Monster Island

"Monster Island" is a very simple wave shooter. The player is supposed to defend themselves from waves of aliens using several weapons with limitless ammo (you don't even have to reload). Of course the waves become gradually harder by adding more and more difficult aliens into the mix. This all takes place in an extremely small area with some odd ruins. So, wave shooter, alrighty. Nothing wrong with that in general but "Monster Island" is just not all that fun. This has mostly to do with the enemies. Shortly after spawn they jump in the air and then often stand high up on top of the ruins or on hills. Unfortunately due to poor lighting it's often hard to see them up there so you'll be pelted with shots [i]from above[/i] that travel far too fast before you even know what's going on. You often spend more time searching the tiny area for the enemy than fighting them. More often than not a part of the spawning enemies also just disappears; unfortunately there's no way of knowing how many opponents are still left. Also, the combat just feels dull. There's no punch to any of the weapons nor is there any recoil, and visual feedback of actually hitting something isn't great either. There's no player progression as all weapons are unlocked off the bat and can't be upgraded. Visually the game isn't bad. Despite the issues of actually seeing the enemies the lighting sets a nice alien atmosphere and the visual effects are looking great as well. The level design - if we want to call it that given the extremely confined space - is okay, although the ruins somehow look like they should have been placed differently. The music definitely needs replacing though - while a pleasant synth song it's hardly aggressive enough to match the gameplay. Of course this is all mostly due to the quality of the paid assets. This is what baffles me: these assets aren't cheap; Valve also wants $100 for the Steam Direct fee, and the game is offered for free. While commendable, the question remains why this is even on Steam? There's no Steamworks support either - no achievements nor leaderboards. Why not at least spend the time needed to implement Steamworks.net since you are using Steam as a platform anyway? With no player progression and no replayability there's very little point to bother with this game at all. A little more effort would go a long way here. At least the developer disclaimed the use of store bought assets which is certainly appreciated. [code][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/assetflipreviews]Join my Steam group[/url] for more reviews of asset flips and trash games[/code]