The Archetype 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 packs, arranged them haphazardly in a first person adventure game template, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers. I recognized the "haunted mansion" interior right away as soon as I started the game... these asset flips seem to get worse as time goes on, or maybe it's just the frequency of my exposure to all these amateur plagiarisms.
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.
MacKenzie Kaser/Rafael Barreto/SA Industry have shown a repeat pattern of unethically dumping other people's work onto Steam as a cheap, nasty cash grab, through this account or through closely linked/alt accounts. Here's some examples so you can see for yourself:
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[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/756260]Kingdom Defense[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/tower-defense-basic-pixel-art-pack-45705]Tower Defense Basic Pixel Art Pack[/url] developed by FreeThePlayerOnGame
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/856490]Falling Words[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/2d-typing-game-endless-random-falling-word-text-font-typer-game-107867]2D Typing Game[/url] developed by Steelkrill Studio
[*] "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1053650]Drive For Your Life[/url]" = [url=https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/zombie-drive-full-game-template-73074]Zombie Drive - Full Game Template[/url] developed by Puppeteer
[/list]
In fairness some effort went into using the stolen assets to make a game... but effort does not translate to quality, and we already know the developer has behaved unethically and in a morally bankrupt manner by claiming someone else's work as their own. And when developers resort to do this, it's no surprise at all that they can't do the rest of the job of game development properly either, and "The Archetype" is a pretty typical example of this. They did slap some ugly screen filters and other effects over the stolen assets to try disguise the blatant asset flipping here, but it doesn't work.
This asset flipped first person horror jumpscare game (yes, it's that kind of asset flip) hamfistedly uses mental illness as a driving theme for the game. You have a selection of mental health stats that are depleted as you wander around the asset flipped mansion. That adds little to nothing to the old and abused first person horror jumpscare asset flip genre.
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.
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.
There's an ugly screen filter meant to make the game look even more obsolete... like the game looks bad enough already, but they actually went out of their way to make it look worse. There's no way to turn this off.
The game assets are fairly mediocre/low quality, in some places they appear mismatched... Ultimately the quality of these assets, and thus the overall visual quality is lower than average, and low quality always makes for a less than optimal gaming experience. Remember, we're looking for the best of the best of 100,000+ games on Steam.
Bewilderingly, the game doesn't include proper audio controls, so you can't turn off the annoying sound/background music, you'll need to alt+tab out and stop it using the Windows sound mixer. This is obviously not okay and it's unclear why the developers chose not to include this basic feature.
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.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
The game has a lot of flashing effects/strobes, the kind of thing that can cause harm to epileptics, but the developer declined to put an epilepsy warning on the game. If you suffer from anything like that, you should avoid this game.
Reviewing SteamDB to check how popular this game was with players reveals a surprise... there's a very healthy spike in player counts for the game. But this only happened once, around the same time that trading cards were applied to the game... so this is just card idlers getting their cards and moving on. A closer look at the numbers shows the game just has a couple of players every week running up the game and idling it for cards, then deleting it. We must ask how it benefits gamers for there to be so many games like this, with no merit as a serious game, that only generate sales from people idling and selling the trading cards.
It's also important to note the "developer" here has connections to a number of shady Russian asset flippers and review manipulators who show an organised pattern to scam and defraud gamers with fake reviews and asset flipping the work of others for profit. While reviews are about the games, gamers should be informed when developers act unethically. Whether these connections are the same developer using multiple accounts, or just working closely with other unethical developers, gamers should be warned about the harm to gamers by this developer and their associates. Buying games from unethical developers puts your money at risk.
So, should you buy this asset flip? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?
The Archetype has the greedy, cash grab price of $30 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. 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. THIRTY BUCKS FOR AN ASSET FLIP.
For comparison, the $30 asking price for this game could get you games like "Subnautica", "Cities: Skylines" or "Final Fantasy XIV Online". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
