Multiplayer does look incredibly fun and unique. The gameplay looks very dynamic thanks to the constant change in ink layout during the match and the Super Jump which allows for other players to jump back into the action immediately. What I'd really like to see though is confirmation on multiple multiplayer modes. For instance, I could see a Capture the Flag style game working well with the gameplay. I could see a lot of strategy developing around how to navigate the arena as quickly as possible to find the flag and other players supporting the faster players to make it easier to find the flag and get back to base.
But I'm more excited for single player, partially because I just like single player games better but also because the trailer implies that the single player is very well designed. The game seems to use the core mechanics very well, a lot of the level gimmicks play off the ink mechanics and swimming very well and seem to provide an excellent mix of shooting, platforming, and a little bit of stealth as well. There's a lot of subtle things in the trailer that show this (I actually didn't pick up on a lot of these things until I saw some analysis videos):
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0:50: Notice when the player approaches the Octopi that question marks appear over their heads while she's swimming through the ink, which turn to exclamation points when the player pops out. This implies that you can swim in the ink to sneak up on enemies. The Twitter account later confirms this, but mentions that it only works on certain types.
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0:54: This scene shows a moving platform with a grate in the middle and an Octopus shooting at the player. The player shoots ink on the platform and quickly dives through the ink while the platform is moving to the left to quickly dodge the enemy and attack them from another angle.
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0:59: The player is shooting ink into the fan to make it move, but if you notice when the player stops shooting ink, the fan starts to move backwards. This means that you need to shoot a steady stream of ink at the fan or else it will move back to its starting position. The Twitter account adds more information about these blocks and says that enemies can jump onto it. This means that you have to be very careful about how you use these, if you go too slow then you're vulnerable to enemies and if you move around too much you waste ink.
-There's several ink based traps in the levels. One is shown in at
1:09 which dumps ink as it moves along and seems to cause instant death. Another is shown at
1:18 where you can shoot a grate and it will spout out a pillar of ink which you can use to your advantage.
From the looks of it, single player is going to have that same dynamic feel as multiplayer, but it's also going to provide a challenge for you where you need to use the core mechanics and the level design to your advantage. You can really tell that they put a lot of thought into this game.
