▼ Not recommended
4 hrs
Warning: Asset Flip!
Crypto Mining is an asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated someone else's example/template/tutorial game, changed the name/reskinned a couple of things, and submitted it to Valve as if it was their own game.
Warning: Broken Game!
This game has design/implementation defects that will render this unplayable for many gamers. The game has numerous game breaking bugs and broken features, such that even the core game loops don't work.
Crypto Mining is a fairly basic Unity asset flipped first person horror adventure, one of many hundreds, if not thousands of these glutting Steam. The "developer" paid for/pirated a few Unity asset store assets, arranged them haphazardly in a first person adventure game template, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers.
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.
This is a collection of plagiarised assets from the Eastern Bloc dropped lazily onto a "first person tycoon" Unity game blueprint and rushed onto Steam Direct so bulk keys can be generated for cheap nasty game bundles. The idea is you generate, buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but core game loops just don't work because the developer did no testing. Then again, with this kind of shovelware, the intention isn't to create a real game for gamers, it's to create something Valve will rubberstamp onto the Steam store.
One of the first assets you see when you start the game is this Sandberg Gaming Chari asset the developer stole off SketchFab. That's just one example, every asset in the game is plagiarised.
So the visuals might look halfway decent at first glance, if mismatched looking in places. But that's only because the "developer" is using other people's assets. When a dev is too lazy or untalented to make their own art, they usually aren't capable of competent coding or game design either. That is exactly the case with this mess.
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.
The mismatched game assets are fairly mediocre/low quality, it's a wonder why they couldn't be bothered "borrowing" higher quality assets for this asset flip. This is a lot like going on a shoplifting spree but only stealing the cut price store brand goods. Regardless, the poor quality assets alone should be enough to deter gamers from bothering with this.
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.
Those technical flaws drag this game well below the minimum quality standards expected of a 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 5 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 130 million gamers on Steam and well over 140,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.
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.
Now on to pricing and value. Should you buy this asset flip? Is this really better than any of the 140,000+ genuinely made games on Steam? Of course not!
The developer is deliberately and unethically trying to scam gamers into paying them the laughable, eye-watering price of $5 USD for a game they know is broken. Don't give it to them.
For comparison, the $5 asking price for this game could get you games like "Payday 2", the "Tomb Raider" remake or "Metro Last Light". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
Ethics aside, 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.
Profile Features Limited!
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.
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