Wreck Runners is a zany, malleable fest of cooperative goofing off with enough player freedom to make a game about collecting salvage with a gravity gun fun and satisfying. Though it does have its shortcomings, it's hard not to want to dive right back in.
I knew Wreck Runners would be chaotic.
The first I had seen of the game was a trailer centered around the its wonky physics. Ragdoll bodies getting lobbed around. Pianos getting shoved through doorways. It seemed the stuff made for a group of friends who want to decompress, have a laugh, and want to fight against relatively dire odds with creative solutions.
In the two weeks since Wreck Runners has released, I’ve become attached to the sense of community it and similar games of its creed inspire. And it’s all been quite fascinating.
When searching for news, commentary, and information on Wreck Runners, I came across a term I’d heard before: friend slop. As much as I understand the notion behind it, I find the judgement to be bullshit. Honestly, I’ve grown weary of the saturation of the word “slop” not because I’m a defender of low-effort AI use but because “slop” has been given license to be applied towards numerous things a group of people deem themselves exhausted of. “Slop” has become a victim to its own “slopification”.
Players look at a concept like a Wreck Runners or a Content Warning or a Lethal Company and pass judgement at a loose premise with simple rules where the fun should be more emergent and derived from the joy of friendship. Do we care about high-end visuals or intricate story or deep mechanics when we’re merely goofing off with friends having a laugh over something silly or shocking?
Your mileage, of course, may vary. How many friends do you have? How many of these friends are down to goof off in a game that doesn’t have aspirational goals outside of sheer survival? Are you and your friends willing to overlook a lot of jank? Are you comfortable engaging with strangers in proximity chat?
On my first evening with Wreck Runners, I dived into a lobby with myself and a friend. We joined one of only two or three viewable lobbies available for a game that had only been out a few days. By the end of the night, I felt like I had made two new friends.
Wreck Runners, and its brethren of “friend ‘slop'” engender cooperation and mutual fun as long as your compatriots are down for the same. One of the men I played with was from Australia–which, my apologies to him, I initially thought he was from the United Kingdom–and seemed to have a good grasp on the game’s mechanics. The other guy was a bit sillier, cracking jokes and being goofy. Both had different personalities but both were nice, didn’t seem to mind that me and my friend were learning the ropes, and that I had a proclivity to dying.
The four of us have started a messaging group on PlayStation and have chatted back and forth about a few other games. Most of the time, everyone who hops into proximity chat has been nice. A few had annoying ambient noise. A decent amount don’t say anything. A couple had to be booted for either being unhelpful or intentionally sabotaging a run by ejecting all our loot from the transport ship. These things happen.
Games like Wreck Runners are a wonderful social lubrication. Instead of beers or dinner or a concert, you can just shoot the shit and play together and work towards a singular goal. Hopefully in tandem, the game doesn’t suck.
Thankfully, Wreck Runners doesn’t suck. But a lot of the game’s heavy lifting is absolutely done by the best parts of cooperatively playing with others. A lot of life’s activities can be quite miserable and sometimes, they are simply more tolerable when not alone.
I think this is where the pervasive concept of “slop” oafishly stumbles into the conversation. What are we willing to forgive in a game if it provides us with belly laughs or shocked screams? Do we accept floppy character models that are a bit loose to control? Are chunky graphics charming or a sign of a meager budget and a need to rush a project together?
When rummaging through PlayStation Store sales, one of my favorite past times is to look at the blatantly obvious dogshit shovelware that usually populates the horror genre. Usually a name or a game thumbnail is enough to sniff out garbage. But a screenshot usually is the fatal blow. I’ve seen so many hideous (derogatory) monsters jumping out at the player character in first-person to last me a lifetime. It’s all cash grabs for Twitch bait, something a person can stream and have clippable moments for when they get jump-scared.
So yeah, I can see this being applied to cooperative games. Toss players into four walls and give them a paltry amount of stuff to do and throw in a few elements of surprise for would-be viral moments. You’ll grab a few people without a doubt.
