[h1]Overview:[/h1]
'[i]Taste of War[/i]' is a pixelated first person shooter where you play as the last surviving soldier of a team that is never mentioned anywhere in the game nor on the store page. The plot is essentially absent as the developer appeared to have pitched the game as just any standard hardcore shooter but did possibly one of the worst jobs at it. I'm no stranger to bad games and definitely no stranger to first person shooters but jesus christ, I wasn't expecting much when I dropped less than 50 cents on this game but the amount of problems is bewildering.
The reviews on the store page are also ridiculously laughable as it's quite obvious that they're not genuine at all. I don't understand why these kinds of developers opt for such shady and scummy business tactics but if they're dumb enough to believe it works then hey, who am I to tell them what to do? But I digress, regardless of what the reviews say, I guarantee you none of them tell you anything remotely helpful because they're fake. You want a [b]real[/b] review? Here's one.
[h1]Gameplay:[/h1]
It's one thing to make a game hardcore by introducing complicated mechanics but it's another to make it hard from due to broken aiming controls. I'm not even kidding when I say this, but the game is completely unplayable because of one fatal flaw: You can't aim unless you're moving the cursor very slowly and I mean [b]very[/b] slowly. If you move your mouse even more than 100 DPI, your aim will lock and prevent you from looking anywhere unless you slow down your mouse movements to a crawl. I'm not sure if this is just a problem I'm having because the video store page clearly depicts the player looking around the map quickly. But from my experience, you [i]cannot[/i] do that in any instance and can only look around if you move the mouse too slow to be able to play.
I attempted to bypass this issue by trying to launch the game in window mode, checking the control settings and decreasing my base DPI in hopes that the locking would subside but all the methods I could think of were to no avail. Despite the already horrible programming from the very start of the game I still tried to press on, desperate to try and play. Honestly even if the game is absolute garbage, I usually want to give games like this the benefit of the doubt or in the least a second chance in hopes that I can at least finish it. But I literally [b]can't[/b] play this game because it's simply unplayable.
Now, what's the most important aspect of a video game? Well, being able to [i]play[/i] it is a pretty big factor wouldn't you agree? '[i]Taste of War[/i]' however said forget that and broke itself so no one could play it. Again, I'm not sure if I'm the only one having this problem but the fact that I am, means that most likely others are having the same issue. The developer clearly overlooked a flaw (and a pretty damn big one at that) and did nothing to fix it. Maybe it wasn't reported so they were unaware of it, well here's the report. Will it be fixed or will the game forever be a potential broken mess? My vote goes to the latter.
The fake reviews should've already raised a red flag, but if one isn't enough, here's another one but bigger. If you're looking for a cheap, pixelated first person shooter, avoid '[i]Taste of War[/i]' as you will not get a taste of anything in this title.
[h1]Controls:[/h1]
As mentioned, the aiming is broken, absolutely broken. I also said I checked the control settings to try and make the game playable but there are no control settings, just audio ones. But had the aiming worked, moving around is also ridiculously fast. Seriously you could get from one side of a room to the other in less than 2 seconds. I [i]did[/i] get a small gleam of hope after finding out that you can aim with the arrow keys but soon realized that you can only fire with left click. So if I [i]really[/i] wanted to go that route I'd have to constantly switch between the arrow keys and mouse with a single hand just to be able to fight enemies and trust me, that was [b]not[/b] going to work. This is where having remappable keys would [i]really[/i] help. I really tried to make this game work but with the options the game gives the player, it just isn't feasible.
[h1]Graphics:[/h1]
Although I knew not to expect crazy nice graphics since the game was clearly pixelated, it still manages to look exponentially worse than other pixelated games like '[i]Wolfenstein 3D[/i]', '[i]DOOM[/i]', and even more obscure titles like '[i]THE FANGS HUNTRESS[/i]'. Maybe my monitor is just too expensive to handle a 400x600 resolution game because there's no resolution scaling. Having a game like this stretched out of a 27' screen is pretty eye tearing and even the main menu is cut off near the bottom. There are no video options so I wasn't even able to adjust my resolution or even switch to windowed mode (which could have fixed the aiming problem). I even tried forcing windowed mode through advanced launch options and the standard "ALT" and "ENTER" key but that didn't work either. That's how little this game has.
[h1]Audio:[/h1]
The standard sounds you hear in these types of games and is nothing special. I can at least say the sounds properly represent what they're supposed to and don't sound annoying or obnoxiously loud. I [i]do[/i] however have to mention that this is only accounting for the first level since well, I can't even play the game. Hell, even the screenshots and video on the store page take place on level 1. Even the developer couldn't beat the first level, I wonder why.
[h1]Conclusion/TL;DR:[/h1]
'[i]Taste of War[/i]' is a pixelated first person shooter programmed so badly that it's literally unplayable. The main issue is that you can't aim unless you move the cursor extremely slowly and considering that this is a first person shooter, that is a huge problem. The video on the store page shows proper gameplay but the sad reality is that you will not be able to play like that. Even for the measly 50 cents I threw for this broken mess, I'd still opt for a refund. Avoid this like sketchy [i]Amazon[/i] E-mails because trust me when I say, there are other games just like this that [b]actually[/b] work.
