I just feel like the developer behind Sonar Shock has a fetish for every terrible UI decision ever made, and has made it his personal mission to combine them all into one game.
The teams behind the actual games being homaged here couldn't jettison that shit fast enough. They understood that crap UI is an impediment, not a goal.
What advantage does the game gain by not having conventional mouse look and redefinable keys? By which I mean, why would the programmer cripple (in the view of most modern gamers) the game by using a control system that presumably no games have used for decades and should at the very least be optional, not mandatory.
I am assuming that it's supposed to add to the immersion by giving us a less practical or more troublesome (and so more reminiscent of the tedium of life) experience, but I'd prefer to play with the conventional WASD + mouse look setup, thanks. I bet the programmer probably adds support for this in an update, rather than limit potential buyers.
Refunded after 20 minutes. The developers might think that lack of mouselook, customizable controls and not being able to keep both melee and a gun is a fun and unique experience, but I strongly disagree. Thankfully, there is a plenty of other awesome games to play.
I have played it for about 4h and yes, this is absolutely worth your time and money - so far. I think, everyone active in this forum should at least try it sometime. I'd prefer the controls to be less oldschool and it sadly doesn't feature the ability to jump but the level design and atmosphere are a love letter to the genre.
It is still a little rough around the edges but it's also still a very fresh (feature-complete) release, developed by a single guy (if i'm not mistaken). I did not come across any game-stopping bugs yet. Whether you want to play it now or give it another couple of months, supporting it now is going to be worth the 8€.