Never once have I played Wreck Runners and felt like it was a game without purpose. Developer Disruptive Games has borrowed elements I’m familiar with, things put in it simply to be fun. In the first minute of Wreck Runners I was spamming emotes with aplomb. Players can mash a button to fervently clap or assault their eardrums with the sound bite of dancing or thumbs-upping. Or maybe you want to watch your character jump and land on their side to lay down. It made us laugh more than it should but I thought to myself “okay yeah, this is alright.”
Since then I’ve rapidly clapped to signal I’m safe or to congratulate a good haul. Or just to make myself giggle.
The beauty of proximity chat is alive here. The character piloting your ship always speaks with a bit of static because they are behind the cockpit door. Players swimming underwater have their voice become deep and slow to a comical degree. All the while, the television screens strapped to your heads with cartoon faces on display bounce and emote. It’s fun! Every single time I’m charmed by how immersive and goofy such a simple choice is.
But yeah, Wreck Runners has an egregiously simple premise. We are in the Bermuda Triangle. We are sent by the Trustwell Corporation to collect valuable salvage. We pilot the ORCA–a vessel that can drive, fly, and go underwater at will–to the wrecks of ships and lighthouses and mysterious laboratories. We grab fire extinguishers and vases and pianos and diamonds and paintings and more to meet a quota. We fend off attacks from ghostly beings and hopefully return with enough cash to buy items to take on the next more difficult day.
Not only can you probably conceptualize the gameplay loop decently from this description, there’s a chance you’ve played something akin to it in the past. And while Wreck Runners has a familiar throughline, it jostles up the formula by throwing in a lot of entertaining solutions that emphasize cooperation and open the door for constant hijinks.
Central to Wreck Runners‘ gameplay is the Scrapjack. It’s a tool that emits a spectral beam of gravity that can grab onto all manner of objects. One of the main purposes of the Scrapjack is for the player to latch onto a piece of salvage and run back to the ORCA with it to deposit it into the vessel’s belly. In one mode, the Scrapjack can be cranked to move the beam and object closer to or further from the player, and also rotate the object. In its other mode, it grabs onto an object and preps it to be violently launched.
As a blunt weapon, the Scrapjack is sort of effective. Players can pick up heavy metal objects or worthless pieces of furniture and launch it at a boarded-up barrier to pass through or pummel the game’s various enemies. And because Wreck Runners leans so heavily on physics-based buffoonery, expect sawblades and cabinets to bounce off the intended target and back onto you.
When used as a tool to reach each day’s steadily increasing quota, the Scrapjack becomes an essential tool that can be implemented in a variety of ways. Despite looking like a spectral beam, objects usually don’t phase through surfaces–though sometimes they can get stuck in them–and will be manipulated around them. Rather than tote a piece of salvage from one end of a wrecked ship to the ORCA, players can create a series of Scrapjack daisy chains, having each one set up to grab an item from a friend to salvage faster.
Thankfully the junk that’s actually valuable is emblazoned with a dollar value so players not only don’t have to guess, they will eventually become familiar with what is worth the most. Heavier items like pianos usually require two players because the handheld Scrapjack isn’t powerful enough to lift them up certain heights.
However, it’s not that simple. Numerous objects can have a kind of enchantment to them. Some entirely lose their value if they land on the ground. Others explode if hit with enough force or cause the player to constantly jump. One item when placed in the ORCA caused it to violently shoot forward, creating a panic for our team as a bunch of items flew out of the open doors and we had to run on foot to recover it. These silly properties usually increase the value of an item but create a small challenge or moment of strategy and fun for the team.
Though some valuable items can be launched around freely, many can be damaged and lose their value if not be broken completely. This damage can be exacerbated by the unfriendly monsters that haunt the abandoned wreckage of ships.
The chief enemies that are encountered are bouncy amphibians that spit poison on the player, melting skin but often splashing onto items and shaving off value. Humanoids dressed in hazmat suits and wearing gas masks come in a few flavors. The worst are the ones that explode when getting near the player. These smaller enemies can be felled by launching them with the Scrapjack but be careful not to toss the exploding dudes near a potential payday or friends. And because we love physics, the explosions can often devastatingly and comically launch players into worse fates. Deadlier enemies rear their heads as well, but usually not until the fourth day or if players linger in the Bermuda Triangle on the same day for too long.
