"Flesh Water" is a seriously overrated 2D side scrolling adventure game with a mild horror theme. You're a pet-feeding service worker, completing a final task for a client. This final job takes place in an abandoned pool and your success or failure is dependent on precise actions and avoiding mistakes.

What do you do in the game? Gameplay involves preparing a meal for an unusual pet, navigating the environment, and managing potential problems... all of which is done in a platformer looking 2D retro pixel "horror" environment. Move left and right, interact with stuff, and yawn, yawn, yawn. This is seriously, seriously overrated.

This features really godawful pixelcrap "art" instead of real graphics. It's hard to say if this was because the developer didn't have the skill to do the job of creating 3D visuals, or couldn't afford to hire someone who does, but it also doesn't matter. What matters is that this looks much worse than most other games because of that decision, and that's a major deterrent to gamers. Games like Terraria and Stardew Valley succeeded despite the bad graphics, not because of them.

On the matter of pricing and value for gamers, most "free" games on Steam aren't really free. There's often nasty mobile app cash shops, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of shady pricing schemes that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really does appear to be a fully free game.

Nothing demonstrates a developers belief in themselves and their work than giving it away without any remuneration. This is a service to themselves, and the gaming industry, and should be applauded. Of course, just because something is free, doesn't necessarily mean it's valuable, or something you might want to spend your time on.

Despite having no up-front cost, this failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at just a dozen or so concurrent players, and now there's basically nobody playing it. Even though it's free. This is a dismal public reception, but it's easy to see why gamers rejected it.

Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it?

Not this time. This isn't worth downloading. While this won't cost you any money, you get what you pay for, and sometimes, even when the game is free, it's still not enough.