Figures Of Shadows

"Figures Of Shadows" isn't a game, it's a cringey non-game fan-fiction e-book that's been dumped on Steam into the games section. As a visual novel, it doesn't have any gameplay. It's just a lot of clicking through bad, cringe dialogue that no real publisher would ever accept. When people can't get their work published in print, they pay the $100 fee to dump their fan-fiction here instead, where we have to put up with it when looking for things that are actual PC games. I think we should at least pause and acknowledge that the author of this CYOA thankfully did not make this an e-book all about his relationship with his imaginary girlfriend. Most non-game e-books on Steam unfortunately cover that topic exclusively, and the cringe is overwhelming. So, gratefully, while this does not cover that topic, it is still unfortunately a poorly written non-game experience about depression, being separated from family, and the horrors of thinking that badly written e-books are the same things as PC games. Visual novels are tedious at best. Imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or Twilight (kidding), but translate it to a format where you've to click your mouse for every single sentence instead of just turning pages. You'd think it was garbage. Now imagine that clicking experience, but with utterly cringe anime club fan-fiction writing. If the author had any talent, this would be published in print on bookshelves. Instead, it's here on Steam. This garbage only ended up on Steam because they paid $100 to self-publish since no real publisher would take them. You can get better quality books for free online or from public libraries. Steam isn't a bookstore. Your gaming rig is not a Kindle. It's impossible for me to recommend things to PC gamers that aren't really games. Trying to address social issues through the medium of video games is misguided and can be harmful. While it's plausible to suggest the intention was noble, this can do more harm than good. Game developers are not professionals in areas of mental health and social problems, and when they use video games to pretend they are, this can cause far more harm than good. It's my opinion that it's improper to use video games to push political or social agendas. Apart from the harm such hamfisted attempts at addressing social problems can cause, this offers zero benefit to PC gamers. People suffering from health issues or other social problems should seek out professional help rather than going to crap shovelware video games attempting to get sales by exploiting such problems for their own benefit, as is the case here. On the upside, the E-Book does feature customisable controls and resolution, so at least some of the basic, minimum requirements have been met. Unfortunately there's a number of other technical defects and shortcomings which contribute to the game being difficult to recommend to gamers. These flaws make this E-Book fall far short of the professional standards we expect from a modern PC game. The poor quality of this E-Book is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the E-Book all-time peak player count was only ONE player. That's right, only one person ever played this at a time. When I played this for the purposes of reviewing it, I equalled the peak player count for the E-Book. OUCH. 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 E-Book is to be expected. Let's talk about price and the value this represents for us gamers. Should you buy this E-Book? Is it among the best the Steam catalogue has to offer? Figures Of Shadows is relatively cheap at $1 USD, but it's not worth it. Stick with Project Gutenberg if you want to use your gaming rig like a Kindle. [quote][b][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/b] Valve have marked this E-Book as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the E-Book (to date). Until this status changes, this E-Book 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 E-Book.[/quote]