[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
"FEAR background" (aka Fire Of Cold) is a Digital Homicide style asset flip from known Russian asset flip scammers, Piece of Voxel. Valve calls these asset flips "Fake Games". The "developer" paid for/pirated a few Unreal Marketplace packs, dumped them all in a blender, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers.[/quote]
TEN BUCKS FOR A TEN MINUTE LONG ASSET FLIP.
Two notable criteria for what makes an asset flip instead of legitimate use of stock assets are whether those assets comprise the majority of the game, and whether the "developer" properly credited the people who created most of the assets in the game. This game fails both of those tests. The "developers" here didn't credit any of the artists and real, actual game developers who created the assets here, so this is plagiarism, as well as cash grab shovelware.
5K Gamers/Piece Of Voxel 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:
[list]
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1547820]Top Truck Driver[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/5820/hill-racing-template-gms1-2]Hill Racing Template[/url] developed by Janko Knez
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1655880]Kings and Pigs[/url]" = [url=https://pixelfrog-assets.itch.io/kings-and-pigs]Kings and Pigs[/url] developed by Pixel Frog
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1787640]Kings and Pigs Prequel[/url]" = [url=https://pixelfrog-assets.itch.io/kings-and-pigs]Kings and Pigs[/url] developed by Pixel Frog
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1660460]Hoples[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/characters/pixel-adventure-1-155360]Pixel Adventure 1[/url] developed by Pixel Frog
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1587940]DuelVox Max Quality[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/western-desert-town]Western Desert Town[/url] developed by KK Design
[/list]
This asset flip has you in a small underground complex where you wander around for a bit and do some badly done first person adventuring... there's not much content, all of it is built on plagiarised assets, and all of it is bad.
Despite not being in Steam Early Access (where this arguably belongs), the game is missing features and is apparently incomplete. Due to the lack of meaningful progress from the Russian developer (and no effort to make this anything other than an asset flip), it's unlikely the game will be completed at all, yet the developers reprehensively have their hand out for money for an incomplete game. This is a good reason for gamers to avoid this.
The game is very very short and can be finished in less than 10 minutes. Developers have at least some responsibility to provide enough content to make a game last more than 2 hours if they're serious about providing something of value to gamers. There's less content here than some free game demos.
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.
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, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts.
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 3 players. This is a remarkably low number, and 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 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
It's also important to note the "developer" here has connections to a number of other 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.
So, should you buy this asset flip?
"FEAR background" has the preposterous price of $10 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. 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. For comparison, the $10 asking price for this game could get you games like "Ghostrunner", "Alien: Isolation" or "Project Zomboid". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
[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 asset flip.[/quote]
