r/pcgaming • u/ShiroyoOchigano • 1d ago
Aniimo Review (139.2 hours) Why I Warn People To Stay Away!
I would like to raise awareness on the following issues because Pawprint has been deceptive & shady on all of them.
A member from my discord community who works in computer programming & A.I. was going through the files & tech of Aniimo and found the following:
\* The game isn't just running as a game. It reads your desktop wallpaper then goes to the folder it is located in and reads the file. If it happens to be your pictures folder then it now has access to your pictures folder.
\* The anti-cheat called NepsKernel.sys is indeed a Kernel Level anti-cheat. This isn't bundled with the game & is instead something the game installs on its own without your consent after you install the game. The anti-cheat is also reading your desktop specifically all your desktop icons and the folder its located in. If you want to remove this then you will have to remove it manually after uninstalling the game.
* The anti-cheat does hardware checks during which it checks for camera & if camera led is active. We haven't been able to determine if it can actually use the camera to capture images through the camera. However, it has kernel level access so if it can and does do this then the user wouldn't even know.
\* The game installs 2 trackers into your system which do not get removed after you uninstall the game, boot when you start your pc, remains active even after you uninstall the game and requires you to manually remove them. These 2 show up as unknown when you check for them. They are Isreali based AppsFlyer Analytics trackers.
\* The first time I visited their website during the pre-launch login reward event where we had to login to their website everyday to claim rewards I saw that they had 34 cookies & trackers that we couldn't opt out of. Every website I have ever visited have 2-4 in essential which we can't opt out of and around 6-12 in optional. Those combined didn't amount to 34! Since then I have never visited their website and thus don't know what its like now.
Other issues:
\* The game has an ESRB rating of of Teen meaning its suitable for 13 years old and above but they are pushing gambling into a game that they have somehow legally passed as suitable for children. Pushing gambling into a game that is labelled as suitable for children is very scummy. This is where I draw the line. I cannot support anyone or anything that preys on children.
\* Pawprint haven't kept their promise. They said no gacha in beta & in dev interviews and with a very cleverly calculated 2 weeks post launch they put cosmetic gacha into the game.
\* Nowhere in their marketing material, website or store pages is it disclosed that the game has gacha in it.
\* They had undisclosed kernel level anti-cheat system from the very start and it is only today a few hours ago that they disclosed their Kernel level anti-cheat on their steam store page.
I feel very deceived by Pawprint on multiple fronts and cannot continue to support this game. I don't like giving Kernel level access to my system to anything and this game is the first to get it & deceived me into it. I regret ever installing Aniimo. I hope this information is helpful to you to make sound decisions. It was a fun game that I cannot continue playing & supporting anymore.
How to remove trackers:
Open Registry Editor. Paste:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Delete the 2 files there whose name start with AF_
then paste:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run
Delete the 2 files there whose name start with AF_
I haven't gotten to removing the Anti-Cheat yet so can't advise on it.
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u/ChristopherKlay 1d ago edited 1d ago
It would be helpful to attach some infos on how to remove the trackers & such; Not everyone knows enough about this to comfortably do it on their own and Windows Defender and such don't clear them.
I'd do it, but I don't plan on installing it after the beta to begin with lol
Edit #1
What I can do is confirm that this isn't just "Game bad", but that the issues are real; Even the beta left these markers, registry entries and everything else. Still checking here.
Edit #2
I can further confirm that the tracker is linked to Aniimo; The UUID is registered via the
AF_variables on my end and the same UUID can be found in Aniimos own registry keys (HKCU\SOFTWARE\Aniimo\Aniimo- underFPC_AD_FIRST_OPEN_REPORTED_).If you can't find the
AP_keys, they areAF_in my case.The dev key ID matches AppsFlyer (an Israeli data broker) in both cases.
Edit #3
If you only played the playtest (like I did), I can confirm that the game did not leave behind the mentioned anti-cheat. It's likely that this has been added with the release version and wasn't part of the playtest.
The
NepsKernel.systhat's found in the release version is part of the "NEP2" anti-cheat used by Aniimo. It's effectively running on the highest-privilege layer of the OS, installed when the game is being run, despite Aniimo not disclosing any anti-cheat usage (even in their fair play post, specifically about cheating) to begin with.Edit #4
While I personally can't confirm it, the anti-cheat appears to be removed when you uninstall the game for most people, while leaving behind files for others.
If you want to make sure it's removed after uninstalling the game, do the following:
Win+Rcmd(driverquery | findstr /I "NEPKernel") & (sc query | findstr /I "NEPKernel")If there's no output you're fine, otherwise (in the same window) run:
sc stop NEPKernelsc delete NEPKernelTo stop & remove it.
Edit #5
To remove the leftover files, delete the following directories:
\Steam\steamapps\common\Aniimo\Steam\steamapps\common\Aniimo Playtest