[quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop][b]Warning: AI Slop[/b][/url]
This game is partially or completely made with talentless, soulless AI generated content.[/quote]
"Guardian of Altai" is maybe a student project, except students would never be permitted to use AI slop, that would be unethical. Of course it's also unethical when amateur devs use it, but here we are. Anyway, what is this and why did it fail so bad on Steam? It's space invaders... seriously, that's all it is, except you bang a drum to shoot the enemies, and it's rendered in 3D with some mediocre game assets and AI slop all over the place.
So it failed because the gaming industry moved on from Space Invaders, and because of the disgusting and insulting use of AI slop.
So this features really godawful, "wrong" looking AI slop instead of genuinely and sincerely created game assets in many places. It's hard to say if this was because the developer didn't have the skill to do the job of creating real game assets or couldn't afford to hire someone who does, but it also doesn't matter. What matters is that this looks bad because of that decision. AI slop sticks out like a sore thumb... and it comes across as insulting.
There's also the old adage that those who lack the budget and talent to make their own game assets usually lack the budget and talent to do the rest of the job of game development properly, too, and that's glaringly obvious here.
In terms of visuals, apart from the AI slop, this features fairly low quality, somewhat mismatched 3D graphics which will deter a lot of gamers, understandably. Gaming is a visual medium, and while some developers struggle with creating high quality visuals, failing to do so is a disservice to gamers. It's very difficult to recommend bad looking games.
Now on to pricing and value for gamers.
This is "free" enough (not every "free" game in the "free" section is truly free, there's usually some hidden price tag), at least you won't be expected to spend any more money after you download this, but just because something is free doesn't mean it's good, and the cost of a game is more than just financial, your time is valuable too.
A peak of [b]2 concurrent players[/b] (according to SteamDB) for a "free" game is a disastrous public reception. Out of 130 million potential players here on Steam, almost nobody was interested. Even though this is "free". That level of rejection speaks a lot for the quality of the game.
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?
I can't recommend this. It may not be the worst thing on Steam but it's far from the best, and PC gamers have far better options for spending their time.
The use of AI slop is a direct insult to gamers and real, ethical content creators and artists everywhere. AI models are trained on copyrighted intellectual property without permission from the owners.
[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 sees absolutely no problem with using AI slop, trained without permission on copyrighted work, for their own purposes, thus directly involving themselves in intellectual property theft. Disgusting, isn't it?
The developer makes the utterly untrue, completely dishonest and frankly insulting claim that the only single reason this didn't outsell Grand Theft Auto V is because of lack of marking. Utter BS. This failed because it's [b]garbage[/b]. The developer seeks to lie and mislead gamers, desperate for anything at all to avoid facing the facts.
The developer also seeks to mislead gamers about their failure by touting the 20,000 figure... that's slightly lower than the number of people who use SteamDB's feature to add all free games to their library. This is not the flex the developer thinks it is... but we've now established a consistent pattern of dishonesty, ignorance of copyright, a sharp lack of ethics and morality, and a deliberate intent to mislead gamers.
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 game to anyone.
