This review’s main premise is Scrap Mechanic the Swedish “open world survival craft” developed by Axolot in Stockholm. First released in 2016, Scrap Mechanic has remained in early access for over six years now and they have consistently given the game at least one big update a year, that has transformed it into a whole new game since the initial release.
Scrap Mechanic is quite a unique game in my opinion, and I haven’t found another game like it yet. The game has such a nice visual style and so many creative ideas that really add to the experience of exploring the world Scrap Mechanic takes place in. The game also, of course, has mechanic aspects — hence the name. It’s not the most realistic game, but it’s had a lot of work put into it and you really can make some amazing things with it if you learn how to.
A lot of people compare Scrap Mechanic to Minecraft – most likely just because it’s a survival building simulator, but I don’t think liking Minecraft will necessarily make you enjoy Scrap Mechanic.
Scrap Mechanic’s gameplay differs from Minecraft due to the fact that there is no direction in Minecraft at all. And even though Scrap Mechanic is an open world nonlinear game it is near impossible to go to the ending areas without end game loot unlike Minecraft.
One of the main things everyone in Scrap Mechanic does is make a car as soon as possible. You are probably going to use this car for the rest of the game or at least some part of it. The progression on mining and stuff doesn’t work the same as a lot of other games is what I am trying to say. It doesn’t really have any grinding. Its more about your skill and how intuitive you are with the materials you have.
I shouldn’t skip over the fact that scrap mechanic has 3 main game modes: Survival, Creative, & Challenge mode, All modes are quite different but the main focus is on creative and survival. Creative and survival don’t work the same way as Minecraft they are completely different. Creative takes place in completely customizable worlds with no enemies, animals, or structures, it’s all about building. Whereas survival has a randomly generated world every time with roads, enemies, looting shacks, materials, and story elements. As well as hundreds of new items only useful in survival. One of survivals main objectives that will keep you tense throughout the whole game is farming. You need to farm food to progress in the game not only for hunger but also for buying important items that let you progress. But the thing is after you have 5 crops growing hordes of robots varying in size will start swarming your base and farm destroyingverything they see, o your goal is to build the best defenses you can against the robot
The game definitely has quite a lot of work to be done to it, mostly in the content department. I’ve easily poured over a hundred hours into the game so far, but that isn’t a lot for a survival game in my books. In the survival mode, the start is simple, but the game starts to slow down more and more and eventually you hit a roadblock and there isn’t really a reason to do anything anymore. I would argue this will change as the game is, of course, in early access. As a matter of fact, the game has a massive update being developed at the time of this being written that’s going to make the world more destructible and its adding way more stuff to do in the survival mode.
The game has also developed a nice art style over the years that’s quite similar to Raft (another game associated with Axolot). Its style is very cartoony with everything having extreme proportions here is an example of the blueberry crop:
The game features new mystical creatures and items as well like the Woc and the Glowb. The Woc is a bright blue fluffy cow like animal with udders on its head, and the Glowb is a little aquatic bug that poops out little glowing poos that you can use to make torches out of.
The game does have Steam Workshop support; however, the modding community is quite small at the moment and they have limited tools. Axolot is working to change this and is currently making new tools for the modders.
I haven’t got much more to say on the game at the moment it’s still pretty bland in a way and that’s one big concern you might have when thinking about buying the game. At its current state, I’d leave it to ‘no‘ as my answer on whether or not you should buy it. At its current price of $30 AUD, I’m not sure if you’ll get as much out of it as you hope for. But that’s a bit rich coming from me with over 100 hours. However, if the game ever goes on sale, I’d say it’s well worth the lower price.
