Neon Runner

Believe it or not I don't like writing negative reviews. I sometimes go out of my way to try and justify a reason for recommending some things even if they are pretty basic in their delivery. This isn't even a terrible game, it's just not much of a game at all. And then to have an asking price of $5 it can't justify the price tag. Curious? Watch the trailer or play the demo, what you see is what you get. But that's it, that's all of it. The game is about 12 minutes long of just straight running through neon. Or to be more accurate, you're just a ball rolling through it despite the name being Neon Runner. This is what you might expect from a mobile runner game for $1 or free with ads. Instead you're on PC paying $5 for a few minutes of neon blur and low fi beats. And the store page is trying way too hard to push itself, let's break down the claims: "Flow-State Gameplay - Fast, responsive gameplay designed to keep you in the zone" ~ It's not fast or responsive. It's almost slow and relaxing compared to high difficulty racing/running games. If you wanted slow and relaxing, this might have been OK if it were long enough to relax with, but it doesn't even do that right. You get neither flow state challenge or long term relaxation. It's just too simple and over too quickly for either. "Procedurally generated levels - No two runs are the same" ~ Well, I played for about 24 minutes and that was two times through the entire game and both runs looked the same to me. Maybe the blocks were slightly shifted from left to right, but it's all the same scenery and the same obstacles. "Neon Retrowave Visuals - Bright, vibrant neon environments inspired by classic retrowave and outrun aesthetics" ~ Yes and? It's using the neon visual packs from the Unity store. Every game that buys these packs look the same. "Synthwave soundtrack - An energetic synthwave soundtrack that drives every run" ~ Energetic? The music is fine, but it's more relaxing than it is energetic. "High score leader board - Compete with players around the world for the highest score" ~ The game doesn't have much of a skill ceiling. You're going straight for a few minutes, occasionally drifting slightly left or right, a rare few times hitting the jump button. If you can hold down the up arrow for speed boost while occasionally tapping left or right you're golden. No one will take this seriously in leaderboard competition. Beyond that if the levels are as random as claimed that means the leaderboards are just whoever got the luckiest with straight lines and the most random power ups (that pause the timer) which makes them even less interesting. Look, if you want to roll a ball in straight lines for a few minutes, this is your game. But I'm not going to recommend you spend $5 on it. Honestly if this game even mildy excites you, go download Unity creation suite and some free neon assets from the store. Then watch a free tutorial on how to build a running game. You'll have made your own running game in about the same amount of time as it takes to finish this one and you'll have had more of a challenge in learning the tools required to make simple games. EDIT: Under 10 minutes completion time, number 4 in the world on second play through: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3686860598 You want to spend $5 just to prove you can beat it even faster than 10 minutes? It's not something to be proud of. (I'm not, I'm just using it as example) --- Bottom line: What could have been a free mobile runner that ended up on Steam with a price tag. --- [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38232109/]While you are here, would you consider following my curator page?[/url] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/kunovega/recommended/]Want to read all of my reviews and not just the curated ones?[/url]