[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
Ultrazone is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated a few GameMaker Studio asset store packs, 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, the asset flipper, Atomic Fabrik/GamesforGames took a bunch of stolen pixel "art" sprites and dumped them on a basic GameMaker Studio RTS blueprint, with just a couple of levels on stolen pixel tylesets. It has no value or merit as a real game.
Gamesforgames/Atomic Fabrik 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/2862050]Spaceship Driver License[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/x-racer-35344]X-Racer[/url] developed by Deer Cat
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2862020]Let's Park Bus Edition[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellmyapp.com/downloads/smart-bus-parking-games-bus-driving-simulator-2021/]Bus Driving Simulator 2021[/url] developed by The Armor Gaming
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2833820]Fox Golf[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/golf-royale-104938]Golf Royale[/url] developed by Code Master Studio
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2862030]Lunatic Taxi Driver[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellmyapp.com/downloads/offroad-taxi-driving-city-taxi-sim/]Offroad Taxi Driving Sim[/url] developed by Sim Studio
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2805650]Diamonds Collector[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellmyapp.com/downloads/city-car-driver-street-racing-game-64bit-source-code/]City Car Driver Street Racing Game[/url] developed by The Armor Gaming
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2862040]One Chance[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellmyapp.com/downloads/i-hate-fingers/]I Hate Fingers[/url] developed by Fox Game Studio
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2805620]Zombodesert[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellmyapp.com/downloads/animal-racing-complate-game-racing-game-support-unity-5-5/]Animal Racing[/url] developed by SplayGame Official
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2805640]Desert Special Forces[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellmyapp.com/downloads/frontline-army-commando-war-battle-games/]Frontline Army Commando War[/url] developed by Deeko Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2864300]Zombodesert[/url]" = [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cXnw-32BjA]Macho Dash[/url] developed by TAPP Games
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2387820]Beach Gas Gas[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellmyapp.com/downloads/highway-racer-traffic-car-race/]Highway Racer Traffic Car Race[/url] developed by Unity Boy
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1906320]Arena Drift Master[/url]" = [url=https://www.sellanycode.com/item/206/zombie-drive-trending-game]Zombie Drive Trending Game[/url] developed by Virgil Source
[/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.
A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result.
To make matters worse, while lazy, low quality pixel "art" has been used, making the game look bad, many elements of the game aren't done with pixelcrap... which accomplishes a couple of things. First, it shows the developers perhaps could have done better and they knew it, so that's a major screwup.
Secondly, it destroys any hopes the developer had of creating a "retro aesthetic" as their excuse for the lazy pixelart compromise... It looks completely inauthentic from a retro gaming perspective. Visually, this is a hamfisted mess, a dogs breakfast of bad visuals, and this kind of laziness and poor quality should never be foisted on gamers.
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.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 3 players, and the worst part is these weren't genuine players, these were the Russian fake review accounts that the developer paid to make the fake reviews. Since the fake reviews are all done, now 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.
[quote][b][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][/b]
This game features a 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 game launched on Steam, all have a direct Steam purchase of the game, and the accounts are used consistently to write fake reviews for asset flips and other cash grabs/scams. The "Positive" review score on this game should be disregarded due to this blatant, unethical review manipulation. This is done to deceive and scam gamers into paying for a bad product.[/quote]
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!
Ultrazone has the ridiculous price of $10 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, and the questionable ethical nature of the developer and/or their associates (as outlined above), this is impossible to recommend.
[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]
