Scrapland Review

One need only think back to December of 2000, to the day that American McGee’s Alice first reached store shelves. Boasting eerie and dark graphics, an adult story, and a level of artistic intensity rarely seen, PC games as an art form seemed on the verge of changing forever. Just one month earlier, Shiny entertainment had released the revolutionary and very attractive Sacrifice, which also seemed on the verge of changing the face of modern gaming. Sadly, from a business perspective, perhaps the most important in an industry fueled by and focused on money, both games were relative commercial flops.

"American McGee is the Quentin Tarantino of the gaming industry, mixing grisly, brutal violence with clever and witty dialogue"

There is no doubt that those who played Alice found an immersive and dark yet fairly satisfying action/adventure experience. Having said that, there were those who complained that, pretty graphics aside, it was merely a sub-par third-person action game with many flaws, one of which was some very annoying jumping puzzles. Still, one cannot help but be impressed with the imagination and vision shown by McGee.

American McGee is the Quentin Tarantino of the gaming industry, mixing grisly, brutal violence with clever and witty dialogue that may leave some gamers shaking their heads. When it was announced that he would be Executive Producing Enlight’s game Scrapland, I knew that I would be purchasing the game immediately. As they did with Alice, a demo was released prior to the game, and we saw what a great game it would be.

In a future absent of man, you are D-Tritus, a robot explorer who comes to Scrapland, a gigantic asteroid base created out of chunks of human civilization. In this world where death is not possible, a murder has occurred and as chance would have it, it’s up to you to solve this murder and put things right before you end up dead as well.

Gameplay
This game can essentially be broken down into two separate types of gameplay, the in-ship portion and the on-foot portion.

The on-foot portion is without a doubt one of the most interesting and odd experiences you’ll have. On foot you’re in a third-person perspective and faced with limited options. You can move, run, and cut robots into pieces using energy; be warned, however, that destroying robots creates its own issues. When you destroy another robot, an alarm goes off and police and sentry robots run after you with guns blazing. You’ll need to stay ahead of them and hide until they give up their search. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s very similar to the system used in Konami’s Metal Gear series, down to the radar which shows when sentries are looking at you.

Another ability you have is to essentially become other robots. There will be various portions of the game which will require you to pose as others, either to move through areas or to pretend to be the enemy in order to uncover their plans. You can also access this through the great database which allows you to transform either back into D-Tritus or into a different robot. Beware though, as the sentry robots will see through your disguise if you stand still for too long.

It’s through these transformations that you find access to needed abilities. The stapler robot may be small, but it’s one of the only robots capable of jumping and also perfect for fitting into ducts and other tight spaces. The banker robots allow you to steal from other robots, the messengers and sentries allow you to fly, and the cop robots have firepower at their disposal and can also receive money through bribes. Through proper use of different robots you will proceed through the game, learning more and more of the sinister conspiracy facing you.

"The on-foot portion is without a doubt one of the most interesting and odd experiences you’ll have."

Interestingly enough, you really cannot die in this game. Extra lives are purchased through bishops, and when you’re destroyed you’ll end up in prison, only requiring you to figure out how to escape your cell.

The in-ship portion of the game will also feel familiar, especially to those who play on other gaming platforms. As you proceed through the game, you will come across plans to new ships as well as access to new weapons; especially through completing Crazy Bets and Super Crazy bets, various and often repetitive tasks like racing and space combat for prizes.

Control of your ship will be similar to that of Freelancer, a third-person perspective utilizing your mouse for most of the controls, such as cycling through weapons and missiles. Similar to Grand Theft Auto, you can often steal other ships to use when you are finding yourself low on money to build them. Typically you will find yourself flying from one zone to another in huge areas, very similar to Jak 2 for the PS2. While you are free to explore these areas on your own, you will rarely find anything worthwhile to do other than destroy other ships for money before fleeing from the cops.

Ships missions range from races, combat arenas, and the occasional follow the leader or escort scenarios. Despite an initial learning curve to get a handle on the ship, once you know what you are doing these shouldn’t prove to be a problem, provided you constantly tweak and upgrade your ship.

I found that the ship-missions reminded me too much of Jak 2, especially the constant flying from one zone or another to reach the next ground mission. The ship battles were often repetitive and I rarely found myself dying in them. While not horribly done, they definitely made the game drag between the interesting portions taking place during the on-foot missions.

Graphics
Having played this game on both a low and high end machine, I recommend the latter. With full options enabled and at least a 1024X768 resolution, this game is stunning. Just parking your ship and watching the world move around you in space is amazing. The character models, while limited in terms of variety, are very well-drawn and move in what appears to be very life-like realism, at least as much as you can get when dealing with futuristic robots.

The lighting effects are also jaw dropping and the use of shadowing very impressive. Watching lasers blast and robots dematerialize in a decidedly Tron-like fashion is also quite entertaining. With the proper high end graphics card, this game is graphically impressive, nearly on the scale of Alice.

Sound
Featuring an excellent soundtrack, Scrapland always utilizes songs that make you think of Tron or Blade Runner. The music tends to fit the bizarre futuristic setting that you play in.

 

The voices in this game all have a slight British accent to them and are very well-done. Strong humour and jokes are set up properly and of course accurately executed.

The sound effects are also well done, from the thrust of your ship to the blasting of your cannons and the explosions of your enemies. While not perhaps as stunning as Half-life 2 or Doom 3, the sound in this game is very well done and shows the proper amount of polish one should come to expect from all quality PC games.

Multiplayer
While the in-ship portions of Scrapland are fun, they really aren’t the better part of this game. Sadly, this is the part which makes its way to online play. Featuring the standard Deathmatch, Flag hunt (your standard capture the flag), One Flag (a kind of flag variant where you face off against everybody and race a baton marking areas for points), and the team versions of each gameplay type.

My limited exposure to this portion of the game showed scant support by users, limiting my dog fighting to only a few matches. While it’s not bad, it seems this portion was included mainly to say that the game had a multiplayer component and as such doesn’t offer the experience it could have. Imagine being able to hijack opponents’ ships or kill them on foot using various robot types, now that would have been something. 

Replay Value
Despite an above average length and multiplayer component, I don’t expect many to continue playing once they beat the game.

Conclusion
One of the reasons I mentioned Alice in the beginning is that similarities that this game shares with it. A gripping story, brutal violence at times (well, machine violence), superb graphics, and clever adult humor are all things this game shares with Alice. Repetitive flying and ship battles with too few on-foot missions add negatively to the game. This game, therefore, goes into an odd category, a must have for Artistic Game Enthusiasts, but for the masses, one that may not sell until it reaches bargain bin prices. While I certainly appreciated and enjoyed playing this game, it’s not the type of game for everybody and results in a mixed bag.

"…a must have for Artistic Game Enthusiasts, but for the masses, one that may not sell until it reaches bargain bin prices."

Key High Points
• An odd and quirky yet compelling story
• Clever humor throughout the game
• Fun on-foot missions requiring some skill and problem solving
• A level of graphical beauty that is amazing to see and watch unfold
• Very engrossing and compelling vision of a computerized world

Key Low Points
• Boring, repetitive ship battles and races
• Large amounts of time spent flying from zone to zone