[quote][b]Warning: Broken Game![/b]
This game has design/implementation defects that will render this unplayable for many gamers. The game presents an "update required" message and then launches an external browser window to try connect to Google Play (yes, even this PC version on Steam!). This error cannot be bypassed, rendering the mobile app unplayable.[/quote]
[quote][b]Warning: Microtransaction Infested Game[/b]
This mobile app was infested with a mobile app like cash shop for unlocking in-game currency and features. Whether these are purely cosmetic or they alter your gaming experience significantly, this gamer gouging practice is unethical and insulting to gamers, especially when applied to such a low quality shovelware mobile app. Gamers should be cautious and consider avoiding this mobile app for that reason alone.[/quote]
Peekaboo Lite was an Early Access mobile app that's been dumped on Steam as if it was a real PC game (it's not)... it's a very nasty cash grab from greedy mobile devs. The mobile app was a heavily Pay-2-Win MTX infested third person "hide and seek" multiplayer game, but the app was removed from the app stores (presumably because they found out just how utterly unethical the developers are), but unfortunately Valve has no such quality control for Steam, so it's up to us gamers once more to warn each other about shady characters and scammers like Redaster Games, from trying to scam gamers into buying broken products all the way through review manipulation.
The mobile app was abandoned roughly immediately after launch and hasn't been updated in over 3 years. It blew past the developers commitment to complete the mobile app without any notification or admission of failure from the developer. The mobile app will never be completed.
I'm including the list of technical defects in case, for whatever unlikely reason, the developers fix the broken nature of the mobile app. After all, reviews are about the games and not the developers, even if the developers are scammers. And ethics aside, there's plenty of other reasons to avoid this mobile app and mobile apps like it.
From a technical perspective, as a mobile app, this didn'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 mobile app features lazy low-polygon voxel "Minecraft"-like "art", making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the 1990s. A lot of amateur developers see Minecraft's success and assume it's because it looks bad, not because it had unique and appealing game mechanics, and they try to emulate the success without understanding it. It also happens to be easy, and doesn't need any proper talent in terms of game development/graphic artists etc. That's why reviewers are faced with so many of these terrible games with confrontingly bad graphics. Developers must learn that Minecraft succeeded despite the bad graphics, not because of them.
The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the mobile app unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts.
Because this is a mobile app, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the iPhones that the mobile app was designed for. These are unfortunate handicaps and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was an afterthought for the iPhone developers who are to blame for this. The mobile app is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for mobile phones forces upon a game. Once more, mobile devs have made gaming worse for everyone. I didn't spend thousands on building a gaming rig just so I could pretend it's an iPhone.
These technical defects push this mobile app below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
The mobile app never really caught on with the millions of gamers on Steam, with a very low peak player count close to launch, and then just a handful of players launching this mobile app every couple of days. This is undoubtedly caused by factors such as those raised in this review. It's always helpful with buying decisions to consider how popular and successful the product is, and unfortunately while this did accumulate a few participation trophy reviews, overall, people just aren't using it.
Unethically, the developer sold keys to this abandoned Early Access mobile app into cheap, nasty game bundles, where they knew it would be advertised and sold as a complete PC game. This seems to have been done in an attempt to mislead gamers into buying a knowingly faulty, defective and incomplete product. When a developer does this for a game they have zero practical intention of completing, this is essentially a scam, an intention to get paid for a broken/unfinished product. Often this is done as an exit strategy, as the developer takes the money and runs. No refunds have been given, the developer kept all the money they took from gamers.
Another unethical act of this developer, knowing full well that this mobile app is abandoned and they will never complete it, they are deliberately trying to scam gamers into buying it by offering it on discount from time to time. It's impossible to "accidentally" discount a game. The developer looked at their abandoned game, and instead of doing the right thing and removing it from Steam, they instead doubled-down and tried to scam even more people into paying for it. Greedy, and completely unethical. Doing the wrong thing, on purpose, for money. This is not okay.
Unethically, the developers have left this on the Steam store in an unplayable and broken state. This is harmful to Steam and to gamers, because it takes a share of the marketing space and visibility away from other games. It's polluting Steam and making it harder for gamers to find genuine games and for genuine indie developers who put months or years into making proper games find an audience. Anyone who buys this will need to refund it. This creates problems for Valve support as well as a negative overall experience for gamers. The developer also persists in selling keys to this broken game through game bundles and other online stores... there's no other way to describe knowingly selling keys to faulty products as a scam.
The developer is deliberately and unethically trying to scam gamers into paying them $1 USD for a mobile app they know is broken. Don't give it to them. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.
[b][quote][url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2017/01/18/steam-takes-down-art-of-stealth-after-developer-posts-fake-reviews/?sh=750e13e12354]Warning: Review Manipulation![/url][/quote][/b]This mobile app features a HUGE number of fake positive reviews from accounts known to be in the business of review manipulation/paid reviews. They're all written in either Russian or broken English, appear at almost exactly the same time, very shortly after the mobile app launched on Steam, all have a direct Steam purchase of the mobile app, and the accounts are used consistently to write fake reviews for asset flips and other cash grabs/scams. The "Positive" review score on this mobile app should be disregarded due to this blatant, unethical review manipulation. This is done to deceive and scam gamers into paying for a bad product.
