Angvik : Returns

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"Angvik : Returns" is an unabashed, lazy ripoff of Angvik (Copyright Alastair John Jack, 2014). Many lazy "amateur" developers don't pay attention to their obligations under copyright law, and often steal the ideas of actual, real game developers without credit, such as the "developer" here has done. Putting aside the unethical intellectual, creative and moral bankruptcy of stealing someone else's game concept, this is also breaking that unwritten law of stealing other people's game ideas... you should at least try to do better than the game you're ripping off. "Angvik : Returns" is considerably worse than Angvik. I suppose it's worth pointing out Angvik itself was a loose ripoff of Ghosts 'n' Goblins, so this ripoff of a ripoff is really about as bad as "games" on Steam can get. This also directly violates not only the developers copyright but also trademarks... this is illegal and in some parts of the world can carry fines of up to $250,000 and 5 years in prison. You cannot just "steal" someone else's trademarks and intellectual property can call it a "fan project". I can't make a Star Wars game with Luke Skywalker and call it a "fan-project" without being legally eviscerated by the mouse. Copyright protections exist for a reason... not just to stop this kind of garbage being made, either. Regardless, as soon as legal action is initiated, this will be removed from Steam. This features really godawful pixelcrap "art" instead of real graphics. It's hard to say if this was because the developer didn't have the skill to do the job of creating 3D visuals, or couldn't afford to hire someone who does, but it also doesn't matter. What matters is that this looks much worse than most other games because of that decision, and that's a major deterrent to gamers. Games like Terraria and Stardew Valley succeeded [i]despite[/i] the bad graphics, not because of them. You're forced to sign a highly questionable yet legally unenforceable End User License Agreement... for such a relatively low effort, low quality product, this comes across more as a delusion of grandeur than anything else. This agreement includes questionable requirements that may attempt to revoke consumer law protections that gamers expect to have, which is also highly problematic. Developers must learn they are here to serve gamers, not control them. I had my cat walk over the keyboard while the EULA was displaying, which fixed that problem for me. Now on to pricing and value for gamers. This is "free" enough (not every "free" game in the "free" section is truly free, there's usually some hidden price tag), at least you won't be expected to spend any more money after you download this, but just because something is free doesn't mean it's good, and the cost of a game is more than just financial, your time is valuable too. In terms of public reception, this failed. There's over 130 million unique gamers visiting Steam every month. SteamDB showed the game peaked at [b]only 3 concurrent players[/b]... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away. Since free games don't contribute to your game collector badge and other profile stuff, is this a worthwhile addition to your Steam library? Nope. I didn't have to pay for this, but I still feel like I got scammed.