Tanky Tanks 2 is a fairly basic Unity asset flipped 3D rendered 2D twin stick shooter, 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. They managed to sneak this past Nintendo's QA so it's primarily a Nintendo Switch game.
Most of the assets are stolen reskins from [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/kubikos-3d-cube-world-117341]Kubiko's 3D Cube World[/url] and some other places, as well as sound samples released under an attribution license... and of course the asset flipper behind this mess didn't credit those asset creators, sometimes deliberately breaching the intellectual property license. For profit. We shouldn't be surprised that plagiarists and asset flippers suffer from deplorably low levels of morality... but as consumers we need to know about this so we can vote with our wallets and avoid these shady products.
From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
The game features low-polygon "retro" assets with a cel-shading type shader effects instead of doing their job properly and texturing the game assets, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the early 1990s. This visual style is a method that lazy devs often use when they have a lack of interest/capability to create highly detailed, high poly models and instead use shader effects to disguise that shortcoming under the name of "art", or "We made it look bad on purpose", which really isn't something gamers should have to put up with. It's unclear why the developers weren't willing to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets and high resolution textures for the game. It's far below the state of the art visuals gamers expect as a result of their decisions.
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.
Because this is designed for handheld/portable gaming appliances, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the low power handheld gaming appliances that the game was designed for. These are unfortunate compromises and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was a second thought for the mobile game developers. The game is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for low power handhelds forces upon a game. While this might run well on a Steam Deck, we must remember the vast majority of gamers here are gaming on PC.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
Tanky Tanks 2 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 "Collect all coins in Stage 4", from the fourth (easy) level, trivial to get, but less than 20 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, even the people who own this game weren't interested in it.
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 6 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.
[quote][b][url=https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/federal-register-notices/16-cfr-part-465-trade-regulation-rule-use-consumer-reviews-testimonials-final-rule]Warning: Review Manipulation![/url][/b]
This game features a HUGE number of fake positive reviews from accounts known to be in the business of review manipulation/paid reviews. They're all written in either Russian or broken English, appear at almost exactly the same time, very shortly after the game launched on Steam, all have a direct Steam purchase of the game, and the accounts are used consistently to write fake reviews for asset flips and other cash grabs/scams. The "Positive" review score on this game should be disregarded due to this blatant, unethical review manipulation. This is done to deceive and scam gamers into paying for a bad product.
Due to the 2024 FTC ruling (16 CFR Part 465), these fake reviews are a violation of US Federal Law.[/quote]
The game contains stock/store assets/libraries/packages, but the "developer" here hasn't credited the people who actually did the work for the game. In some cases <<<<< EXAMPLE >>>>> this breaches the license agreement the developer signed for the use of those assets. Claiming credit for the work of others as well as breaching software licenses is highly unethical. Gamers should be made aware when a developer behaves unethically and breaches license/copyright agreements, as buying games from unethical developers puts the gamers money at risk.
So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?
Tanky Tanks 2 has the pathetically optimistic price of around $10 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the unethical nature of the developer.
For comparison, the $10 asking price for this game could get you games like "Mirror's Edge", "Hearts of Iron IV" or "7 Days to Die". 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]
