Following the port to Android TV, the Game Insight runner – Running Shadow – has a version developed for PC, the Lithuanian company announced last Friday.
The project, as well as on mobile platforms, is distributed according to the free-2-play model, supports the achievements of the site and its board of honor.
By now (the evening of March 10), the game already has about 400 user reviews. Most of them (more than 200) are positive, but there are also a lot of critical reviews (about 150). The latter, however, usually come down either to criticism of the very fact of the presence of a mobile runner on a PC platform, or to hard monetization, or to one or another bugs.
We have already played a little bit in the new version of the project and managed to form our own opinion.
Running Shadow looks good on the big screen. The game definitely won from the new release. For example, the city map looks completely different, the small details of which were previously lost on the smartphone screen. It has now become easier to navigate a large number of menus. As for angular characters and objects, given the clear textures, they are perceived rather as stylization.
As for the gameplay, everything has remained unchanged: a runner with quick events, built on the monetization of the “Mysterious House”.
Another question is that, unfortunately, the PC version did not receive full support for the gamepad, you can normally play the project only in a keyboard-mouse bundle.
Plus, it’s not entirely clear whether the company plans to support the game at all in the future. The fact is that after December last year, there were no updates to the game on iOS /Android. Will they be released for the Steam version? The question is open (however, a patch appeared on March 5).
Most likely, the release of the game on Steam is a “pen test” of Game Insight in porting its Unity projects to a new platform for itself. This version is also supported by the comment given to us by the company’s CEO Anatoly Ropotov in connection with the release.
Anatoly Ropotov
“The line between mobile and “non-mobile” games is getting thinner, so the release of Running Shadow on Steam is a very logical step for us, especially since technically it is relatively easy, because the game is made on Unity.
We have a whole line of projects in development for the hardcore audience, and we want them to find their players regardless of which platform they prefer to play on.”
The same was stated to our colleagues from Kanobu by the president of Game Insight, Alexander Vashchenko.:
Alexander Vashchenko
“The release of the “Shadow” on Steam is only the first step in working for the audience of PC gaming fans.
We are preparing several more projects for PC release, among them a redesigned version of Tank Domination, a space MMO based on Starborn Wanderers, and the already announced tactical MMO Celestials.”
Against this background, we do not exclude the possibility of a PC release of the X-Mercs mobile tactics still in development.
Game Insight is one of the largest European publishers of mobile and social games. Founded in Russia in 2010 by Alice Chumachenko. The revenue of the five leading games of the company as of March 2014 amounted to $171 million.