[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
"Paladin Duty - Knights and Blades" is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The Brazilian "developer" paid for/pirated a few Unity asset store packs, dumped them all in a blender, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers.[/quote]
Two notable criteria for what makes an asset flip instead of legitimate use of stock assets are whether those assets comprise the majority of the game, and whether the "developer" properly credited the people who created most of the assets in the game. This game fails both of those tests. The "developers" here didn't credit any of the artists and real, actual game developers who created the assets here, so this is plagiarism, as well as cash grab shovelware.
In this case, the asset flipper took a basic set of dungeon assets and made a really awful wave survival hack'n'slash game with Unity It has no value or merit as a real game. This was published by a shell/dummy account from Fabio Cunha, a notorious asset flipper and intellectual property abuser, trying to disguise his identity by using fake Steam accounts, to further mislead gamers into buying these fake games.
Sabrina Aridi (Fabio Cunha) has shown a repeat pattern of unethically dumping other people's work onto Steam as a cheap, nasty cash grab, through this account or through closely linked/alt accounts. Here's some examples so you can see for yourself:
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[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/756560]Robot Warriors[/url]" = [url=https://forum.unity.com/threads/agk-action-game-kit-v1-5.202654/]AKG: Action Game Kit[/url] developed by Mijikai Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/726070]Hidden Object - Sweet Home[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/hidden-objects-game-starter-kit-19927]Hidden Objects game - Starter Kit[/url] developed by Allebi Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1018960]Thugs Law[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/urban/polygon-battle-royale-low-poly-3d-art-by-synty-128513]Polygon Battle Royale[/url] developed by Synty Studios
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/841140]Square Head Zombies 2 - FPS Game[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/simple-shop-interiors-cartoon-assets-38029]Simple Shop Interiors - Cartoon assets[/url] developed by Synty Studios
[/list]
Taking this shovelware seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
The game assets are far from bleeding edge, with lowish polygon counts and somewhat low resolution textures, making this look like it's at least 10 years old. 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 poor in comparison to more professionally produced games as a result of their decisions.
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, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts. There's also no audio controls... in fact no real settings menu at all. That's a big fail. What do we expect from asset flips?
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
"Paladin Duty - Knights and Blades" didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for finishing a wave without taking damage, trivial to get, but less than 29 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, gamers just weren't all that interested in the game.
The poor quality of this game is also reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 3 players. 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 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
It's also important to note the "developer" here has connections to a number of shady asset flippers and review manipulators who show an organised pattern to scam and defraud gamers with fake reviews and asset flipping the work of others for profit. While reviews are about the games, gamers should be informed when developers act unethically. Whether these connections are the same developer using multiple accounts, or just working closely with other unethical developers, gamers should be warned about the harm to gamers by this developer and their associates. Buying games from unethical developers puts your money at risk.
So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?
"Paladin Duty - Knights and Blades" has the far too high price of $10 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, and the questionable ethical nature of the developer and/or their associates (as outlined above), this is impossible to recommend. For comparison, the $10 asking price for this game could get you games like "7 Days to Die", "Disco Elysium" or "Middle Earth - Shadow of War". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
