Most of the time, you'll play a hero, mercenary or a young upstart who will become a hero. Rarely, you'll play someone who is villainous or just straight evil. SCUM flips it on the head and this time you play as a convicted criminal, here we'll tell you what runs in this Survival game.
Keep in mind that this game is still in its development stages and more major features will be implemented in the future.
Gameplay
SCUM's gameplay may seem pretty straightforward, but there are several mechanics (both implemented and planned) that makes every decision you make as a player more impactful. If you have played games like PUBG or H1Z1, then you'll have some familiarity with how the game is laid out, but unlike them, SCUM focuses more on surviving rather than eliminating enemy players.
There are multiple types of resources and tools utilised to achieve victory over the other players. Food, clothing, medicine and weapons are just some of the basic things you need to gather to survive and succeed. On top of that, the player must keep an on their vitals such as health, stamina, current weather and hunger.
It took a fair while to wrap my head around the amount of information for this game. Every action and inaction I did could impact whether my next encounter with players or AI enemies be successful or not. On top of that, you always had to be somewhat proactive in the beginning. Food, weapons and other necessities could only be gathered by looting from enemies and areas that have yet to be pillaged.
While all of this may seem overwhelming, especially if you aren't familiar with the genre, it is a reasonably fun game. If you play with friends, this game is exponentially more exciting and interesting.
Controls
Surprisingly intuitive considering the complexity of the game. While there are still some things that could be improved upon, the game's controls work pretty well. It does take a little time getting used to hotkeys to open up key features such as crafting or checking your vitals. Sometimes the combat doesn't feel very responsive but with further promised optimisation, the controls should feel more streamlined into gameplay in later versions.
Visuals
Keep in mind, this game is fairly early in the development phase. The animations are sometimes a bit awkward and melee combat feels stiff. However, with most of the focus being shifted to gameplay and optimisation, don't expect to be awed by amazing graphics any time soon.
Audio
In contrast to Visuals, this has a bigger impact on the gameplay. Various sounds play a key role in how you will plan your next moves. Hearing fast footsteps that aren't yours could mean enemy players nearby or zombie groanings could force you to consider how you will move from your position.
The developers had put a solid performance on integrating the sound to the gameplay and I strongly suggest that if you are a new player to this kind of game, maybe tone down the music so you won't get shot by surprise.
Refinement
While the gameplay is fairly smooth while still in development, there are still a number of bugs and glitches or server issues. The developers had put a lot of emphasis on making sure the game runs smoothly and with their frequent patching, the game keeps getting better. If you are planning to play this game in its current state, don't expect it to be a smooth sailing as there are still plenty of things the developers need to work on.
Community
The community SCUM fosters has a strong potential to grow into something amazing. Clans or groups of friends can be what actually makes or breaks this game. While this game is mildly fun by yourself, I highly recommend you find some friends or a community to join. This game is more than just fighting enemy players, it is about keeping you and your fellow teammates alive for as long as you can.
So far most of the community are friendly and are looking to help the developers improve and have a direction for the game as more features, both planned and unplanned, will be implemented into the game. However, like any community, there are a number of hackers that does hurt the gaming experience greatly for this game and there isn't a strong countermeasure by the developers to deal with it.
Final Verdict
Overall, this game has a lot of potential and still a long way to go to be complete. Both the game and the supporting mechanisms for the game are far from complete. Because this game is still in its beta stages, I won't rate it, but I would recommend this game to anyone who loves survival games with a bit of a PvP feature to boot.
You can find this game at Steam.
