Rayman 2: Redreamed Demo

I download & played it & I loved it, the level looks amazing to music sounds great & that short art style cut-scene looks great & as an artist I know colorful art when I see it, I do like the game-play but one thing that troubled me was the controls.

I tried to connect my controller to the game but I could not get it to work & playing it with the mouse & keyboard was not great, trying to control Rayman was not too bad but controlling the camera with the mouse was terrible, now don't get me wrong I'm a big Rayman fan but when you do complete the whole game could you make sure to find a way make it so I can play with a game controller thank you & good luck with finishing game.

This "remake" of Rayman 2, is NOT Rayman 2.

The Visuals and UI are nice and pretty.
The Voice Acting was so terrible that I instantly turned down the Voices to 0% after the first line Rayman spoke.
The Gameplay feels too floaty, and Rayman's Jump feels ESPECIALLY weird. Like, the peak of his Jump is way too high.
Yes, the original game also had a super high going Jump, but in this demo specifically it felt like Rayman was getting propelled up by telekinesis rather than him actually jumping.
The Combat felt absolutely terrible, mainly because of the afformentioned Jump, but still.
Now.
For the level design.
It's a weird mix of Rayman 2, Rayman Revolution and some completely new and original shit that was added for no reason.
Genuinely I do not know why they felt the need to add parts to levels that used to be a simple loading screen.
Like, just put the part of the level that used to be there, THERE, instead of hiding it away somewhere else.
Some hallways got extended for no reason, the updraft section got completely butchered from a nice and serene section where your gliding skills are being tested, into a section with unnecessary combat and somehow LESS updrafts than originally.

I know it's only a demo for now, and things can improve over time, and I REALLY hope that they do. But for now, I cannot say that I like this so far.

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.

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.

I tested on Fedora Linux and works pretty great on Proton 9.0.4!, i really love the look, very colorful and full of personality, the gameplay is a bit floaty but the controls responds very well.