I'm not really sure if WarWar Battle Kingdom is an asset flip. Some elements of this game certainly make it seem like the developer put some effort into assembling some kind of original here. On the other hand, a lot of the game assets don't seem like they were created by the developer, but they haven't credited any asset creators for supplying assets, which might be a case of plagiarism. There's no evidence, so we need to give the benefit of the doubt... regardless, asset flip or not, the quality here is indistinguishable from many asset flip/cash grab scams, and that's a problem in itself.
In this case we can also assess the prior history of this developer unethically plagiarising the work of others, dumping demos and game asset packs onto Steam in an attempt to scam people into buying them. That puts this game into a very bad light; it's almost certainly some kind of asset flip.
Niko Belik/Piece Of Voxel 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/1587940]DuelVox Max Quality[/url]" = [url=https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/western-desert-town]Western Desert Town[/url] developed by KK Design
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1660460]Hoples[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/characters/pixel-adventure-1-155360]Pixel Adventure 1[/url] developed by Pixel Frog
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1655880]Kings and Pigs[/url]" = [url=https://pixelfrog-assets.itch.io/kings-and-pigs]Kings and Pigs[/url] developed by Pixel Frog
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1787640]Kings and Pigs Prequel[/url]" = [url=https://pixelfrog-assets.itch.io/kings-and-pigs]Kings and Pigs[/url] developed by Pixel Frog
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1547820]Top Truck Driver[/url]" = [url=https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/5820/hill-racing-template-gms1-2]Hill Racing Template[/url] developed by Janko Knez
[/list]
Taking this shovelware seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it's just a very lame Plants vs Zombies type mobile app ripoff. Basic soldier attack/defense gameplay, put your soldiers in each row and hope they outperform the enemy soldiers coming at you. A very shallow experience, which leads more credibility to the theory this is just another asset flip from a known Russian asset flip scammer.
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 assets are fairly mediocre/low quality which fits with the idea they weren't developed by the game creator... they look like they're "just reasonable enough" to go on sale as part of an asset pack. The issue of asset flipping aside, ultimately the quality of these assets is low and low quality always makes for a less than optimal gaming experience.
The game features simple, cartoony 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low effort mobile apps. 3D graphics programming does require a degree of skill and competence and unfortunately not all developers have the budget or talent to deliver this, despite 3D graphics cards hitting the mainstream in the 1990's. 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 controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just iPhone screen tapping stuff. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here.
This looks and feels like a mobile app, but I wasn't able to find it on the app stores. Maybe it was removed, maybe it was rejected by Apple and Google (they do have more rigorous quality standards than Valve does for Steam, after all).
Regardless, for all intents and purposes WarWar Battle Kingdom might as well be a mobile app, it has the same limitations and dumbed down qualities. It's impossible to recommend such a game to PC gamers. We don't spend all this money building gaming rigs so we can pretend they're iPhones and play games that might as well be mobile apps.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
WarWar Battle Kingdom didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for doing 20 turns, trivial to get, but less than 20 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, gamers just weren't all that interested in the game.
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 all-time peak player number was only 2 players. This is a remarkably low number, and 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.
It's also important to note the "developer" here has connections to a number of shady Russian asset flippers and review manipulators who show an organised pattern to scam and defraud gamers with fake reviews and asset flipping the work of others for profit. While reviews are about the games, gamers should be informed when developers act unethically. Whether these connections are the same developer using multiple accounts, or just working closely with other unethical developers, gamers should be warned about the harm to gamers by this developer and their associates. Buying games from unethical developers puts your money at risk.
So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?
WarWar Battle Kingdom has the insane price of around $5 USD (for what looks like a free mobile app game asset flip), it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the unethical nature of the developer. Because this is the kind of game you can just play for free on mobile phones, it's impossible to recommend anyone should pay money for the same experience on Steam.
For comparison, the $5 asking price for this game could get you games like "Civilization VI", "Fallout: New Vegas" or "Torchlight 2". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
[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]
