Stars received: 0.6/10 _ Note: v.5 [0.0 to 1] = personal impressions

[0.2] Controls & Training & Help
[0] Menu & Settings
[0] Sound & Music
[0.2] Graphics
[0.1] Game Design
[0] Game Story
[0.1] Game Content
[0] Completion time (level/game)?
[0] is it Enjoyable & Fun?
[0] Could it hold a spot in Favorites? (& if the Game can be repeatedly played again)
[0] BONUS point: Multi-Player related
[0] BONUS point: Review for VR
[n] - if Registration is required with providing PII

Game description key-points: bad experience guaranteed

Overview:
an asset flip, made on a bad core design.

Warning: Asset Flip![en.wikipedia.org]

Return Alive is an asset flip, what Valve calls a "fake game". The "developer", GreatHopeStudio, took a template from the godawful GameMaker Studio from YoyoGames, slapped a couple of asset flipped sprites on it, and dumped the results onto Steam as a cash grab scam.

GreatHopeStudio has shown a repeated pattern of ripping off GameMakerStudio templates and dumping them on Steam.

Don't believe me? Here's another asset flip from exactly the same template, shamelessly dumped on Steam as a nasty cash grab: Wild Times, also asset flipped by GreatHopeStudio. Take a look. It's exactly the same game!

The products that result from asset flips aren't "real" games. They lack depth and content, because they're just simplistic copies of demos or tutorials. In this case, "Return Alive" is just a 2D retro pixel vertical scrolling shmup with left, right and middle firing options, and doesn't have any merit as a proper, fully fledged PC game, so a copy+paste of it can't be recommended.

Asset flips don't involve any professional game development. Sure, sometimes they may change a few cosmetic things, swap out different assets etc, but at heart it's functionally identical to the asset they're ripping off. Asset flips are an insult to both PC gamers and to professional game developers who create genuine, high quality PC games. Asset flips like this are harmful to the gaming industry and to Steam because they reduce the visibility that sincerely made indie games should have. To cement the position of this asset flip as nothing but a cash grab, it was dumped onto cheap DailyIndieGame shovelware bundles on launch day.

Don't reward this morally bankrupt, unethical behaviour from GreatHopeStudio.