[quote][b][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/b]
Undead Exterminator is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated a few Unity asset store 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, the asset flipper took a bunch of low poly/voxel "Minecraft" like assets and dumped them on a basic Unity FPS blueprint. It has no value or merit as a real game.
The Russian "developer" behind this asset flip is banned from Steam and has come back with this and a number of other fake/shell accounts to try to hide his identity. The developer previously used some of these fake accounts which you may remember from before he was banned:
[list]
[*] Reforged Group
[*] ImperiumGame
[*] HotFoodGames
[*] GigantumGames
[*] Gales Corp.
[/list]
That's just a few, the list goes on. But it's important for gamers to know this, even though reviews must be about the game (and we'll get into that shortly) because I know most gamers prefer not to buy games from unethical developers and asset flip scammers. Such is the case for this.
This game once held an eye watering set of 80 fake reviews from fake accounts the developer set up. The reviews were all written in GPT. These reviews have all now been banned. But this feeds back into making sure gamers know just who they're buying games from.
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.
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.
The game features lazy low-polygon voxel "Minecraft"-like "art", making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the 1990s. A lot of amateur developers see Minecraft's success and assume it's because it looks bad, not because it had unique and appealing game mechanics, and they try to emulate the success without understanding it. It also happens to be easy, and doesn't need any proper talent in terms of game development/graphic artists etc. That's why reviewers are faced with so many of these terrible games with confrontingly bad graphics. Developers must learn that Minecraft succeeded despite the bad graphics, not because of them.
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.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
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!
Undead Exterminator 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, and the questionable ethical nature of the developer and/or their associates (as outlined above), this is impossible to recommend. Remember that if you buy a game from an unethical developer, you're putting your money at risk.
[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]
