[b][quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: GameGuru Asset Flip![/url][/quote][/b]Hot Mars 69 is a what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" bought the GameGuru first person shooter construction kit (no coding required, it's just a GUI!) and cobbled out a map or two using stock GameGuru assets... nothing in this game can really be called the creation of the developer, and yet they also failed to credit GameGuru or acknowlegde any of the GameGuru assets. They're trying (badly) to pass someone else's work as their own.
It's just a bunch of random GameGuru assets dropped around a really lazy, stock textured GameGuru map template, with a bunch of GameGuru stock assets. This is more lazy Russian shovelware polluting Steam, from the racist homophobe, Nikita "Ghost_RUS", and features the typical lack of content, lazy, minimal implementation effort, and bad content.
This asset flip is so badly done it's even using the default GameGuru launch screen and "options" page... and let's be clear, GameGuru is a completely godawful construction kit. If you try to take it seriously as a game, you'll find no resolution or graphics tweaks, no controller tweaks... it's horribly optimised and will be sluggish even on high end rigs.
You can make the argument that GameGuru exists to just make demos and little experimental games to pass around with friends, but that's not what's happened here... the developer is seriously trying to scam people into paying money for this construction kit copy+paste asset flip. That's not okay!
From a technical perspective, the game 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.
Bewilderingly, the game doesn't include proper audio controls, so you can't turn off the annoying background music, you'll need to alt+tab out and stop the music using the Windows sound mixer. This is obviously not okay and it's unclear why the developers chose not to include this basic feature.
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, 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 50,000 games for gamers to choose from (over 9,000 completely free titles), the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
While game reviews must be about the game, as this review has been, it's sometimes important for gamers to be aware when there's problems with the developers. In this case, Nikita "Ghost_RUS", a Russian shovelware scam artist who routinely abuses Steam by polluting the marketplace with shovelware like this game. Nikita "Ghost_RUS" continually sends a message of racism, bigotry, homophobia and hate speech through his games, in direct violation of Valve's guidlines for acceptable game content. You can read more about it in [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/announcements/detail/1663386372399476871]this article by the Sentinels of the Store[/url] curator group.
This is something I feel potential customers should be aware of for two reasons. First, I understand completely that gamers may not want to buy games with such horrible, antihumanitarian messages of hate such as games from Nikita "Ghost_RUS". Secondly, gamers must be aware that if Valve decides to do the right thing and enforce their policy against hate speech and bigotry in games, games such as this will be banned. So, buying games from Nikita "Ghost_RUS" may be putting your money at risk.
Hot Mars 69 is relatively cheap at $1 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend.
