[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]
Oink & Collect is another cash grab/scam pushed onto Steam, this time from Germany of all places. This is pure AI slop, everything is vibe coded and all the visuals are unadulterated slop. There's no real game here to speak of... all you do is click on "booster packs" every 30 seconds to collect AI slop that gives you an achievement... which doesn't count towards your achievement score overall because this is profile limited. It's profile limited because it's disgusting AI slop.
There's a "memory" sub game that has you play a simple match-2 card game... of course, the same AI slop cards. This is disgusting abuse of Steam Direct, and attempt to scam gamers into paying money for AI slop.
From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
For gameplay purposes, because the user interface for this game is mostly just 2D static text/images... it might as well be a web page. It's functionally no different from a browser game. And we all know, Steam isn't here to compete with Chrome and Firefox. If the game can be done in a web browser, it's just not rich or compelling enough to appeal to serious gamers on PC.
There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision.
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.
The controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just point and click stuff like a browser/Flash game. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here.
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 [b]only 3 players[/b]. 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 130 million gamers on Steam and well over 140,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
Next is pricing and value. Is this game worth buying from among the 140,000+ games on Steam?
Oink & Collect is relatively cheap at $1 USD, but it's not worth it. This is also competing with over 14,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.
The quality problems and defects with this game makes the asking price totally unrealistic. It's impossible to recommend this to gamers here on Steam.
Finally, I'm here to try help save gamers time and money by filtering out the noise and substandard games... there's up to 50 games launched on Steam Direct every day! They aren't all great... most of them suck. If you don't agree with my assessment of the defects in this game, go ahead and buy it... maybe you'll find the same defects I did, maybe not. Even write your own review. Positive or negative, game reviews are here to help other gamers by informing their decisions on what to buy and play.
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.
[quote][b][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/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.[/quote]
