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Hugoon Chavez
Nov 4, 2011

THUNDERDOME LOSER

Scavengers is out on Early Access as of 4/28!

What is this?

Scavengers is a Class-Based, Third-Person Battle Royale with survival elements. There are several fun twists to the BR formula that make it a bit unique compared to its competition:

- Objectives: The game's main objective is to collect Data Points, which are spread around the map as objectives you need to defend while you collect them, or drops from PvE combat. Getting killed drops all the Data Points you've collected, allowing the enemy (or your surviving allies) to scoop it up for themselves.

- PvPvE : Scavengers's map is filled with wild animals, a humanoid faction and mutated creatures. All of those, except for some wildlife that can be found, are hostile to the players and usually patrol an area or defend a location. Fighting in a location that hasn't been cleared can be very annoying, and killing the NPCs not only drops resources and Data Points but gives you a more favorable terrain in case of a teamfight and protects you from:

- The Environment : even the world in Scavengers is trying to kill you. Earth is a frozen wasteland and managing your body's temperature is crucial for surviving. Besides some consumables, the only way to get your temperature back up is to find heath sources, which are usually found in npc filled areas. If your temperature drops too low you'll start losing maximum health until you find some warmth! Instead of a damage ring, the map gets slowly consumed by a neverending storm that becomes stronger as the match goes on.

-Crafting and loot: weapons are not abundant in the world of Scavengers! There is plenty of trash you can scavenge for bullets or scrap, and some chests spread around the map drop weapons. When you first spawn, your team will be nearby a few of these chests, but after that, the easiest way to find better loot is to craft it using scrap. Each champion has a unique, more powerful weapon variant that only they can craft, and you can also upgrade your shield through crafting.

-The extraction: the game doesn't wait for the last team standing! After a certain condition is fulfilled (I think it's time? Not sure) an extraction ship will land on the map. Opening its doors will start a countdown, and once it takes off every team inside it will be extracted and earn their Data Points. The ship can fit several teams, but it's unlikely your enemies won't take advantage of the close quarters to mug your hard-earned Data!


The explorers


Kali, stealth archer
Weapon: Hearthseeker (Longbow)
Ability: Active Camo. Kali becomes almost invisible for the duration. Ranged attacks reveal her for a short time, but melee attacks do not.


Cruz, lethal speedster
Weapon: Cazador (SMG)
Ability: Tailwind. For a short time, Cruz can sprint faster and leaves behind him a trail that buffs his teammates' speed while following him.


Halden, scoundrel survivalist
Weapon: Strike Rifle (Rifle)
Ability: Curative Aura. Halden drops a healing bubble that also rezzes downed allies on release. The bubble has a limited amount of healing and it gets smaller as it's consumed.


Jae, Outback Bladesman
Weapon: Maverick (spear)
Ability: Overshield. As its name implies, Jae buffs himself with an extra shield, making him harder to down.


Letty, tech support
Weapon: Rosie (Revolver)
Ability: EMP Blast. Letty shuts down abilities and vehicles in an area, and pushes enemies away from her


Tarik, tactical sniper
Weapon: Longstriker (Sniper Rifle)
Ability: Stun Trap. Tarik throws a proximity-triggered trap that stuns and slows enemies.


Valora, rebel defender
Weapon: Devastator (shotgun)
Ability: Aegis Shield. Valora deploys a bubble that is impenetrable by inbound attacks but allows shooting from the inside. The bubble has limited HP and gets smaller as it depletes.



Research
Research is Scavengers' meta progression system. You want to use research to:
- Get new crafting schematics that you can equip on your explorers so they can craft on the field,
- Modify your signature weapons and add mods to them
- Make new talents available for your explorers
- Cosmetics, maybe?

Research has a lot of stuff going on and is very limited by playtime. You have Energy that is build up every minute, and the maximum energy you can have (and projects need to have minimum total energy available before they can start) depends on your player level. You also have to gather enough materials for every research project, and the way to do it is to play and loot salvage during the matches. Once you have enough Energy and Materials, a crafting project takes real time to complete and occupies one of your research slots. Not only that but the more advanced research projects are locked until you've done a certain number of previous ones.


How can I join the Early Access?
If you signed up before, there's a fair chance you got an invite last week, which also includes an extra code. Besides that, Twitch streams are dropping keys after about 30m, so you can always try that!

Ok, ok, but is this any good?
Seems like Battle Royales come and go quickly these days, and it's hard to know if Scavengers will be one of the lucky ones to maintain a decent player base and allow for further development.
But what's already there works well, is fun, and brings some new interesting ideas to the genre. There are definitely unique elements to Scavengers that make it different from its competitors, so time will tell!

:siren: There's some free credits up for grabs on the store during EA, enough to buy one explorer :siren:

Hugoon Chavez fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Apr 29, 2021

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Hugoon Chavez
Nov 4, 2011

THUNDERDOME LOSER

Bardeh posted:

I've played a couple of matches and this has a ton of potential. They've basically cribbed stuff from various other BRs and stitched it together in a way that works surprisingly well. I love how the audio and visual cues when a storm rolls in really makes it feel like you're in danger.

I agree! The survival mechanics make for an interesting added pressure, although I do wish there was more weapon variety and climbing walls and objects weren't so clumsy.

Watching a storm that's coming your way in the horizon is pretty scary. I still get lost trying to find entrances to buildings so I'm very careful if there's a storm nearby. I don't think I'll stop carrying thermal boost on one of my crafting slots for a while thanks to it.

I'm still not sure if I'm a fan of the escape pod fights at the end of the match, but I do like those occasions in which you hide until the very last second to try and get inside alive just when it leaves, it's fun and even gives rats something to aim for instead of dying in a 3v1.

Giving you things to do and aim for seems to be a big design goal, actually. Between gathering data, finding warmth, automatic respawn if someone on your team is still alive and the escape pod fights you're always moving and doing something. They even ask you about it after every match!

Hugoon Chavez
Nov 4, 2011

THUNDERDOME LOSER

ShowTime posted:

It seems fun and I like the PvE element of it, but right now it seems way too easy to demolish other teams. I get that ambushing another team should be an advantage but every time i've been on the giving or recieving end of an ambush, the ambushing team just rolls over the other team. It's just a 3v1 to instantly bring down 1 player then the other 2 get walked over by 3. If they can work that out, it has a chance.

Also, right now the servers are just overloaded. When the hype kind of dies down i'll play more.

Between not having easy access to heals (unless you have a Halden), the minimap revealing your position if you fire, and how easy it is to be stuck in an open spot due to the low mobility, it does seem that way. But I think that if you pay attention to the map you can guess team movements more often than not (running from storms and running to objectives make for predictable roaming)

It would be a lot easier if the ping system was any better, too. I always miss Apex's pings whenever I'm playing anything else.

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