Weed Shop 4: Highland

I'm having a lot of fun with the game. It launched in a bad state but it's much better now. There's decent progression. The game is a tad janky, but that's the way Weed Shop 3 was through most of its early access. And the developer is doing great. I reported a bug the other day, and a few hours later it was fixed. Yes, the loading screen art was made with AI. If that's causing you a panic attack, you need to see a psychiatrist. and to stay off of PC Gamer and Blue Sky for awhile. (and, no, you can't fill my profile with hate. I've blocked it from general view because my kids go there occasionally. You can, however, spew hate-while following Valve guidelines-in the comments for this review)

Weed Shop 4: Highland has the same fun core loop I loved in Weed Shop 3, but now with multiplayer, something I've wanted since Weed Shop 3. Building a weed shop from nothing, growing, selling, and expanding with a friend finally being a thing has me genuinely hyped. It's early, but the start is already really fun. It's Early Access. That's the label on the box, not an excuse. You're buying something unfinished, rough edges included, with a roadmap to fix it. On the AI-assisted art and music: this is a small team, maybe even one person, not a studio with a full art department on payroll. Leaning on AI for early concepts and rougher passes, then having a human finish and integrate them, is a reasonable budget call for an outfit this size, not laziness. Honestly, even if they hadn't touched it up by hand at all, I don't think it would've mattered much. That said, they didn't disclose any of this when the game launched, and I'm not going to defend that part. Whether that was because they genuinely didn't realize it needed disclosing or they just didn't think about it, it doesn't matter. It should've been on the store page from day one, and it wasn't. That's a legitimate miss on their part, full stop. The "Disable AI" toggle now reads: "Disable AI-generated content and continue pretending you're morally superior while consuming algorithm slop everywhere else." I think that's funny, and honestly kind of accurate. Half the people yelling about this in a $20 indie game are scrolling AI-generated garbage on their phones for hours a day without a second thought. Maybe not everyone, but if you spent time trying to strip all the AI out of your feeds and news, you're probably just trying to look more sophisticated about it, and honestly, I (and a lot of people I know) think that's a bit of a weird hill to die on. AI is genuinely better than people at some specific things. If a joke like that ruins your day, this probably isn't the game, or the sense of humor, for you. Bottom line: rough, honest about being rough, made a real mistake by not disclosing AI use at launch, but has since owned it and is genuinely fun underneath it all. Recommended if you can go in with Early Access expectations and a thicker skin than the average Steam review section.