Wreck Runners is surprisingly challenging. For a few days after launch, the game was quite brutal. Then Disruptive Games dialed down the difficulty on the first day, creating a meta of getting as much money as possible on the first day to afford decent upgrades and amp up survival. Enemies grow less tolerable the longer players remain in a wreck. You might want to wipe out everything of value but it becomes harder when enemies spawn in through portals, potentially launching you or valuables away.
The provided tools are okay for combat but extremely limited. C4 usually comes standard but it can take two or three to down one of the hulking boys that ominously stomp around. Guns are great but have limited ammunition for the day. Usually its best to lead them outside and have a player attach their Scrapjack to the ORCA and launch it into the ocean. But when the days progress, enemies gain shields that must be broken with weapons or a strong shot from an object.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t made it past the fifth day of a run in Wreck Runners. It simply gets too hectic. Enemies I’ve dubbed “wizards” can suck you in and drain most of your health if you don’t break their line of site. Wrecks will get flooded with electric balls that make it impossible to navigate or survive because they fill the space with damaging electricity. But I also feel like the Scrapjack is far too inaccurate and the physics a bit too goofy to really provide a way to truly engage in combat in a meaningful way. Players are meant to go in and get out. Honeypots exist as temptation such as hard-to-reach spots, gates that must be propped open by a player or an object, or bunkers with laser fields. The desire exists to tackle these high risk spots and reap the rewards but plenty of times I’ve gotten overwhelmed and lost too much health for it to feel worth it.
Unlike similar games, Wreck Runners doesn’t have randomly generated maps that players spawn into. Instead, a large open map exists that players start at a random location in. From there, the ORCA is meant to be piloted around to points of interest. A player can hop on a periscope and see glowing indicators where wrecks are, including their potential value as indicated by a more excitable frequency emitter. A competent pilot can take directions and figure out where to go but there is a strategy in place.
The ORCA moves fastest when driving on its wheels but that limits where it can go. Almost instantaneously, the ORCA can sprout helicopter blades and take flight. This helps players fly over rock formations, take shortcuts, or simply reach places like lighthouses high up. But when taking flight, the ORCA’s battery does drain and the only way to recharge it is by driving on solid ground or in the water. This can create a bit of navigational tension and strategy, especially when players are being pursued by enemies or rushing to get to the barge and deposit their goods before it drives off.
Driving and flying feels a bit sluggish but I forgive it because of the multiple forms the ORCA can take and because it’s meant to be a hulking piece of metal. I appreciate the map being a constant in Wreck Runners but I do think after a point, it loses a sense of discovery and excitement.
There are a lot of fun stylistic choices made in this game and it definitely has its own visual identity. For a game like Wreck Runners, I don’t need visuals that blow me away. But I think the Bermuda Triangle can feel a little ho-hum after a few dozen runs. There are some shortcuts and secrets but it’s an island that isn’t very colorful and relatively muted. The massive skeleton of an unknown creature looms over the entire map but for me, Disruptive Games could have gotten a lot weirder. Every wreck looks the same as if every ship came from the same era. Isn’t the Bermuda Triangle supposed to have sucked in vessels from all across time? Where are the cruise liners and the pirate ships? Hell why not some futuristic craft? There’s some airplanes and piles of detritus but they usually aren’t full of valuables. The only other times players should leave the ORCA is when going to a revive station–where they can throw a downed player into what looks like a wood chipper–or the wreck of another ORCA that can house useful items like medkits, weapons, or repair kits.
This also extends to the enemies. There are a few that have splashes of color or whimsy but almost everything follows the design of the ghostly hazmat men. When exploring the Bermuda Triangle, the ORCA will be assaulted by floating monsters we began to call “Baymax” (from Big Hero 6) that will shoot harpoons into the ORCA that will explode if not sucked up by the Scrapjack and either tossed away or launched into Baymax to kill it. Annoying birds swoop in and grab a player, rendering them unable to do anything. Hopefully another player is waiting for you to be dropped from a high distance and catch you, especially when mid-flight. An octopus monster latches onto the ORCA and needs to either be shot to death or have gaskets ripped from it that will cause it to fly away like a deflated balloon.
