has returned to Steam after a year away from the platform due to a legal battle, and now it is marketing itself as a free to play game. However, players have been disappointed to discover that this free to play option is more of a demo, with almost all of the game being locked behind a $30 paywall, and have let their feelings be known in the Steam reviews.
This restriction has caused a fair amount of backlash from fans who were hoping to jump into the game for free, especially given the marketing at the Summer Games Fest that presented it as a free to play game. The current Steam reviews are mixed, with a lot of fans complaining about the free option and essentially being forced to pay $30 if they want to be able to play the game properly.
Multiple reviews suggest that this should be presented as a demo rather than a free to play game, which seems like a very fair suggestion. The free version essentially is a demo, offering you a glimpse of whatis without giving you full access to the game, and marketing it as free to play feels a little unfair.
is a difficult game to market, given how basic it looks in action. When watching a streamer react to the Summer Games Fest their first reaction, having not seenbefore, was that it must be a VR game because of how janky it looks, and the chat echoed this. When it was revealed to not be in VR they were shocked and remarked that it was a good job it is free to play because no one would want to pay for that.
With reactions like that from people seeing the game for the first time, the free to play language is certainly understandable, but when players hit the paywall very quickly you have to question how smart the decision is in the long run. Rewording the free version to be a demo or limited trial would surely lead to fewer angered fans and better Steam reviews.