Chess Knights: High Noon

Incredible game!! This is definitely the most fun game in the Chess Knights series! I love western movies and this game has the perfect western vibe! In the other games, you could only survive, escapingfrom the enemies, but now you are a badass gunslinger and you only advance if you eliminate all enemies on the level! The puzzle continues with the same quality from Minimol games, but now we have the addition of Duel mode, which forces you to think and act very fast, just like in a real duel! I can't wait for the full release!

What an amazing game! I am impressed by this idea of ​​an old west game with chess :) Take my money! Ha Ha! If Early Access is so fun, I can't wait for the full game to come! Congratulations to the devs!

I loved it! The game is perfect for lovers of the Old West. The progression of the levels is perfect and challenging. I'm having a lot of fun. Congrats to the devs!

Once again Minimol surprised me with this new adventure by Chess Knight. The setting for the Western is perfect, the mechanics are a real innovation for chess games and the gameplay is something that stuck me from beginning to end ... I didn't stop playing until I finished everything. Waiting for the new chapters.

I really like the games in the Chess Knights series. When I saw this game announced with this theme I confess that I found it unusual. Well, what I can say is that this game just became my new favorite in the series. In addition to the game being beautiful like the others, and counting very well elaborated puzzles (ranging from the simplest ones that present the mechanics, to the most challenging ones), the theme was very well implemented, including the duel, which is very well incorporated gameplay dynamics in a way I didn’t imagine for a game inspired by chess. Very good game!

Unfortunately Chess Knights: High Noon suffers from severe input issues. Getting the game to recognise that the mouse is over a particular tile, before it will accept clicks is a constant problem which can take several seconds per tile. Now if this was entirely a 'slow' turn based puzzle this flaw could possibly be overlooked, however the duel mode expects rapid selection of tiles before a very short timer expires. I've tried playing with vsync on and off in case that made a difference to the input issues, but it didn't help. Not recommended with these input issues, which I doubt will ever be fixed for a game that's approaching five years since release.

