Incremental Carnis review
3

After playing the game and reading the comments, I mostly have to agree with Shenna. The idea is pretty good, but the implementation has a few issues, mainly with the game's math and balance.

The positives:

-Good, simple art. The ending is pretty cool.

-Good atmosphere. I actually had glimpses of the feeling of playing a Lovecraftian game. I wouldn't say it's particularly immersive, but after a while, you start to get a feel for the vibe.

-Good sound design.

-Simple and easy to understand mechanics.

Now, the negatives:

-It's too clicky. Most of the game relies on clicking, and even with the automation you're still basically required to click if you want to progress at a decent pace. Another downside is that you can finish the game with an autoclicker in less than three minutes. I tested it, and even stopping to buy some relics and a few other things, I finished the game in 2:59. I'd advise limiting clicking to around 4 or 5 clicks per second and balancing the game around that, rather than relying on extremely fast clicking. Automation should eventually do most of the heavy lifting.

-The economy is also very grindy. Everything is unnecessarily expensive, especially considering that you have to buy the cultists again every time you purchase something.

-The capture section is pretty weak. The bonus is temporary, so you have to constantly go back and forth between the main screen to click and the capture screen to capture more creatures. And it probably isn't worth doing, since clicking is often more effective. For instance, a vermin yields 3 blood per second for 30 seconds, which means 90 blood in total. But you already get 11 blood per click, so clicking just 8 times is basically equivalent to capturing a vermin. A livestock creature gives you 25 blood per second for 60 seconds, for a total of 1,500 blood. However, if you get Blood Frenzy, you can click for 110 blood, meaning one livestock is roughly equivalent to 14 clicks in frenzy. It's just not that powerful. As I said, you still have to rely heavily on clicking.

-Capping the automation is also detrimental, since you have to buy the cultists all over again. This makes you spend even more blood than the actual cost of the Spasm or any other automation upgrade. For example, a Spasm costs 800 blood (500 + 3 cultists), and it doesn't feel like it pays off. Even if it eventually does after two or three minutes of buying it, depending on your Communion, in the short term it just feels like it slows you down rather than feeling like meaningful progress.

The good thing is that all of this can be fixed. The core idea is pretty neat, but I think the game needs to focus more on automation, reduce the requirements for each level so that progression isn't so grindy, and perhaps add more levels or other elements to keep things interesting.

Hope it helps!

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