Dangerous Bullets is yet another construction kit template copy+paste from serial shovelware pushers, Enoops. These guys do nothing but copy premade game templates and game tutorials, fill out a few things/stamp out basic levels using the construction kit templates, slap on an asset flipped set of sprites/assets, and dump them on Steam and into cheap nasty shovelware game bundles as cash grabs. Trying to get paid for someone else's game templates, assets... at best, this is shovelware, at worst, it's a scam/cash grab.
This time they copy + pasted a GameMaker studio platformer template to make yet another of literally thousands of 2D retro pixel platformers infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere. It's very badly made, and fails in all aspects from graphics, visuals, controls, gameplay... it's just another Russian cash grab/scam game polluting Steam.
Enoops/Indie Games Studio have shown a repeat pattern of unethically dumping other people's work onto Steam as a cheap, nasty cash grab, through this account or through closely linked/alt accounts. Here's some examples so you can see for yourself:
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[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599510]Deadly Threat[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/dungeons/polygon-dungeons-low-poly-3d-art-by-synty-102677]POLYGON Dungeons - Low Poly 3D Art by Synty[/url] developed by Synty Studios (as Robbie Hogan)
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1442380]Book of Shadows[/url]" = [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] developed by Synty Studios
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599530]Little Adventure[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/10607/ab1-fantasy-platformer]AB1 - Fantasy Platformer bundle[/url] developed by Yoyogames
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1691290]Little Adventure 2[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/10607/ab1-fantasy-platformer]AB1 - Fantasy Platformer bundle[/url] developed by Yoyogames
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1509000]Mighty Vikings[/url]" = [url=https://syntystore.com/products/polygon-vikings-pack]Polygon Vikings Pack[/url] developed by Synty Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313990]Robots - Invaders[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/fps-microgame-156016]FPS Microgame[/url] developed by Unity Technologies (as Max Pedro)
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Taking this shovelware seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result.
There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision.
The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts.
Some of the defects in the game can be attributed to the choice of using the GameMaker Studio construction kit/toolset. This is a very poor quality toolset favoured by amateur developers as it's cheap and requires little in the way of development skill, but unfortunately has very limited capabilities. Just as you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, you can't make a great video game if you use a terrible engine. GameMaker Studio is most commonly used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs.
A strong argument can be made that construction kits like GameMaker Studio should never be used to make games for profit, as the "developer", Indie Games Studio has done here. These construction kits are intended to teach people some of the basic principles of game development, and to make small demos to pass around with friends. They're not intended to replace to actual work of real, professional game developers. So it's inappropriate when amateurs try to use these for profit, without any actual, real game development effort taking place. This doesn't result in products that have any real meaningful value for gamers.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
Reviewing SteamDB to check how popular this game was with players reveals a surprise... there's a very healthy spike in player counts for the game. But this only appears around the same time that trading cards were applied to the game... so this is just card idlers getting their cards and moving on. A closer look at the numbers shows the game just has a couple of players every week running up the game and idling it for cards, then deleting it. We must ask how it benefits gamers for there to be so many games like this, with no merit as a serious game, that only generate sales from people idling and selling the trading cards.
It's also important to note the "developer" here has connections to a number of shady Russian asset flippers and review manipulators who show an organised pattern to scam and defraud gamers with fake reviews and asset flipping the work of others for profit. While reviews are about the games, gamers should be informed when developers act unethically. Whether these connections are the same developer using multiple accounts, or just working closely with other unethical developers, gamers should be warned about the harm to gamers by this developer and their associates. Buying games from unethical developers puts your money at risk.
Dangerous Bullets has the almost unethical price of around $4 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the unethical nature of the developer. Remember that if you buy a game from an unethical developer, you're putting your money at risk.
