[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
"BattleSteam" is one of literally thousands of creatively bankrupt asset flips infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere.[/quote]
[quote][b]Note: Dead PvP game[/b]
This game contains no meaningful single player content. There's no viably populated servers/active player population. This game cannot be played as intended.[/quote]
[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtransaction]Warning: In-Game Cash Shop[/url][/b]
This game is infested with a toxic mobile app style cash shop. You will be prompted to and expected to give money/credit card details to the developers through this cash shop to buy in-game goods so you can play the game.[/quote]
[quote][url=https://unity.com/legal/as-terms]Warning: Unity License Violation[/url]
This product violates the Unity Asset Store license, terms and conditions.[/quote]
This is your typical lazy Russian asset flip. The developer stole a bunch of Synty assets from the Unity Asset Store, slapped them on a basic FPS game blueprint, bolted on a toxic mobile app style P2W cash shop, and walked away without finishing the job. Some minor effort went into making the battles (there are no players so no battles) take place on moving platforms, but more work went into the cash shop than anything else.
So, "BattleSteam" is partially or completely made up of stock assets, "borrowed" from Synty Studios (and I don't think Synty Studios assets even look that good, it's all low poly junk). Synty assets have never been used in a successful game (because successful games have ethical developers who don't rely on plagiarism). Little, if anything in this game is the creation of the "developer".
While there's no up front price for this asset flip, the other problem with asset flips is that when developers aren't capable of doing their job and creating high quality assets, it's also true they can't do any of the rest of the job of a game developer either. That's definitely true for "BattleSteam", and this kind of asset flipping never results in games that have quality or value for PC gamers.
Because this is exclusively made up from Unity store assets, it's in violation of the [url=https://unity.com/legal/as-terms]Unity Asset Store Terms of Service and EULA[/url]. Specifically, this part:
[quote]Subject to the restrictions set forth in this EULA, Licensor hereby grants to the END-USER a non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide, and perpetual license to the Asset solely:
(a) to incorporate the Asset, together with substantial, original content not obtained through the Unity Asset Store, into an electronic application or digital media that has a purpose, features, and functions beyond the display, performance, distribution, or use of Assets (“Licensed Product”) as an embedded component of that Licensed Product, [b]such that the Asset does not comprise a substantial portion of the Licensed Product[/b][/quote]
Because the developer misused the Synty asset collection such that it comprises the vast majority of this "game", the developer has unethically and deliberately breached the agreement. This is a license and intellectual property violation. Why is this permitted on Steam?
The developers abandoned this 5 years and 6 months ago. It will never be completed. This unfinished game is just polluting Steam and making it harder for gamers to find genuinely, completely made games.
Despite not being able to finish the game, the developers apparently had all the time in the world to build that fully functional cash shop, and financial transaction back-end system into the game. That shows the developers primary goal was just to set out to gouge cash from Steam gamers just like mobile devs do with mobile peasants.
Now on to pricing and value for gamers.
This game is infested with mobile app store like microtransactions. This is a consumer hostile model that we don't need to see on PC. It's deceptively priced to gouge gamers, and that's a reason in itself to avoid this.
In terms of public reception, this failed to appeal to the 130 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at just a dozen or so concurrent players, and now there's basically nobody playing it. Even though it's free. This is a dismal public reception, but it's easy to see why gamers rejected it.
Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? What's the verdict?
Nope. This isn't worth downloading. I didn't pay money, but I still feel almost as ripped off as the Unity Asset Store.
