Hell Green Blue is another template/asset flip from the Russian scammers at Kazakov Studios, using fake accounts to hide their identity and mislead gamers. This time they've copy + pasted + reskinned a basic template from the craptastic GameMaker Studio, and of course they didn't credit the actual creators of the game template they ripped off. It's just a 2D retro pixel twin stick platformer/shooter hybrid with crap graphics and crap gameplay... but this was never intended to be a serious game for gamers. More on what's really going on here later.
KazakovStudios/BonDOS/Grogovsly 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/1713910]Robo-Boy Risky Venture[/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/1493410]Mini Car Money Chase[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/endless-car-chase-game-template-116027]Endless Car Chase Game Template[/url] developed by Puppeteer
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1878200]Village RPG[/url]" = [url=https://forum.unity.com/threads/top-down-rpg-starter-kit-version-1-0.230429/]Top-Down RPG Starter Kit[/url] developed by DreamDev-Studio
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/821850]Old Factory[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/realistic-fps-prefab-7739]Realistic FPS PreFab[/url] developed by Azuline Studios
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/821910]Tower Defense Sudden Attack[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/tower-defence-template-75770]Tower Defence Template[/url] developed by Keeree Games
[/list]
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 options to change the resolution for the game or customise the graphics settings. There's no way for gamers to ensure this is running at the native resolution of their displays... there's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. There's no way for gamers to try improve the low quality graphics.
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.
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 often used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
The poor quality of this game is reflected in the general public reception. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 3 players. That's right, only 3. 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 50,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in the game is to be expected. Gamers just didn't take this low quality game seriously, and for good reason.
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.
[quote][url=https://mmofallout.com/valve-bans-titles-for-review-manipulation/]Warning: Review Manipulation![/url][/quote]
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 or broken English, 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.
Hell Green Blue has the total ripoff price of $25 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games, let alone the sheer number of free games available on Steam. 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. With this kind of pricing for a crap shovelware asset flip, while there's no direct evidence, it's likely this is priced so highly for the purposes of money laundering or other illicit activity. This is certainly not done with the interests of gamers in mind.
[b]Note:[/b] Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not count towards your Game Collector counts, 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.
