[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
Parkour Assassin: Sprint Run 2 is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated a few Unity asset store assets, dumped them all in a blender, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers.[/quote]
[quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop][b]Warning: AI Slop[/b][/url]
Marketing materials for this product were produced with soulless AI generated content. The developer violated the Valve requirement to warn gamers about any use of AI slop in a direct attempt to use AI slop for profit.[/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 parkour platformer Unreal game blueprint and populated it with stock textures and a couple of stolen game assets (that he wants you to pay him money for). It has no value or merit as a real game.
A serious accusation, so here's proof, the enemy characters are all copies of this plagiarised asset, the [url=https://www.fab.com/listings/c946078d-3d37-4a65-a998-05bb033f084d]Sci-Fi Trooper Man v1[/url] actually created by ProMaxx Studios. It's offensive when developers steal the work of others and try to get paid for it.
Even worse, the developer, despite doing no real game development and just stealing the work of others, did put some effort in... they built loot box mechanics and a in-app currency (presumably with the intention of later adding RMT to the game). This is utterly toxic, especially when this is built off assets plagiarised from other, real developers.
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.
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.
The game assets are fairly mediocre/low quality which fits with the idea they weren't developed by the game creator... they look like they're "just reasonable enough" to go on sale as part of an asset pack. The issue of asset flipping aside, ultimately the quality of these assets is low and low quality always makes for a less than optimal gaming experience.
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, 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.
The game features no proper level design or game/story flow/plot, as they opted to try to use samey repetitive procgen algorithms as a substitute for adding such content to the game, to avoid doing the important job of level/map design. As a result, the game doesn't actually have any content worth mentioning, just endless, boring, repetitive, soulless algorithmically generated sameyness. Developers must learn that procedural generation is not an acceptable substitute for content.
Those technical flaws drag this game well below the minimum quality standards expected of a modern PC game.
The achievement statistics reflect poorly on the game's ability to keep players engaged. Even "First Break", finishing the first level, the easiest achievement in the game, was unlocked by only 25 percent of players. That's a low rate for something that requires minimal effort to achieve, and suggests most owners abandoned this quickly.
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 [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.
This kind of asset flipping isn't harmless. It makes it harder for gamers to find genuinely made games from ethical developers. It makes it harder for genuine indie developers, who put hard work into trying to make real games, to find an audience for their products. It gives indie developers a bad name.
Now on to pricing and value. Should you buy this asset flip? Is this really better than any of the 140,000+ genuinely made games on Steam? Of course not!
Parkour Assassin: Sprint Run 2 is relatively cheap at $3 USD, but it's not worth it.
Ethics aside, there's enough defects and quality problems with this game that it's not worth recommending to gamers, but the unethical nature of the developer/their associates makes it completely impossible. Because this is just a fake game/cash grab scam, and due to the sheer unethical nature of the developer, you should avoid this completely. Don't reward this morally bankrupt, unethical behaviour from Apex Horizon.
The use of AI slop is a direct insult to gamers and real, ethical content creators and artists everywhere.
[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]
