Game Feels Explicitly 'Off'

My feedback to the developers & designers would be to play similar games more. Play Splinter Cell series, SWAT 4, Rainbow Six series and even newer Co-op shooters. I hope the advice I list are accurate, but as they say:

• "Users are great at identifying problems, but not necessarily at proposing the right solutions."

• “Customers are right about problems, not solutions”

My random advice would be to, in no particular order:

• Don’t let the first bullet of the AI hit the player. In many modern shooters the first (or the first few) bullets miss. If you intentionally ‘miss‘ this shot, players can take cover and become aware they are being targeted. You can make the second one way faster if that’ll keep the current difficulty.

  Without this option I’d say you should play some boomer-shooters because your game as-is plays like one. Except there are no health pickups or goofy stuff. Therefore the flow is incoherent.
  To improve upon this while keeping an ‘accurate‘ AI requires a lot more work to approach Ready or Not, Zero Hour, or SWAT 4 (pinnacle of ‘co-op military shooters’, as many online threads will show you) levels. AI needs to react slower, be more predictable and have self-preservation in mind (or in code). You can then shoot at the player, hit, and still serve a satisfactory game.

• Remove the stun-lock from enemies that are shot at. Maybe it has some purpose I don’t get.

• Improve the enemy sounds. I have no idea where the enemies are, or what they are doing in the level. The sounds appear inaccurate, or feel that way.

• Ensure shooting is fun. Yes, enemies getting shot at looks fun but shooting doesn’t feel like it. E.g., why does everyone praise the shooting of Tom Clancy’s Division or Destiny? What is different in your game instead? How does it play compared to more realistic shooters like Arma, Squad or Insurgency? Do you think there is a reason that there are no popular co-op shooters with the Half-Life style of shooting/AI?
  Also, why the current reticle design?

• Provide a familiar platform. Right now I can’t right-click to aim. Some shortcuts go against what users are familiar with. I also don’t see why we wouldn’t have a traditional aiming system… This, personally, reinforces that you do not play many modern shooter games. You can also allow right click to zoom and still lean with the same button…

• Aim at consistent and fun-to-repeat level design. Levels feel like they were made for a different game? Why are there boxes allowing a ‘shortcut‘ in an office space? Why is the office space linear with two corridors leading to two of the same room? Playing them doesn’t make sense, but the best games have memorable designs instead of stacked boxes.

• Guns all feel similar, except how fast they ‘kill‘. They should have noticeable differences in recoil, damage or ‘utility‘.

• No (or very little?) randomness in shooting decals.

Must read:

• “Ben’s small bible of realistic multiplayer level design” by Benjamin Bauer

• “Level Up!” by Scott Rogers

• Some people also recommend “The Art of Game Design” by Jesse Schell

With all that said, I downloaded the Demo because it looks fun. I’m sure on release I’ll look into it again. Keep up the good work and keep in mind the fundamentals.