[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]
"Kosmolaris" is an unabashed, lazy ripoff of Little Alchemy (Copyright Redcloak Sp. z o.o, 2010). Many lazy "amateur" developers don't pay attention to their obligations under copyright law, and often steal the ideas of actual, real game developers without credit, such as the "developer" here has done.
Putting aside the unethical intellectual, creative and moral bankruptcy of stealing someone else's game concept, this is also breaking that unwritten law of stealing other people's game ideas... you should at least try to do better than the game you're ripping off. "Kosmolaris" is considerably worse than Little Alchemy.
Little Alchemy (famously ripped off by the Doodle God franchise) is a simple browser/mobile game where the player combines Earth, Air, Fire and Water elements to create new substances, which can then be combined to make more and more complex things... it's not that exciting after about an hour of mucking around. But this is not Little Alchemy... instead, someone STOLE the entire game concept and implemented it with disgusting AI slop. Why is this even remotely okay? Well... this game exists only on Steam until someone sues... Tetris Company vs Xio Interactive LLC in the New Jersey district courts show us you can't just steal other people's games... it won't hold up in court, that case proves that games are intellectual property.
And it does no service at all to gamers for inferior, morally and creatively bankrupt intellectual property theft like this to be inflicted on the Steam store.
As mentioned, this features really godawful, "wrong" looking AI slop instead of genuinely and sincerely created game assets. 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.
Let's talk about price and the value this represents for us 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]14 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.
This "free" game won't count toward your game collection count on your profile. With that in mind, is it something you should still download?
Definitely not. This is impossible to recommend. To quote another Steam reviewer, this should be a paid product... they should be paying people to download it.
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. Using AI slop in a published product should be seen as supporting these copyright violations.
There are over 140,000 games on Steam, not every one of them is a hidden gem. I'm here to help gamers find the ones that actually matter in that sea of Steam Direct self-published mess. If you don't agree with my findings in this review, you should definitely download it and play it to see for yourself. I'm happy to have helped you make an informed choice, regardless of the outcome. You deserve the best.
[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 admits to none of the defects I identified in my review, tacitly admitting I was absolutely right. The developer instead attacks me personally in a desperate and pathetic attempt to make reviews for his games and his failure about me, personally, a game reviewer. I didn't cause this garbage to fail, I just reported on why, and recommended against it. It's not my fault the developer thinks it's okay to steal other people's game ideas and wasn't capable of even doing the job of a game developer and used disgusting AI slop, an insult to gamers everywhere. [b]The failure of this garbage rests solely with the developer. Attacking me will not make the game better.[/b]
This is a little disturbing as the developer indicates they started stalking me and feverishly reading through my reviews... either just obsession with me on their part, or desperation to try find something in one of my other reviews that would somehow change the objectively terrible quality of this failed "game". Whatever their motivation, creeping on reviewers like this is [b]not okay[/b].
The "developer" argues that I review a lot of games, therefore this game review isn't valid or truthful. Huh. If I changed all my other reviews to positive, would the graphics and gameplay of this crap game suddenly improve? No. The developer seeks any possible angle to throw shade at me personally to discredit my review. You can see what they are trying to do. If this was the only review I have ever written, would that change any of the properties of this game or alter the facts contained in my review? Of course not. [b]My reviews for other games have no bearing on the dismal quality of this failed product[/b].
Insultingly, the "developer" delivers an [b]outright lie[/b], claiming, completely without basis in fact, that my review is written using generative AI. This is completely untrue. The developer attacks this review as a coping mechanism to attempt to avoid facing the facts about their failure... but this insulting dishonesty and blatant lying shows us all we need to know about this person.
I [b]DARE[/b] this failed hack of a developer to run my review through an AI text checker. But he won't because then he will have to admit to everyone that he's a liar.
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 AI slop to anyone.
