DangerousPath

DangerousPath is a construction kit copy + paste game. The "developer" used the craptastic GameMaker Studio video game construction kit, copying + pasting and arranging premade assets, using premade level design tools so they could pretend they're an actual game developer. This is from the BANNED Russian asset flip scammer, ImperiumGame/Reforged Group/HotFoodGames/Gales Corp... this guy used about a dozen fake Steam developer accounts to flood Steam with these low quality asset flip/construction kit template fake games, all with paid reviews. It only took him a month or so after all his accounts were removed to slink back onto Steam and just keep running the same scams again and again. That's important background, but as always the review must be about the game, not the developer circumventing a Steam ban to scam people yet again, so let's get into it. This "template flip" is just a copy + paste + reskin of a basic GameMaker Studio template for making a simple soldier attack/defense game, you know the type where you spend all your resources to summon soldiers that walk across the screen and autobattle the enemy while he does the same. If you get more troops out, you win, that's all there is to this simple "minimum viable product". From a technical perspective, the game 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 because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just point and click stuff like a browser/Flash game. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 5 players, and the worst part is these weren't genuine players, these were the Russian fake review accounts that the developer paid to make the fake reviews. Since the fake reviews are all done, now the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 110,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. An important note: Gales Corp/kovalevviktor/HotFoodGames (I told you this guy uses a lot of fake accounts) are known asset flippers and have previously taken other developers work and put it on Steam in an attempt to scam gamers and get paid for someone else's effort. "Squadroni Cacciatori" have shown a repeated pattern of trying to scam gamers, here are some examples of other asset flip scams they've pulled: [list] [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/3177050]Fog Racing Circuit[/url]" = [url=https://www.milysource.com/downloads/pro-car-racing-2/]Pro Car Racing 2[/url] developed by MilySource, flipped by Gales Corp. [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1673530]Fantasy Mahjong Connect[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/9350/onet-game-engine]Onet Game Engine[/url] developed by Jamie Ford, flipped by Garage Games [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1644640]Dangerous Planet[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/1084/advanced-planet-platformer]Advanced Planet Platformer[/url] developed by NicolaiGD, flipped by HotFoodGames [*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1728110]Auto Mechanic[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/1084/advanced-planet-platformer]Advanced Planet Platformer[/url] developed by NicolaiGD, flipped by Reforged Group [/list] Note: Some of these games may have been banned as Valve continues to chase down this guys many shell accounts and terminate them. [quote][b][url=https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/federal-register-notices/16-cfr-part-465-trade-regulation-rule-use-consumer-reviews-testimonials-final-rule]Warning: Review Manipulation![/url][/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, broken English or ChatGPT AI slop, appear at almost exactly the same time, very shortly 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 blatant, unethical review manipulation. This is done to deceive and scam gamers into paying for a bad product. Due to the 2024 FTC ruling (16 CFR Part 465), these fake reviews are a violation of US Federal Law.[/quote] So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 110,000+ games on Steam? DangerousPath has the completely insane price of $50 USD, which is incredibly suspicious, higher than AAA pricing for an asset flip shovelware scam game. Why would the "developer" put such a high price tag on an asset flip with no true value as a game? There's no direct proof for this, but it's entirely possible this game is priced this way for money laundering or other criminal purposes. Higher prices allow more money to move with fewer transactions. Valve have previously banned developers for running money laundering scams. While there's no direct evidence in this case, it's highly suspicious and gamers should be wary. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, and the questionable ethical nature of the developer and/or their associates (as outlined above), this is impossible to recommend. [quote][b][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/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.[/quote]