Outbreak Island

[quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop][b]Warning: AI Slop[/b][/url] This game is partially made with talentless, soulless AI generated content. The developer intentionally bypassed Valve's requirement to declare the use of AI Slop in a deliberate attempt to mislead gamers into paying money for AI Slop.[/quote] Outbreak Island is a somewhat low-key asset flip. While the game is made primarily out of other people's assets, with placeholder/stock assets and engine elements all taken from asset stores, a lot of genuine work went into making a real game here. I was a little torn about how to properly describe and warn gamers about the asset use here, but there's a couple of other unethical things going on that put up too many red flags. First and foremost this is yet another survival crafting game kitbashed out of Unreal assets and what looks like work built on a basic Unreal survival game template. There's zombies, on and island, and a gimmick where the power doesn't work during the day, and at night you get your old cycle of 7 Days to Die like blood moons (only this is more like a "red skybeam" every couple of days... whatever). Unlike most asset flips a lot of work did go into making a genuine game here, but as I mentioned some really unethical stuff has happened too, so let's break it down. As I alway say, gamers have a right to know if a developer behaves unethically, because giving your money to unethical developers is harmful to you and the gaming industry. So, what's happened here? As I mentioned, the assets used in the game aren't properly credited. Maybe there's credits at the end of the game, but I shouldn't have to play through the whole thing to see who really created most of the game and if the developer properly credited people... and if I can't tell from the front page, then yeah, the developer did not properly credit anyone. Gamers shouldn't have to guess (or in my case examine the game files to pick out all the assets used). When developers take active steps to hide the use of other people's assets in their games, they are tacitly trying to convince gamers that they are the ones who created those assets... if you did that in literature, or on TV or in Hollywood, not only would you get kicked out of the industry, you might find yourself in court. The same standard must apply to gaming. Here, it's 50/50... we might be fooled into thinking this game was legit and ethically created, if it wasn't for the lack of proper credits to the real game artists who did [b]most[/b] of the work on this game without proper remuneration and credit, and the disgusting use of AI slop and the developers deliberate and malicious breach of Valve guidelines to try mislead gamers and hide the use of the AI slop creates an unfortunate but definite picture... that of an unethical developer who hid their actions and plagiarism in an attempt to profit from those morally bankrupt actions. Here's an example of some of the assets this was kitbashed out of: [list] [*][url=https://www.fab.com/listings/8322737f-c90f-4c04-af40-9b84e7e672a2]"Bunker"[/url] from Starlight Arts [*][url=unknown-url]"City Park"[/url] from unknown-author [*][url=https://www.fab.com/listings/4f61d2d7-8d6f-4817-890d-17a6ba2287af]"Meadow - Environment Set"[/url] from NatureManufacture [*][url=https://www.fab.com/listings/e9830a54-5d88-4b87-bcf2-d2617efb0905]"Parasite Zombie 05 Game Assets"[/url] from Stigma Studios [/list] There's quite a lot more, this isn't a 1:1 asset flip, indeed, more work went into this than Digital Homicide put into their blatant asset flips... but it's still happening. This unethical behavior isn't victimless... it harms genuine asset creators, whose work was plagiarised, because they don't get recognition for their work. It harms genuine indie developers, who do the right thing and create their own game assets, and don't make entire games out of other people's stock assets. It harms gamers because we need to do the hard work ourselves to work out if a developer is being ethical or not. I shouldn't have to say this, but I will anyway: It is wrong to take the work of others and attempt, either tacitly or overtly, to convince gamers that the work is yours instead of someone else's. Let's talk about how this is as a game and why you may or may not want to buy it. On the upside, the game does feature customisable controls and resolution, so at least some of the basic, minimum requirements have been met. Unfortunately there's a number of other technical defects and shortcomings which contribute to the game being difficult to recommend to gamers. As mentioned, this features really godawful, "wrong" looking AI slop in places, instead of genuinely and sincerely created game art. AI slop sticks out like a sore thumb... and it comes across as insulting. I've already mentioned the developer deliberately breached their obligation to disclose the use of AI slop... highly unethical. The game lacks polish, and many elements of the game are mismatched or don't fit properly together... the kind of thing you might expect from a "Frankenstein's Monster" kitbash... an example is at some point you need to provide logs, but you can't just go cut down trees, you have to find "special" ones... why? Sloppy kitbashing. That kind of thing is rife through the whole game, inconsisitencies that are hard to understand unless you take that step back and see this for the kitbash it is. Those technical issues put this game beneath what is expected from a contemporary, professionally developed PC game. Now on to pricing and value for gamers. So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 140,000+ games on Steam? Outbreak Island has the far too high price of $15 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. For comparison, the $15 asking price for this game could get you more ethically made games like "Horizon: Zero Dawn", "Divinity: Original Sin 2" or "Remnant: From The Ashes". Unfortunately Steam reviewers aren't presented with a "Maybe" option... if they did, that's what I'd choose. This isn't a completely bad game, but it's also not one of the best. As always, if you read my review and you can overlook the negatives I've called out, or they just aren't important to you, then by all means go ahead and buy this. I think there are too many ethical problems for me to recommend this. 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. [b]Note:[/b] The developer has colluded with Tencent backed interests to withhold some of their games from Steam in a brazen act of anticompetitive behaviour. This is harmful to gamers and to the gaming industry, and is completely unethical behaviour intended to cause this harm for short term profit. While games absolutely should be considered on their own merits, as I have in my review above, gamers must be cautious when buying games from unethical developers like this. There's no telling when they will accept more bribes and pull their games off Steam again... they've done it once, they can't be trusted. Gamers have a right to know about this. If you buy this game you may be putting your money at risk.

