Workers Picks
Along with our predominant Game of the Year Awards 2021, every member of the PC Gamer crew is shining a highlight on a sport they cherished this 12 months. We’ll publish new workers picks, alongside our predominant awards, all through the remainder of the month.
Scavengers did not even hit my radar when it launched in April. In actual fact, I ended up taking part in it by probability: A colleague’s PC had crapped-out, and I agreed to seize a number of matches’ price of footage. I sat down with a pleasant cup of tea for what I anticipated to be 20 minutes of a generic-looking battle royale style mashup: A number of hours later, I would realised Scavengers was precisely that. And I’d had enormous fun with it.
The title fits the sport. Scavengers picks-and-chooses its method by way of a hybrid of battle royale and PvE looting, and loosely talking, matches are likely to deal with a little bit of exploring and AI swarms and treasure-hunting to begin off, earlier than the map then brings the three-person groups collectively. Oh, and there are storms that transfer quickly across the map and can rapidly freeze your character to dying if they are not in shelter.
The storms are a little bit of a microcosm of what Scavengers will get proper. A battle royale-type sport wants a technique to prohibit the sphere, which this offers for, however moderately than being one massive circle closing-in, you’ve gotten these fast-moving zones that frequently catch groups off-guard and power quick, unplanned motion. The pleasant contact is that you could take shelter in a constructing and wait it out, which may be both a second of respite and figuring out your subsequent transfer, or the half the place you hit upon an enemy crew that is had the identical thought. It even does some narrative lifting in actually promoting the concept you are scavenging on this hostile planet floor.
That is a sensible component, and one other is how matches finish, which has somewhat little bit of Hunt: Showdown power to it. A mothership lands on the map as soon as groups have gathered sufficient “knowledge” (the in-game forex prize you are in search of), alerting all groups to its presence and giving them 5 minutes to get there. That is sufficient time to make it there, wherever you’re, but it surely’s not sufficient that groups may be too cautious about it: This forces you to make fast selections about whether or not you are going to tackle that enemy trio within the distance or simply go for the doorways (which have a timer).
Scavengers serves up some wonderful standoffs at these moments, significantly once you get groups that basically perceive their skills. There are a bunch of characters to unlock, all of which include very totally different devices and weapons, resembling drop-shields, heals, and massive booms, and the scrap you are scavenging can be utilized throughout missions to craft gadgets and loadouts distinctive to that character: It is a easy improve system that is enjoyable to fumble by way of throughout matches, making it really feel like your looting is price it in substantial methods (I imply, a brand new automated shotgun is fairly substantial).
It is arduous to pinpoint why Scavengers landed for me, as a result of there’s not a lot you will not have seen different video games do earlier than, and in some circumstances higher. I do not suppose the taking pictures is the perfect I’ve skilled, the character work would not particularly attraction to me, the traversal and PvE stuff and autos are all completely sufficient. However the way in which all of it slots collectively round these intelligent items of design—just like the storms and the upgrades and the push-pull of PvEvP—provides a tremendously enjoyable rhythm to the arc of every match.
I do not know if I’ve ever fairly considered a sport in these phrases earlier than, however Scavengers is a bit like a pleasant shepherd’s pie served with steaming sizzling peas. You have seen all of the substances earlier than: You more-or-less know what to anticipate. It is most likely not the type of factor you’d ever order in a restaurant. And but shepherd’s pie is at all times scrumptious, and also you’re at all times completely satisfied it is on the playing cards.
We play battle royales, or I do anyway, for these one-off moments of camaraderie with our buddies. I am going to eternally affiliate PUBG with the time a buddy and I had been pinned down in an plane hangar, observed a motorcycle with a sidecar, and zoomed down the airfield, all guns-blazing and laughing our asses off. Like many such video games Scavengers is healthier with buddies, and its half-hour matches serve up these sorts of situations with consistency. This isn’t essentially the most unique or mind-blowing or completely tuned battle royale expertise on the market. However it’s a hell of a variety of enjoyable.
