The Monster War

Pretty good

fun game and easy to play/learn. perfect way to decompress for a few minutes and play something entertaining. shout to the developer, he's hot

This game isn't even complete. The only thing available is the tutorial, the animations are either missing or just plain bad, and tons of models standing in t-pose. The tutorial and start game are the same and if you get the end of the tutorial the game crashes, not that you'd want to continue playing it anyway. I don't know how the other reviewer managed to get over an hour outside of just letting the game sit open on their computer while they did other things. "Bad game" summed it up.

"The Monster War" is a weird Frankenstein's Monster of an Unreal kitbash... a bunch of really poor looking game assets slapped together into three confused, schizophrenic, but also really badly done game modes. You get side scrolling (why?), TD and a physics puzzle mode... none of which are great, none of which work together... heck, this would have done better if the developer had stuck to just one game mode, but doing it properly. This is unpolished and riddled with bugs, crashes, jankiness and things just not working. It's unfun, and that's why it failed so spectacularly. This comes across as something unambitious and "simple" in terms of implementation and technical quality and depth, more like a game dev tutorial or an experiment. It’s a classic case of a developer prioritizing the low effort needed to get a game listed on Steam over the actual delivery of a technically sound or compelling product. Whatever is needed to hammer out something "good" enough for Steam Direct self-publishing. Even though the game looks pretty bad (and decent visuals are a minimum requirement for any game), it's still possible this is an asset flip... the assets are completely mismatched. Minecraft meets almost ok assets in the same game? That doesn't seem right. There's no evidence, but the quality here is indistinguishable from an asset flip. There's also the old adage that those who lack the budget and talent to make their own game assets of any level of quality usually lack the budget and talent to do the rest of the job of game development properly, too. Now on to pricing and value for gamers. This is "free" enough (not every "free" game in the "free" section is truly free, there's usually some hidden price tag), at least you won't be expected to spend any more money after you download this, but just because something is free doesn't mean it's good, and the cost of a game is more than just financial, your time is valuable too. 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 user count was only ONE person. That's right, only one person ever used this at a time. When I tried this for the purposes of reviewing it, I equalled the peak user count for the product. OUCH. The only user 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 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? I think you should give this one a miss. Although it's free, your time and storage are valuable resources, and the market is filled with superior options.

☀️

Игра "The Monster War" зацепила своей простой, но затягивающей механикой объединения монстров. Идея слияния одинаковых существ для получения более сильных выглядит свежо и увлекательно. Прогрессия хорошо сбалансирована: сначала легко, а к поздним этапам приходится придумывать стратегии и эффективно использовать бонусы. Визуальный стиль приятный, мультяшный, не напрягает глаза. Монстры выглядят забавно и разнообразно, интересно открывать новых. Несмотря на казуальный геймплей, игра способна увлечь на долгие часы. Регулярные ивенты и новые монстры поддерживают интерес к проекту. Из минусов можно отметить некоторую однообразность, особенно если играть без перерывов. Однако, в целом, "The Monster War" - отличный таймкиллер, который подойдёт для коротких сессий в дороге или в ожидании. Рекомендую всем любителям несложных и приятных игр, где можно просто расслабиться и наблюдать, как твои монстры становятся сильнее.