FarRock Dodgeball

FarRock Dodgeball is a mobile app that's been dumped on Steam as if it was a real PC game (it's not)... it's a cash grab from greedy mobile devs. This mobile app is a simple Adobe Flash tier sports game where you play a three button version of Dodgeball (the movie was satire, nobody actually likes dodgeball). Move around, dodge the ball or catch it, and throw it at other players. There's an inch of depth as you get various players with different stats and so on, and some special moves, but overall this is a very shallow, arcadey experience, the kind of thing you would expect from a mobile app. From a technical perspective, as a mobile app, this doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. 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 mobile app features simple, cartoony 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low effort mobile apps. 3D graphics programming requires a degree of skill and competence and unfortunately not all developers have the budget or talent to deliver this, despite 3D graphics cards hitting the mainstream in the 1990's. Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the mobile app unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts. Because this is a mobile app, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the iPhones that the mobile app was designed for. These are unfortunate handicaps and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was an afterthought for the iPhone developers who are to blame for this. The mobile app is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing for mobile phones forces upon a game. Once more, mobile devs have made gaming worse for everyone. I didn't spend thousands on building a gaming rig just so I could pretend it's an iPhone. These technical defects push this mobile app below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this mobile app is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player count was only ONE player. That's right, only one person ever played this at a time. When I played this for reviewing purposes, I equalled the peak player count. OUCH. 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 100,000 games to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality mobile app is to be expected. So, should you buy this mobile app? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam? Once more we see greedy mobile devs trying to scam PC gamers. On Steam, this is $5 USD, on app stores, it's $2 USD. Mobile devs must learn PC gamers are not here to be gouged, and can't be expected to pay MORE THAN TWICE THE PRICE for an already overpriced mobile app just because it's been lazily dumped on Steam. This is unacceptable disrespect for PC gamers. Because this is a mobile app, priced to insult and gouge PC gamers, and because of the other defects, it's impossible to recommend. Just who do they think we are? [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] The developer response here is insulting, and alarming. The broken, incoherent "English" used in the response implies the developer is not a native English speaker; in line with a lot of shady software and nasty cash grabs on Steam, we should consider this developer to be eastern bloc, or some other part of the world where scamming gamers for a few bucks is a meaningful line of income. But that does not excuse the developers toxic, unethical cash grab. Let's break it down. The first thing the developer wants everyone to know is that they are "The Main Character". You, as a gamer, don't matter. It's evident from their attitude that they never created this product with gamers in mind. They did so to stroke their own ego. When developers, especially failed ones who would never get a professional job in the industry, put themselves before gamers, we end up with garbage products like this. That explains how this trash ended up on Steam, but it doesn't excuse it. At least we finally got to meet The Main Character, and nobody else matters. The developer makes the rather serious claim that my review contains information which isn't factually evident. But this simply isn't true... the facts of my review can easily be verified with just a glance at this godawfully crap product. We know that if there was any glaring inaccuracy the developer would have jumped on it right away... but they can't cite one single example. The developer admits they didn't hire a team of talented staff and tried to do the whole thing on their own. This is a lot like boarding an airplane, and halfway through the flight, having the pilot come out and serve peanuts. It requires competent people to do a complex job properly, and that's not what has happened here. A deliberate, incompetent failure... ZERO QA. The developer acknowledges that this is a mobile app, but is upset about me pointing that out to gamers. It doesn't matter what order the developer launched this on which platform, the fact is that it's a mobile app, designed for the lowest common denominator of gaming platforms, and thus compares poorly to games designed for PC. This is useful for gamers to know, which is why I include this information in my reviews whenever I catch a developer dumping mobile trash on Steam. But we must ask why the developer is so upset about being confronted with facts they themselves confirm. Guilty conscience perhaps? The "developer" argues that I review a lot of games, therefore this 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 discredit my review. You can see what they are trying to do. If this was the only review I had written, would that alter the facts in my review? Of course not. [b]My reviews for other games have no bearing on the dismal quality of this failed product[/b]. Here's a confronting admission... the developer admits to predatory pricing for mobile gamers by deliberately making the mobile version inferior. Now, I'm an advocate for PC gamers and I've already explained why the developers disgusting and insulting pricing isn't acceptable on PC. But the admission they also try to screw over mobile gamers cements the position here, you can see who we're dealing with. The developer response confirms without doubt this mobile app is a deliberate scam.

I'm not much of a sports playing person, but I still enjoy Farrock Dodgeball. The game has a cartoon art style so it doesn’t feel as serious like a AAA sports game like, NBA 2K or Madden. It also doesn't come across as Indie game since it isn't pixelated (we have enough of those). The game is easy to follow and you pick up on how to play it pretty quick. What I enjoyed the most about the game is the variety of stages and special attacks you have. I also enjoyed the many side quest the game has to offer. The game does offer a local co-op mode that you can play I haven't had a chance to play with someone yet I am looking forward to doing that in the future.