"King's Hand" is a failed effort from yet another amateur developer who thinks he can "Fix" chess. Guess what? It doesn't need fixing. This also has added microtransaction cancer, so you can see why this was dead on arrival.
The idea behind this train wreck is that you can use cards to alter the chess game you're playing. I didn't say it was a good idea, but how else are failed developers supposed to infest chess with microtransaction cancer?
This features really godawful, lazy pixelcrap "art" instead of real graphics. It's hard to say if this was because the developer didn't have the skill to do the job of creating 3D visuals, 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, and that's a major deterrent to gamers. Games like Terraria and Stardew Valley succeeded [i]despite[/i] the bad graphics, not because of them. There's actually some very nice looking and very well made chess games on Steam, so it's obvious why this failed to compete.
This isn't really free as the game is infested with mobile app store like microtransactions. This is a consumer hostile model that we don't need to see on PC. It's deceptively priced to gouge gamers, and that's a reason in itself to avoid this. There's also some garbage DLC as the developer seeks every way to profit from this anti-game except for, you know, making a product of sufficient quality that gamers might want to buy and play it. It's a mystery why more "developers" don't consider what gamers actually want before slapping down $100 on Steam Direct.
Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at only 6 concurrent players... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away.
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?
Nope. This isn't worth downloading. While this didn't cost me any money up front, I still feel ripped off.
[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 starts out of the gate with the assertion that he invented Chess, and because it's entirely his invention (guy must be a time traveler), it's his own game. We found the owner of chess!!!! The delusion amongst some amateur developers is truly amazing, it's no wonder he has people on his profile calling him a "toxic idiot" (their words, not mine, but read this guys response... you can see why).
The developer claims that he spent a HUGE amount of effort making this "game" (most of which was spent on developing the cash shop). I can believe that claim, but it's not the flex the developer seems to think it is. If I put a huge amount of effort into something and the result was a dead pile of crap called "King's Hand", I'd crawl in a hole and never show my face again. What a weird thing to boast about. "I spent a huge amount of effort and all I could come up with is this failed garbage!!!! Take that, loser!!!". You can see this guy is a joke. That's why Valve tells developers not to breach their guidelines with responses like this... it draws this guys incompetence and failure into sharp focus.
The developer makes the rather serious claim that my review is inaccurate/contains information which isn't factually evident. But this simply isn't true... the facts of my review can easily be verified with just a glance at this godawfully crap product.
We know that if there was any glaring inaccuracy in my review the developer would have jumped on them and pointed them out right away... but they can't even cite one single example. Because [i]they know my review is accurate[/i]. They just don't like being presented with the facts.
So they make up these false accusations of inaccuracy to soothe their ego. Anything but facing up to the truth. But why is this intellectual dishonesty good for gamers? It isn't.
In an attempt to discredit the facts and validity of my review the developer seems to think that the game must be played for several hours before determining any objective facts about it. Apparently, before deciding a carton of rancid milk has gone sour, the developer thinks we must drink the whole carton before we're allowed to tell anyone the milk has gone off. What rubbish.
[b]Playing a bad game for longer will not make the graphics better, cause the code to change, controls to become better, or fix any bugs or other defects in it.[/b] So why insist the game needs to be played longer? This is simply psychological denial on the part of the developer. If they can attack the review, they can pretend their game doesn't suffer from the defects this review highlights. This is outright delusion, unfortunately. And in the case of this game, obviously there are no players because it's garbage (for the reasons I point out), so it's not possible to play it for any length of time.
[b]It does not take very long for the defects in this game to become apparent. Playing the game for longer will not change them.[/b]
The facts don't lie, this is an abject and utter failure. The SteamDB peak player count of only 6 players (for a "free" MTX infested trashheap) is damning evidence that this game, because of the lack of capability of the incompetent developer behind it, was a failure. You would expect more from the guy that invented Chess, wouldn't you? I guess not.
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.
