THE 2048 is, just like it says on the box, the classic free browser game, 2048, but you're expected to pay money for this on Steam.
My first inclination was that this was yet another 2048 asset/tutorial flip, because there's a number of tutorials and free asset packs for making 2048 as a game (to teach people how to use Unity etc), and a lot of unscrupulous "developers" who steal others work and slap their own name on it to claim credit (and money) for the work of others. Not so here, the developer has rightly and correctly credited those who did most of the work for this game. And, they've added extra game modes and so on (including an isometric game mode). Unfortunately that doesn't make this any better than the web versions of the game, and we have to remember this is being put up for profit... and for a game as shallow as 2048, that's really not okay. It's polluting Steam. You could play this for free in a web browser.
From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic low quality vector art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the mediocre 2D visuals.
The game features extremely lazy, minimalist "art", of the type you normally expect to see in low effort Flash/browser games and mobile apps. Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing.
The game only displays in a bizarre 1:1 aspect ratio. Like... do they own a completely square monitor? Has the developer never seen a computer before? This isn't really acceptable, and it's unclear why the developer couldn't format the game correctly. Another reason to avoid this. I know 2048 is a "square" game, but that's also a problem. What is this doing on Steam?
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.
For gameplay purposes, because the user interface for this game is hardly different from the browser versions of the game. And we all know, Steam isn't here to compete with Chrome and Firefox. If the game can be done in a web browser, it's just not rich or compelling enough to appeal to serious gamers on PC.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
THE 2048 is relatively cheap at $1 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 9,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.