[b][quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/quote][/b] Chess Knights: High Noon is a Unity Asset flip, what Valve calls a "fake game". The "developer", Minimol Games, took the [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/historic/polygon-western-low-poly-3d-art-by-synty-112212]Polygon Western - Low Poly 3D Art Pack[/url] Unity Store tutorial/demo/game asset pack from the real developers, Synty Studios, changed the name, and dumped the result onto Steam. They're attempting to scam people into buying this, so they can get your money for someone else's work. It gets worse... "Polygon Western - Low Poly 3D Art Pack" has also been shamelessly dumped on Steam by other asset flippers apart from Minimol Games: [list] [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1442380]Book of Shadows[/url]", asset flipped by Enoops [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/862990]Survive The West[/url]", asset flipped by Deverinos [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/848010]Find Your Way[/url]", asset flipped by LillyWelland Inc./OnBlind [/list] Take a look for yourself... these are all [i]exactly the same game![/i] The developer took the much abused Synty pack (claiming credit for it, but we all know this isn't the work of Minimol, they stole it from someone else), and they put a basic mobile app chess puzzle on it... you have a target square and you must move your chesspiece knight to the target position. That's all there is to this, a shallow mobile app tacked onto a very large asset pack. Because this is an almost exact 1:1 copy + paste of the original Unity asset, it's in violation of the [url=https://unity.com/legal/as-terms]Unity Asset Store Terms of Service and EULA[/url]. Specifically, Section 2, Subsection 2.2.1a: [i]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, [b]together with substantial, original content not obtained through the Unity Asset Store[/b], 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][/i] Because the developer misused the asset pack such that it comprises the vast majority of this "game", the developer has unethically and deliberately breached the license agreement. Worse, this intellectual property violation was done in an attempt to profit from their illicit actions. Why is this permitted on Steam? It gets [b]worse[/b]. This is an abandoned Early Access scam... the developer committed to publishing the game 4 months after launch, but instead, abandoned the game in an incomplete state 2 months after launch. Unethically, the developer sold keys to this abandoned Early Access game into cheap, nasty game bundles, where they knew it would be advertised and sold as a complete PC game. This seems to have been done in an attempt to mislead gamers into buying a knowingly faulty, defective and incomplete product. When a developer does this for a game they have zero practical intention of completing, this is essentially a scam, an intention to get paid for a broken/unfinished product. Often this is done as an exit strategy, as the developer takes the money and runs. No refunds have been given, the developer kept all the money they took from gamers. Another unethical act of this developer, knowing full well that this game is abandoned and they will never complete it, they kept deliberately trying to scam gamers into buying it by offering it on discount from time to time. It's impossible to "accidentally" discount a game. The developer looked at their abandoned game, and instead of doing the right thing and removing it from Steam, they instead doubled-down and tried to scam even more people into paying for it. Greedy, and completely unethical. Doing the wrong thing, on purpose, for money. This is not okay. To hammer home just how unethically this asset flipper is behaving, they're still on Steam and working on brand new Unity asset flip scams... trying to scam as much money out of gamers as possible from the work of other developers, without giving them any credit for the work they steal. The products that result from asset flips aren't "real" games. They lack depth and content, because they're just simplistic copies of demos or tutorials. In this case, "Polygon Western - Low Poly 3D Art Pack" is just an asset pack including a series of "western" themed 3D low poly characters and assets, and doesn't have any merit as a proper, fully fledged PC game, so this copy+paste of it can't be recommended. Asset flips don't involve any professional game development. Sure, sometimes they may change a few cosmetic things, swap out different assets etc, but at heart it's functionally identical to the asset they're ripping off. Asset flips like this are harmful to the gaming industry and to Steam because they reduce the visibility that sincerely made indie games should have, and make it harder for gamers to find real games from genuine developers. [b][quote][url=https://mmofallout.com/valve-bans-titles-for-review-manipulation/]Warning: Review Manipulation![/url][/quote][/b] This game features a number of fake positive reviews from accounts known to be in the business of review manipulation/paid reviews. They're all written in either Russian or broken English, appear almost immediately after the game launched on Steam, all have a direct Steam purchase of the game, and the accounts are used consistently to write fake reviews for asset flips and other cash grabs/scams. The "Positive" review score on this game should be disregarded due to this review manipulation. Don't reward this morally bankrupt, unethical behaviour from Minimol Games. [b][quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/quote][/b]Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying this game.

*<UPDATE >* over half a year since i bought this, and there has not been any updates... not one thats pretty disappointing for an early access title, especially for one that is as buggy as this this game is nothing more than a (really bad) tech demo and a money grab </UPDATE> Do not recommend at this state, the game has serious performance issues, it lags terrible also camera is buggy and gets stuck constantly, only fix is restart the game and input is also buggy, sometimes it wont let me select a valid square i really want to like this game but its just not playable for me

No instructions at all. I wanted to love this game so much. I enjoy the Viking version but High Noon & Shinobi have me stumped. I do not at all understand what the other pieces are doing, can do or will do. I understand some pieces are supposed to be rooks, bishops & queen. I have no idea WHO they are. The little indecipherable video tutorial is useless. I cannot see a difference in any of the pieces in the "help" video. I do not know WHY pieces shoot, how they shoot or when they can shoot. So it is impossible to know if I am making a correct move or not. Why does the gun go off when I am 3x3 squares away diagonally but NOT when I am 1 square away horizontally. I'd think shooting the bad guy in the face would be an option. Guns do work at point blank range. As there are no instructions I cannot recommend this game. In fact I find the lack of any instruction at all as to the goal or mechanics that I can honestly say I think this game is absolutely terrible & no one should waste even a single dollar on it. If you can be bothered to put up a bad video attempt at a tutorial then you can also have a simple text screen explaining the goal of the game is to avoid capture, shoot enemies or capture the flag. As for what happens with the guns I really do not understand. They just happen, these cowboys did not take gun safety class & shoot from the hip at random. They frankly all deserve to die in a Mexican Standoff.

Pretty terrible gameplay, the most difficult part is getting the game to recognize clicks on the correct tile (it generally takes ~15 seconds of fiddling with the mouse to get it to know what you mean); which makes the "speed round" pretty much impossible.