[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
Steel Warrior is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated a few Unreal Marketplace assets, 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, Tero Lunkka (using his new "Candy games" fake account to try mislead gamers, hiding his identity to continue his scams) took an Unreal third person shooter/brawler blueprint and slapped on a few stolen zombie/action assets and industrial backdrop assets, once more trying to scam gamers into paying him for someone else's stuff. This is a scam. It has no value or merit as a real game.
Tero Lunkka/Candy games studios have 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:
[list]
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2975920]Candy Puzzle[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/platformer-3-chocolate]Platformer 3 - Chocolate[/url] developed by ithappy
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/723830]Cyborg Invasion Shooter[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/third-person-shooter-kit]Third Person Shooter Kit[/url] developed by Epic Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2985190]Candy Renovation[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/renovation-simulator]Renovation Simulator[/url] developed by Manudog
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/3046850]Candy Golf[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/mini-golf-template]Mini Golf Template[/url] developed by GoFlood
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2617210]Lost Princess: Winterland[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/polygon-vikings-pack]Polygon Vikings Pack[/url] developed by Synty Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1776540]Lawnmower Game: Pinball[/url]" = [url=https://github.com/freezy/pinball-construction-kit]Pinball Construction Kit[/url] developed by Epic Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/768060]The Warrior Of Treasures[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/dynamic-combat-system]Dynamic Combat System[/url] developed by Grzegorz Szewczyk
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/581200]Nash Racing[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/advanced-tuning-cars]Advanced Tuning Cars[/url] developed by James Novih
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1643280]Fancy the Frog[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/characters/pixel-adventure-1-155360]Pixel Adventure 1[/url] developed by Pixel Frog
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/713580]Nash Racing 2[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/advanced-tuning-cars]Advanced Tuning Cars[/url] developed by James Novih
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1639090]Survival Isolation[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/easy-survival-rpg]Easy Survival RPG[/url] developed by Easy Systems
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/989340]Aliens Dont Exist[/url]" = [url=https://craftpix.net/freebies/2d-game-alien-character-free-sprite/]Alien Character - Free Sprite[/url] developed by Craftpix
[/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 fairly mediocre/low quality, in some places they appear mismatched... Ultimately the quality of these assets, and thus the overall visual quality is lower than average, and low quality always makes for a less than optimal gaming experience. Remember, we're looking for the best of the best of 100,000+ games on Steam.
The developers didn't design the game for modern gaming PCs, as such the display resolution caps out at 1080p, a very low resolution that became mainstream back in 2006 and became obsolete when 4K entered the mainstream in 2014. The game simply won't look right on modern gaming displays due to this failure on the part of the developers.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
Steel Warrior 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 "Find cake Military Base", for finding a cake, trivial to get, but less than 28 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, even the people who own this game weren't interested in it.
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 game all-time peak player count was only ONE player. That's right, only one person ever played this at a time. When I played this for the purposes of reviewing it, I equalled the peak player count for the game. OUCH. 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.
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.
So, should you buy this asset flip? Is this better than any of the 100,000+ genuinely made games on Steam? Of course not!
Steel Warrior has the far too high price of around $5 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the unethical nature of the developer.
For comparison, the $5 asking price for this game could get you games like "The Witcher 2", "The Walking Dead" or "X-Com 2". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
[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]
