It has been a long time coming, but with much sweat and tears I can officially say that version 1.1 is now going live! The Difficulty update has many features that have been requested by fans and I'm proud to bring them to you.
First up, we have a Gallery Mode that will be available from the stage select. As you defeat levels you'll be able to get a small bit of trivia on the enemies, allies and places found in CRISIS Command. It has been a fun challenge to set up all the entries, and I hope you enjoy getting the whole menu filled!
For those of you that have felt the game is too hard, I have added an Easy difficulty. This isn't just a rebalance of enemy damage and call it a day. I have done some work in the level and story structure to make it both easier yet fulfilling. Inspired by games like the original release of Castle of Illusion, this easy mode will have less levels to conquer, smaller areas to traverse and a redone enemy layout to make it a bit easier to figure out how to play the game. It even comes with its own What-if ending to fit the smaller size. It's a great way to get a feel for the game. When it gets more comfortable, you can then crank up a new playthrough on normal and feel the game as originally designed.
And for those of you who want some old school, Nintendo action? I've developed a Hard mode to remove those pesky breathing spaces that make the action feel broken up. Not only do enemies hit harder, but they are also faster and will come at you more frequent. Some of the enemies are even in devious locations to keep you on your toes. You'll definitely want to scour every level to save civilians to keep up with this challenge!
Finally, achievements are now added to the Steam and Epic version of the game! This has been long requested but I didn't have the bandwidth originally to get the APIs integrated properly. These are fully working now, with a full list of achievements for you to hunt down. Some hidden ones as well. Good luck getting them all!
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Full patch notes are as follows:
- Created a Gallery option in the Stage Select to reference all the unlocked entries
- Created a new Gallery Menu that will show enemies, allies and entities that have been covered during the game
- Added the ability to select a difficulty when starting a new game: Easy, Normal, Hard
- Rebalanced the story to fit the new narrative for Easy mode
- Added a new ending to the game for those that complete Easy mode
- Reduced the number of enemies for the 4 levels available in Easy mode. You should have amply opportunity to get used to the game and its systems now!
- Enemy power has been reduced when playing on easy mode to take some of the edge off of the combat.
- Adjusted the layout of the lightning gauntlet in the Power Plant level. Now you can actually see the lightning before it tries to kill you!
- Made the kill shot from the Tower Topplier and a few other bosses a little smaller. It should be easier to dodge now?
- Adjusted the enemy placement in every level for hard mode. You want Nintendo hard? You got it!
- Adjusted enemy damage for Hard mode. Be ready to dodge and parry, because you'll need every edge to stay alive.
- Added custom logos for CRISIS and Dread Corps for the gallery
- Achievements have been added to the game. They can be unlocked on both Steam and Epic.
- Corrected a sound glitch with the plasma torch. It no longer tries to rev up like a chainsaw playing a bell when fired.
- Cleaned up some embarrassing typos in the dialog. I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed.
- Updated some of the fonts used in the game to help with readability. Finding a modern font that scales to low pixel sizes is harder than I thought!
- Updated the drop rate tables for items to take into account the difficulty. You'll see 25% more on Easy and 25% less on Hard.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes when a roturret was destoryed the barrel would still exist and shoot at you. No phantom gunners here, mister!
- Corrected the Birdbomber sometimes not spawning correctly. Some of us got tired of stealth bombers showing napalm at Astra!
Known Issues that I'm still looking into:
- Sometimes platforms with grinders can hurt enemies but not friendlies. Maybe the universe wants to make things easier, but that ain't playing fair.
- Every once in a great while Astra gets stuck on a small ledge. The doctors say it's less frequent now, but the healing process has begun. Hopefully I can get the last of those issues addressed.
- Sometimes the "Press button to Skip Dialog" button is partially visible when Odin is talking. Maybe it likes stalking him? I'm still looking into it.
The last few months have finally accumulated in this update, and I'm proud of how the game has turned out. I'm not sure how much more updates I'll be able to give CRISIS Command without splitting my attention, so any improvements will be coming at a slower pace after this. If you do have issues or requests, you can use the Steam forums or reach out to my official email address with anything you discover. I'll document everything, no matter how small.
Thank you for your continued support. I hope to continue to journey with you in CRISIS Command and beyond!