I know it seems in bad faith to spend 30 minutes on a game and leave a negative review, but I promise I have good reasons. In 30 minutes I: Mashed through a dozen tutorials for things that don't need tutorials. Had access to my truck, my farm, storage, food plots, repair and crafting stations and everything else I would normally spend hours trying to acquire in any other survival game. Explored 2 POIs around my farm. Had a bunch of ammo, full fuel and water storage, a truck full of full fuel cans and food. A pistol and assault rifle. No reason to continue exploring. Very few objects can be interacted with. Most loot is crafting components or food. Food never expires and is everywhere. Melee feels bad. Guns sound awful. There's no harvesting anything? I can't even cut down a tree for wood. POIs I explored were very basic. I know the game is EA, I don't even care that over half the map can't be explored. But this is like babies first open world game. There's no challenge. No sense of danger. No stakes. I do like the idea of a day and night cycle influencing electricity and POIs. I hope they do more with it. I'll check the game out again when it's out of EA and I'll keep it wishlisted. But I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

AI Slop

I hate the use of the AI postcards at the beginning. It made me want to stop playing.

Could've been cool but it feels so unfinished and unpolished. Too much stuff for doing such simple things, feels like slop at the end of the day.

half-baked, empty product: one empty POI after another in an empty world, almost no food sources to loot so you're constantly starving, predictable AI, weird sounds, lots of work to do here. Check back in 3 years or so.

full of bugs , if you do anything too fast , you fell from world and drown in abys . i finished all the achivements but thanks to bugs , game does not count it , restarted , and tried deleting and downloading again , nothing works . Does not worth to play for now , maybe in 2 years

Its a classical style survival game inspired by those when they were flooded in the mid 2010s. Its actually a fun different take on it though, Allot of similar stuff to like Mist and Survive The Nights, but the focus is on your vehicle and fixing a set base instead of meh building mechanics, The negatives arnt bad considering the similar games Ive played over the years. The biggest is the loot table needs a hair more balance. Some what youd think is common stuff is rare as possible, There are a few glitches/bugs ive ran into graphically but only happen when the beam activates (Not sure if its just me or my hardware and settings?). Another especially after fully upgrading the farm, i think dev should add a vehicle bench to garage you can build and also a basic craft bench to home basement so you dont have to run back and forth. Also run into a bug (for me) where the garden stand cant convert plants to seeds and appears as a standard craft bench. Overall its a great game that brings nostalgia from a decade ago and works well with a different take whilst both being simpler yet harder in some aspects, It needs some work BUT its one dude or a couple doing pretty good with what they have so far and they havnt screwed it like Mists developer. If you want an old style from the golden age survival game, this is a great entry a decade later. It needs ironing, but thats most these and the dev is doing great at it.

Still has a ways to go. Not enough zombies. No telling how to get to mission underground ??? I do like it so fat but it is begging for work.

cool game, but really needs a coop function.