CULTIC Demo - Extreme Difficulty Run

CULTIC is an in-development Retro FPS game that just got a 1-level demo on Steam. It looks promising, taking elements from BLOOD and DUSK with its own visual style, but boy does it have some MAJOR fucking technical issues.

The GOOD:
+ The sound design is fucking great
+ The weapons are satisfying, if mundane
+ I enjoy the visuals, although they do have issues
+ More voxel objects than you can shake a stick at
+ Lower difficulties are very very generous on random drops from enemies

The BAD:
- Restarting the level has a 50/50 chance of making the Hatchet at the start unobtainable.
- Enemy sprites are all extremely similar, and with the colour filter it's difficult to tell at a distance if enemies have firearms or to even see them at all.
- It's also hard to be sure which weapons are which on the Selection Wheel when using it under pressure.
- The "shine" that ammo and health items have makes them impossible to see a lot of the time. I completed the opening few minutes of the game with just the Hatchet because I couldn't see the Pistol in the very first room.
- Enemies have instantaneous reaction times on Extreme difficulty, as well as being perfectly accurate with firearms.
- It's possible to change to a sort of "holstered weapon" slot and be unable to equip any weapon until the game is completely closed and reopened.
- Enemies can't hear fighting in the same room, but can sometimes see or hear you from large distances away, through several walls.
- Weapon damage seems very unpredictable too - I'm guessing it has damage randomization, but that means if you're unlucky, you'll run dry of ammo no matter how frugal you are. You'll see this in the footage with the Shotgun in particular, where headshots are unreliable.
- You will respawn at Checkpoints facing the wrong way, without fail.
- Enemies sometimes come back to life around you when you load Checkpoints after death. This can make the ammo balance even worse.
- Enemies can clip through you, meaning they can pass through you to attack you from behind, making the Hatchet hazardous to use.
- Enemies can outright shoot through walls sometimes. They can also perfectly gauge throwing arcs for Hatchets and Dynamite even if they can't see you.

And these are just the problems I can remember while I type this. I know there are bugs I've forgotten.

Long story short: CULTIC is an interesting spiritual sequel to BLOOD that I want to see more of, but it needs a shitload of improvements and several more passes on the art, optimization, and intended design features.