Although I have a studio where I do the majority of my gaming and writing, I also have a desk setup in my bedroom for when I need a change of scenery. The kicker is that my bedroom also happens to sit right above the garage, which means that even with the heat on, my room can get surprisingly chilly in the winter. I’m not sure if that (plus the fact that it was snowing) added to the experience during my time spent in the frigid world of Scavengers at a recent press event, but the heat of battle kept me plenty warm.
Scavengers - a free-to-play action shooter that is currently in closed beta - pits squads of three against each other as they, well… scavenge for resources on an Earth that has become a frozen wasteland. Squads will also have to contend with other enemies - including mutated NPC ranging from easily killable grunts to special boss-level enemies - that are scattered about the map, adding a PvE element to the game. Is PvPvE an actual term? If so, that’s what Scavengers is.
If you’re familiar with Apex Legends and its general mechanics, you’ll be able to hop into Scavengers and immediately have a sense of what you’re doing. Collect loot, weapons, and resources, kill any lifeform that isn’t on your squad, avoid the blizzards that move across the map, and make it to the dropship before you get left on the icy planet.
Granted, that may be a gross oversimplification of what each match of Scavengers consists of, but that’s pretty much what it all boils down to. As you collect resources, you’ll be able to upgrade your weapons, or even craft newer, more powerful weapons - which you’ll need given the number of enemies strewn about the map. Combat feels good and is overall enjoyable - especially when going up against groups NPCs, or setting traps and pitting enemies against one another - but I admittedly struggled in battles with other real-life teams. Often, this came as a result of just not knowing whether an enemy was an NPC or another player, which would have drastically altered my combat strategy. A more prominent player indicator would be nice to differentiate my foes from one another, but it’s also likely that this will resolve itself a bit as I become more familiar with the game. And I definitely plan on doing just that.
Although I wish I were, I’m not much of a lore buff when it comes to video games. I appreciate the work that goes into an overarching story - a la the aforementioned Apex Legends - but I never really care enough to dive into it. The world of Scavengers, however, is one that I am for some reason particularly interested in learning more about. It needs to be fleshed out more, but there’s something intriguing about the overworld that exists outside of the playing arena. Perhaps it has something to do with my interest in apocalyptic settings, specifically frozen wastelands, but the foundational story of Scavengers (you’re essentially fighting to revive the planet and restore humanity) seems like a solid base to build off of - which is reinforced by the survival elements in the game.
As you might expect, getting caught in one of the revolving snowstorms is exactly what you don’t want to do. Not only does it make it hard to see while it depletes your health, it also leaves you with a touch of frostbite that slowly depletes your life until you’re able to warm up by a bonfire. I somehow managed to get frostbite in every match I played even without getting caught in a flurry, so I was always having to keep an eye out for a bonfire, which added to my overall movement strategy. This, thankfully, doesn’t seem like a wide-spread occurrence that every player will have to watch out for with an elevated sense of dread - neither of my teammates ever got frostbite unless we got caught in a storm.
As much promise as Scavengers shows, there is still work to be done. This shouldn’t come as a surprise given the game’s current beta status, but there’s going to need to be a lot of fine-tuning to make Scavengers capable of going up against other already well-established titles within the battle royale genre. It does, however, sound like the game’s developer, Midwinter Entertainment, is in it for the long-haul, while genuinely taking community feedback to heart. In fact, an additional 50k beta slots were opened up last night during the premiere of the new trailer at The Game Awards, so you would actually be helping to shape the game during its development. Scavengers has already done enough to make me interested in playing more. Here’s hoping the official release continues that same sentiment.
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