I've only played this game for two months, here's some feedback from me!

First of all the concept is great, it's really my kind of thing but I wish I could have stumbled across the game earlier however having only played this game for a short time I just want to put down things my "fresh eyes" have noticed without any influence from the community. I'll try to keep this pretty short.

Right off the bat there's no practice tool. When I first loaded the game I was looking everywhere for it and was convinced I was being silly until I realized it really doesn't exist. I mean there's 33 maps in this game, and knowing them is crucial to improvement. It's so much harder to absorb map details ingame when you need to focus on actually escaping the killer and can't test loops/structures out. I feel bad but every day I set aside a few games where I ignored gens and just explore the main building thoroughly. As a new player the lack of a practice mode is making the learning curve rather frustrating, especially when wanting to try out killers for the first time.

Next there's balance. I'm not talking "this killer sux ballz" I just mean the sheer amount of power you can unleash if you want to. Although the idea of ultra rare add-ons is fun, it really makes a mockery of the game. Sticking on two ultra-rares and a memento mori is just disgusting, likewise 4 engineers toolboxes is equally silly. I'm too new to fully grasp the balance of this game but just at a glance it seems like the implementation of items/add-ons kinda undermines any kind of "serious" play. Of course it's ok if people want fun or to just be silly, but with only one queue where can we go for balanced, consistent play?

As for gameplay itself, there's this big Killer/Survivor divide (I love both roles personally and think people should play both equally to really appreciate the struggles/benefits of both), but it seems to me a lot of having a good game comes to gentlemens agreements to not do certain things. Facecamping, tunneling, slugging... Killers have tools at their disposal to win the game but are supposed to simply not do them. And survivors, apparently "gen rushing" isn't a cool thing to do either. Like literally the very thing survivors are supposed to do to win is considered unsporting to some killers. It all seems a bit silly to me. Like yeah it's not cool to be put on a hook and stare at the killer for several minutes, but if that's how he wants to play it then fine by me. As long as the correct counterplay is in place. Same for slugging, yeah I don't wanna crawl about for half the game, but for me it's not about blaming killers, it's about the game needing to assess what to do to counteract certain mechanics that promote a poor gaming experience.

As for the ranking concept. Well funnily enough a post was made recently by the devs, but before I even saw that I did think to myself "Hey, rank doesn't mean much in this game, does it?". Emblems are kind of funny, since it didn't take me long to realize the only real display of skill in this game as a survivor is looping/evading, yet you get an equal distribution of points across all emblems. Is holding M1 on a gen really comparable? I mean it does contribute to the win but... y'know...

Anyways, that's all for me. I realize this is a bit all over the place and with no real point to it, but I just wanted to share my thoughts since I feel like being new I lack any kind of bias and don't have any grudges against any changes made in the past, this is all just objective feedback from a new player!