Survival games, battle royal, looting, shooting, resource management, crafting, and zombies, at this point it’s enough to make you vomit before you can say, ‘Not again!’ Anytime I see a new survival game plastered on the Steam store page, I have a tendency to roll my eyes, and with Scum seemingly doing a little bit of everything listed above, I was skeptical to say the least. When I first loaded into the game’s massive mediterranean island (beautiful by the way), I was expecting another clone half baked in its delivery, but, in some instances, I can say I was pleasantly surprised.
Let’s make one thing clear right off the bat, as an early access game, you can expect a plethora of problems when playing. In the singleplayer mode (really just a practice arena for the multiplayer) controls could use work. Hand combat in general is stiff, unsatisfying, and needlessly difficult. I can’t tell you how many times I’d stumble upon a zombie, take out my hatchet, and proceed to whiff until my face had been crushed into a fine powder. The problem here in part comes down to hit registration and the fact that the zombies are relentless when attacking. Many times I’d get stuck in a loop of being punched, flinching, not having enough time to recover and being punched again until I died an utterly stupid death, in a field, by myself. Now there are some cool mechanics at play that do aid you when fighting, such as a block ability (lessens blows taken) and a dodge mechanic that, if timed correctly can help you stay alive. However i’ve found constantly moving while you fight to be the most effective, even if you just look like you’re doing a little jig before you’re murdered. What’s worse, is that when you get into the multiplayer, these problems are amplified by the games poor netcode. It’s laggy, its buggy, and almost any game I played, I was dropped from, due to connectivity errors.
Now, I don’t mean to sit here and rag on and complain about a game in early access. The loading screens blatantly inform players the game is still being worked on, and things are subject to change, and as it stands some gameplay elements work fairly well. When you’re not fighting using impoverished shives, the exploration, shooting, looting, and crafting can be very enjoyable and satisfying, even if it is boilerplate. Finding important items like pistols, toolboxes, and food is challenging, but not impossible, and if you want the really good loot, the risk increases accordingly. For example, sneaking into military bases means the potential for an increase in finding military grade weapons, but there are mechs with machine guns patrolling, meaning the potential of you getting new, unwanted holes increases as well. Again this is all fantastic, but it’s been done before, and done arguably better.
So what new, groundbreaking mechanics then, does Scum bring to the table? Well the trailers and descriptions for the game boast about deep levels of character customization and progression, but what you get is more of a mixed bag. As far as customization goes, there isn’t a whole lot at the moment. When you start out you’re given the option to customize only a few aspects of your character, something like four or five faces, muscle to fat ratio, and if they have spooky face tattoos. Inside, the actual game isn’t much better, with a few clothing options you can pick up along the way as you loot. What is relatively in-depth, unique, and potentially a ‘groundbreaking’ mechanic is Scum’s metabolism system. As opposed to other survival games which simply have you eat when hungry and drink when thirsty, Scum dedicates an entire page in your character’s stats category to things like sickness levels, stomach volume, bladder volume, nutrition levels, heart rate, and your vitamins and minerals, to name a few. If this sounds a bit overwhelming, you’re right, it is. Opening that tab for the first time was one of the scariest moments I had playing the game. There is so much information jammed onto the screen, it’s hard to focus on the important. As opposed to simply eating to increase health, you eat to stop hunger, which after digestion can contribute to your health, depending on what you eat, and what vitamins it gives your character. For as unpolished as this game is, I was surprised to see how complex and thorough this aspect of the game was. However, like I said, this is overwhelming, and I think, needlessly complicated, when everything else, at the moment, seems so barebones. If the developers had taken the time and effort they did to create the metabolism system, and put that into the actual gameplay, we might have a better experience.
Finally, I’d like to touch on a few more minor details, what works and what doesn’t. First up, the graphics. While this game isn’t going to win any awards for its graphical polish or attention to detail, the game, at times, looks very pretty. When you walk over a ridge to a large expanse of green fields, forests, and the orange roofs of tiny towns hidden behind them, the game shines. There were many instances where I’d stop my constant hiking, and have a snack overlooking the ocean, and think, without all the zombies, this would be lovely. Next, the wildlife. The few instances I had with animals were, a lot like the rest of the game, buggy. I remember walking in the forest only to get smacked in the back of the head, by a giant grizzly, awesome, but then the bear promptly skittered into the trees, froze and subsequently disappeared into thin air like the world’s most painful and confusing vanishing act. As it stands the AI for wildlife needs a lot of work. The animations need attention too. When interacting with objects, like when you cut down a tree for example, your character ends up chopping the air next to the tree, and the tree just sort of falls over anyway. No doubt in time most of this will be cleaned up, but as of right now, its a problem. Crafting too, is fairly in depth, and relatively easy to learn, but the way your character’s inventory is set up is frustrating. Inventory management is a big part of these games, and yet you get so little to work with in regards to space. Inventory is limited, and fills up too quickly. Why do brass knuckles fill up so much space?
Scum, has the potential to not only be a mechanically solid survival game, but a fun one at that. The ideas displayed are promising, but as it stands, in its early access state, there is far too much going wrong for players to appreciate what goes right. There are bugs, poor AI, wonky controls and animations, and that’s not even touching on the poor netcode, which screws up hit detection, and drops players out of games all together. With more work, this game could be unique enough to stand out against those survival clones, especially with the metabolism system, but right now it is not. I can’t say I recommend it, but would argue to check back on this one a few months down the line.
