"Cold Massacre" is a rather short and rather badly made JRPG like top down adventure game, although it doesn't seem to be your usual RPG Maker asset flip (the graphics are worse).
What do you do in the game? The idea is that you're running away from yourself, as the game features a junior high school tier narrative combined with some of the worst technical implementation I've seen for hours.
This features really godawful MS-Paint tier 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.
And this looks way worse than Stardew Valley or Terraria. If such a thing is even possible.
On the matter of pricing and value for gamers, most "free" games on Steam aren't really free. There's often nasty mobile app cash shops, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of shady pricing schemes that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really does appear to be a fully free game.
Nothing demonstrates a developers belief in themselves and their work than giving it away without any remuneration. This is a service to themselves, and the gaming industry, and should be applauded. Of course, just because something is free, doesn't necessarily mean it's valuable, or something you might want to spend your time on.
Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at only 4 concurrent players... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away.
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?
Not this time. This isn't worth downloading. While this won't cost you any money, you get what you pay for, and sometimes, even when the game is free, it's still not enough.
[quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says:
[quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote]
First and foremost the developers appalling, toxic attitude must be contrasted with the main subject, his failure as a game developer. And this is not "opinion" on my part; I include in my review the important [b]fact[/b] that despite there being about 40 million gamers logged onto Steam [i]right now[/i], this game only ever had four concurrent players. And that only ever happened once. This has been rejected and ignored by over 120 million people. And the developer has the audacity to attack me in an attempt to divert attention from the sheer depth of his utter failure and terrible decision to publish this garbage through Steam Direct.
This is a psychological coping mechanism; by breaching Valve guidelines and attacking me, he doesn't need to face the truth he cannot cope with. But why is the developers arrogance and ignorance good for gamers? It's not. But it does explain why such garbage ended up on Steam... Main Character syndrome. The developer didn't spare one thought for what would be good for the millions of gamers on Steam. This was all about "me, me, me!!!!". You, the gamers, don't matter to this guy, and the developers awful behaviour here proves that.
This is a little disturbing as the developer indicates they started stalking me and feverishly reading through my reviews... either just obsession with me on their part, or desperation to try find something in one of my other reviews that would somehow change the objectively terrible quality of this failed "game". Whatever their motivation, creeping on reviewers like this is [b]not okay[/b].
The "developer" argues that I review a lot of games, therefore this game review isn't valid or truthful. Huh. If I changed all my other reviews to positive, would the graphics and gameplay of this crap game suddenly improve? No. The developer seeks any possible angle to throw shade at me personally to discredit my review. You can see what they are trying to do. If this was the only review I have ever written, would that change any of the properties of this game or alter the facts contained in my review? Of course not. [b]My reviews for other games have no bearing on the dismal quality of this failed product[/b].
The developer complains that while this review closely addresses serious problems with this product, it resembles other reviews I have written for other products that share the exact same problems and deficiencies. There's over 120,000 games on Steam. Hundreds, in some cases thousands of these games share the same defects which gamers should know about before wasting any time on those products.
However, the "developer" of this failed product arrogantly [b]DEMANDS[/b] that I find completely unique ways to describe [i]the exact same defects[/i]. What a completely ignorant, arrogant demand from a demonstrably failed developer. The developer demonstrates thier appalling attitude here. It's a sheer insult to gamers everywhere.
If I used completely different language to describe the same defects, [i]this product would still suffer from the same defects[/i]. Changing the wording of my review would not make this product better.
My reviews are a product of stringently reviewing the game, the developers background, the technology, and the gameplay. All games are held to the same high standards this game has been (and failed to meet). Where a game fails to meet one or more specific benchmarks, I'll say so and I'll explain why, as I have done here. But there's only so many ways to warn gamers that a game carries a defect. For example, I've reviewed over 2,500 games with crap pixel "art" instead of proper graphics, typically because the developer simply isn't capable of professional game visuals. This is a defect, a compromise gamers shouldn't have to deal with. Should I find 2,500 UNIQUE ways to report the same defect to gamers? No. The developers arrogant response here once more seeks to attack me to discredit the review so they don't have to come to terms and mentally accept their failure. If this was the only review I have ever written, would that change any of the properties of this game or alter the facts contained in my review? Of course not. [b]The way my review is written has no bearing on the dismal quality of this game. Attacking me will not change that.[/b]
Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this utter failure to anyone.
