Infested Lands is a construction kit copy + paste game/asset flip. The asset flipper "developer", Enoops (he is using the "Max Pedro" shell account here to try hide his identity) used the craptastic GameMaker Studio video game construction kit, copying + pasting and arranging premade assets and a 2D top down shooter game template from Yoyogames, taking the work of others and trying to scam people out of money for it.
While this is a strong accusation, there's significant evidence.
Enoops 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:
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[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599510]Deadly Threat[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/dungeons/polygon-dungeons-low-poly-3d-art-by-synty-102677]POLYGON Dungeons - Low Poly 3D Art by Synty[/url] developed by Synty Studios (as Robbie Hogan)
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599530]Little Adventure[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/10607/ab1-fantasy-platformer]AB1 - Fantasy Platformer bundle[/url] developed by Yoyogames (as Enoops)
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1691290]Little Adventure 2[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/10607/ab1-fantasy-platformer]AB1 - Fantasy Platformer bundle[/url] developed by Yoyogames (as Enoops)
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1509000]Mighty Vikings[/url]" = [url=https://syntystore.com/products/polygon-vikings-pack]Polygon Vikings Pack[/url] developed by Synty Games (as Enoops)
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1442380]Book of Shadows[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/historic/polygon-western-low-poly-3d-art-by-synty-112212]Polygon Western - Low Poly 3D Art Pack[/url] developed by Synty Studios (as Enoops)
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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 most commonly used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs.
A strong argument can be made that construction kits like GameMaker Studio should never be used to make games for profit, as the "developer", Max Pedro has done here. These construction kits are intended to teach people some of the basic principles of game development, and to make small demos to pass around with friends. They're not intended to replace to actual work of real, professional game developers. So it's inappropriate when amateurs try to use these for profit, without any actual, real game development effort taking place. This doesn't result in products that have any real meaningful value for gamers.
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 5 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.
[b][quote][url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2017/01/18/steam-takes-down-art-of-stealth-after-developer-posts-fake-reviews/?sh=750e13e12354]Warning: Review Manipulation![/url][/quote][/b]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.
Infested Lands has the laughable, eye-watering price of $10 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. This is also competing with over 9,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product. 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.
[b][quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/quote][/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 game.
