Rayman 2: Redreamed Demo

Praises:
- The Models are fantastic!
- The Texturing is great!
- The level design is pretty faithful and I understand that the areas that are more rough are "loading zones", which I prefer to loading screens.

Complaints:
- The controls sometimes feel slightly delayed
- Rayman's jump feels off, I cant tell exactly why, but it feels off
- Combat feels overall less impactful. Theres no a single reason for this, its a bunch of small factors that results in this (jump, sfx/vfx changes and so on).
- Lighting work can use some work in some areas, it feels super dark sometimes and way less vivid than the original.
- The game could use some extra fog, swampy areas feel way less swampy, mostly due to the lighting changes, but I also feel some light volumetric fog could help.
- The voice acting still feels rough and undercooked but I understand this may be a temporary thing, I also miss the gibberish that I got in the version I played back then, would be cool to have that as an option. Rayman's is the most solid rn, I feel, but the rest of the cast needs a few more takes and, in some cases, a better mic.

Honestly it's a dream come true! I enjoyed every second, you did a great job! Visuals are stunning, music is great, control is smooth, it truly feels like the original game with a modern take.

I agree that the combat is more difficult than in the original game, but I had a blast, it's much more challenging!

The jump critics are a bit harsh I think, it did feel like the original game... maybe it's something to change a bit, regarding modern tastes. I played with a controller and I thought it was really smooth and enjoyable.

Some collision bugs when jumping out of the water.

However the part that I found cheap was the cinematic, it did not live up to the great job you did on the game. Hopefully it will be improved in the final game!

Keep up the good work, you are a wonderful team and did an amazing job, I hope one day we can play the full game!

i hope the full game comes out it looks really good

Looked great! Wish I could play it with my PS5 Controller though. Controls don't feel very good playing it with mouse and keyboard. Need to try playing more of it though. Keep up the amazing work team!

Rayman 2 is my favourite game of all time, so I have a lot of thoughts about this, mostly good.

The visuals- they're great. A really nice modern update, and the lighting is colourful af, which really brings the world to life (the original had baked in textures and minimal environmental lighting). The detailed modeling in the levels is good and charming. I also loved the use of different animation styles, similar to the way that they animate Arcane (the show).

The jump needs work. Rayman's movement speed is too high in the air, making it hard to control him for precise platforming- due to original spacing of the environment. The result is it feels floaty and imprecise.

The combat is harder, due to the shot speed of the pirates and their higher aggression (walking towards the player instead of strafing). I enjoyed the combat but it did get a little repetitive due to the much higher number of enemy encounters. It might be better to make the fights more strategic, or just remove a bunch of them.

The free camera is a good idea, it offers a lot of new perspectives to the levels so i'm a fan of that. The camera also needs to be locked in certain sections tho. Like the climbing barrels section, which worked much better in the original with a fixed camera. I can see you guys have a partially fixed camera in the obstacle course (horizontally locked), so I would suggest adding more camera restrictions in certain sections to make the game flow better and avoid awkward situations with weird camera angles.

I love the change of the connected levels, eliminating the need for loading screens and scene transitions. I also really like the modified level design, like how you actually turn off the the waste pipe and then you are able to swim in the water. It thematically makes sense in the original, which has undertones of environmentalism. The extra level sections were also really good and fit in well.

The biggest downfall is the sound track. The complete redo of melodic motifs is a mistake and doesn't fit in with the rest of the design philosophy of the game. To elaborate, updating the instrument sounds is good (equivalent to updating the textures with the graphics), but actually changing the melodies is bad. That would be like completely redesigning the levels, which nobody wants. Musical motifs are very important for the identity of games and movies. I would be down for the tracks being reharmonised, or even having new sections added, because that is the same approach you have taken with the level design. But redoing the whole thing while only keeping some of the percussive feel and similar instrument sounds is a big mistake. It completely changes the identity of the game.

Overall I can see that this has a lot of love put into it, and it was a pleasure to play. I'm looking forward to playing the completely game in a decade when it is done, haha. The scope of this game is big for an unpaid team.