Mega Maze is a first person maze negotation game where you must traverse a series of 3D rendered grid based mazes... basically this is competing with the puzzle section for kids at the back of the newspaper. But at least it's in 3D? The game also features a maze level editor, and the mazes themselves are quite complex, with keys, doors, multiple levels and teleporters. I suppose this is the "best" maze game I've seen on Steam... but there's no prizes for being the tallest midget. You know, because this is basically an FPS game, or a first person adventure game, with most of the graphics, gameplay, action, plot, level design, character and general interest for gamers stripped out of it.
On the upside, the game does work and does it's intended job well enough, although we can ask questions about that intention. Is this really fun? There's also an "online" component that is broken because the developer pulled the plug on that. I guess running cloud servers for zero players is kind of expensive.
From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
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 game features lazy low-polygon "retro" assets, with lazy low res simple textures on them, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the 1990s. It's unclear why the developers weren't able to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets for the game, and also irrelevant... what matters is that this looks bad as a result of their decisions, a compromise PC gamers shouldn't have to put up with.
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.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
The game is completely free. This is noble a gesture that shows dedication to both gamers, and the gaming industry. Nothing speaks more to a developers belief in themselves and their product than making their game available for everyone without remuneration. It's a shame in this case that the implementation is below the minimum standards a dedicated PC game should offer to enthusiasts. There's no "maybe" option in Steam, unfortunately, but I hope to see more work from this developer, perhaps as part of a professional game development company that can make full use of their talents without needing to make budget/quality compromises.
