S.T.R.E.T.C.H. Reviews

6/10

Easy 100% achievements, but a bad implementation of this type of game.

[b][quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_flip]Warning: Asset Flip![/url][/quote][/b] S.T.R.E.T.C.H. is a Digital Homicide style asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated a Unity asset/template for a 2D vertical scrolling shmup and a spaceship asset pack or two, dumped them all in a blender, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers. It's important to also note 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. ARGames/Metal Fox have a known history of trying to scam people into paying them money for someone else's work, through this account or through closely linked/alt accounts. An example of ARGames/Metal Fox doing this is [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/798560]Inaccessible world[/url], which is really "[url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/ultimate-survival-80368]Ultimate Survival[/url]", written by the actual developers, Winterbyte. Also, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/916640]HecatoncheirStory[/url], which is really "[url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/tutorials/3d-game-kit-115747]3D Game Kit[/url]", developed by Unity Technologies. 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. While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 3D-looking 2D animated art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lacklustre 2D visuals. 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. 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. 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 50,000 games for gamers to choose from (over 9,000 completely free titles), the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. S.T.R.E.T.C.H. 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.