ORCA “combat” is one of the most harrowing parts of Wreck Runners because if it breaks, the run is over. Countless times me and my three runners have scrambled when the alert comes in, knowing that we are about to get pummeled. Desperation kicks in to land because if the octopus lands on the ship, it usually causes it to become overweight–which can also happen if too much salvage is in the ORCA–and sink. Runners in a flurry will grab onto each other instead of the harpoons. And we work to repair the smoking holes in the ORCA in hopes we don’t fatally crash.
The insanity Wreck Runners can provide is fertile ground for a lot of laughs but some genuine tension in trying to overcome increasingly tougher odds. Because so much of the game is slapstick, it never feels too serious. Yet I think there is a good amount of improvement that can be made.
The gameplay loop is extremely simple and, for the most part, that’s okay. More thematic variety would go a long way to making runs feel different, especially if the static wrecks found each time only changed their appearance. Yes, you may find a secret vault in one run when you didn’t before but I don’t think it’s enough. Overcoming a day means heading to a shop to purchase more medkits, repair kits, gliders, guns, grenades, and ORCA upgrades. The lack of any sort of meta-progression means everyone starts out on equal footing but getting into harder days means that bad luck can screw you.
By the fourth day, not having enough guns on the ORCA spells doom unless your team is working at peak awareness. Trying to acquire salvage is extremely tricky because the harder enemies almost mean you can’t explore a wreck fully, meaning bouncing around to different wrecks and spending too much time in transit. I don’t think there’s enough underwater or tucked-away locations but because of the frequency of attacks, driving underwater becomes a definite strategy because the ORCA is safe from enemies and underwater wrecks also have limited enemies in them.
I’m not entirely sure what the solution would be here. Giving players too much weaponry might make things easy but it gets to the point where it’s hard to make out what is going on, get out with fragile goods, and not die.
All that being said, one of the bigger hurdles Wreck Runners needs to overcome is probably the amount of wonkiness in it. I’ve had a Baymax harpoon stuck in me with no way to get it out. I’ve had the Scrapjack stop working entirely. Salvage has gotten stuck in walls. The ORCA can’t be fully repaired because damaged spots won’t show up. And the silly physics simply make things feel a bit looser than they should, despite being used for comedic purposes. Moments exist where the game simply feels like it isn’t working as intended and it can mess up the experience.
And despite having a few runs fall prey to technical difficulties, the worst moments of Wreck Runners have been the handful of times another player has come in, opened up the doors of the ORCA and dropped all the salvage out and ruined a run. Right now only the host has the ability to kick players. There’s no option to block. In fact, I took to the game’s Discord to complain about a particular player who had done this twice to me and one of the developers responded that they had multiple complaints of that person.
Obviously having the Scrapjack be able to attach itself to another player is an extremely useful tool. You can fidget another player around high spots or the ORCA to make repairs. Two players can latch onto each other and magically soar into the air. Grab a players as they are crawling with a fatal injury and get them out from danger. But you could also just be an asshole and come into a person’s game and launch them off the ORCA so they fall to their death. It’s sad to see such a creative tool abused but man, it’s still so much fun it usually doesn’t sting for too long.
For something like this to happen to a smaller team that has obviously made a game with a lot of passion, that’s just hell. A patch is in the works to include better social features and make improvements. Even now, the small community in place enjoys the game and the developers are pitching potential ideas with players.
For $10, it’s really hard to deny that Wreck Runners is a blast that one can easily enjoy with friends. Yeah, I worry that on any given night there are only a few servers with players and that it seemingly hasn’t made a dent. But I think what’s here is special, not slop. I play games to have fun and often want to share that fun with close friends and Wreck Runners has been one of my favorite ways to do that in recent memory and it feels like each run something new develops, whether it be a bunch of laughs or a strategy. And I can’t wait to see this game evolve.
Wreck Runners is a zany, malleable fest of cooperative goofing off with enough player freedom to make a game about collecting salvage with a gravity gun fun and satisfying. Though it does have its shortcomings, it’s hard not to want to dive right back in.
