaks if enemy leaves screen, aka every time you hit it.
If you're locked on you don't automatically move to face the enemy, locked on just means "when you hit attack, you attack this thing." So you can't like, target and strafe and dodge, because if the enemy moves it breaks the lock on and you have to scramble to press it again.
So instead of holding lock on and staying there, you keep button mashing to re-engage it, which is such a strange decision. Also the button you mash is R3, aka clicking the stick.
Oh and also, hitting lock-on tries to auto-target threats, and there obviously can be multiple on the screen, so while you're trying to fight the alligator you might turn and target some rando fish instead
It works if you're running around on solid ground, but this Dark Souls UNDERWATER. You don't just run toward your opponent, you also have to manually steer yourself in their direction, while they're able to move anywhere they want.
I could get used to this if I really want to, but I'm over an hour in and still frustrated by the lack of prompting and the weirdly hardcore controls. Such a strange decision to make a shark RPG with a parody reality show theme this difficult to play.
4.5 hours later and I still don't feel in control of the combat at all. I feel like I'm throwing darts with a blindfold on. Maybe I'm just bad at it but again, nothing in the game TEACHES me, other than tutorial text that gets piled on you at the beginning and is never seen again
It's frustrating because I like everything else about the game. The tone is fun, the collectible little setpieces are great, the upgrade system is good. I just can't keep my eyes on enemies to fight them. I've been stuck for 30 minutes because I can't get past two grunt enemies.
