SCUM

learning curve is quite steep - enjoy respawning frequently lol
The game is quite detailed in its mechanics, exactly what I am looking for in a survival game

Tedium, the game.

EDIT:
Since you asked. Let me elaborate a little. Don't expect an essay because I honestly don't feel attached to the game and don't care about the development anymore.
After all this time, the character models are still aesthetically unappealing, to say the least, and have wonky joints like it's 2014. The resources are way too scarce for what the game offers in terms of combat and... let's call it excitement, idk. Punching the same, lame zombies, over and over, for what, some flour or whatever. Then you finally find stuff and build a base. Yay. To do what? It's tedious, all of it. SOMETHING needs to compensate for this lack of entertainment. Nothing about the gameplay has any heft, aside from a fat turd you can drop, which is a nice touch. The whole metabolism system is cool. What else... I mean, you've probably heard tons of complaints about the spawning, I'm not gonna get into it. The game is like good, Italian, hand made pasta, with ketchup as sauce. It needs something, right now nothing about this grind is worth my time. Cheers.

The game won't go 3 minutes without crashing if you can even boot it past the splash screen, I recommend you buy it, test it out and if it crashes on you that's a sign that it's not worth it, refund it immediately afterwards.

Awesome Score: 9/10
TLDR: Great survival Loot and Shoot game with lots of fun and awesome features to make game play entertaining and challenging!
Slight learning curve to this game, and the UI needs some QoL work (being worked on according to dev posts) but all in all is worth getting and giving it a try if nothing else.


Whats in the box?
Base building, Crafting, Cooking, Fishing, Farming, Looting and Shooting, PVE/PVP, Survival game!

Bit more detail:
Realistic Survival elements along with a plethora of food and medicines to help keep you alive.

Realistic weapons with many different ammo types, a large selection of attachments (including sights, scopes, and other attachments), paint customization's (after finding the spray paint cans), and the ability to find rare versions of some weapons. Not to mention the amount of weapons you can find/buy is quite a list.

Intuitive healing and health system. Your body needs to be kept healthy if you want to strive in your survival

Extensive base building options to make a nice place to live, OR you can just commandeer one of the many buildings you can find throughout the world.

Farming, Fishing, and Cooking so you can have many ways to keep yourself from dying (from starving or dying of thirst anyway) Be careful what you use for your ingredients though, as some things may contain natural poisons or hallucinogens (or you know, feed them to someone you hate or want to prank?)

POI's can be dangerous, sometimes holding hordes of Puppets (zombies) and/or may be guarded by Mechs and Drop ships like the many military bases and bunkers that are strewn about. But they are also the best places to get good loot, like weapons and military / police gear to help you survive even more.

The most dangerous thing in this game however are the players... depending on if your on a PVP server, not everyone is your friend, but anyone can be your enemy. Unless you play on a PVP server, in which case working together to survive and conquer is the name of the game.

Servers can also vary between different ones. Some being more official / default, and others being extreme survival games

I love the ide of the game but if the dev has more focused in the zombies element rather than other element like how annoying is healing yourself it would be much fun game to play. the zombies is not what you expet from a zombie game

I liked everything in general, but suddenly the ban from the anti-cheat arrived. I have never used software, there is no explanation for what I am banned for. The license currently costs 2,300. I don't want to buy this game twice for such things

If you love poor server performance and dying to hackers this is the game for you.

The game is good and all, but at times aimless survival is a bit monotonous. I wish there were some game objectives.

No EAC support on linux. had this game for over 2 years hoping they will add it eventually and finally gave up. Otherwise a decent game but devs are not responsive

if i could refund i would feels like green hell but without the fun 80% of the time your walking if you get lucky too get a car youll be playing with that for hours but all in all i didnt even make it too the bunkers i get dropped in the worst spots where i have too run for legit hours before getting too a safe zone and when you get there theres nothing you can buy before getting fame but it also doesnt tell you how too do that i never ran into a tutorial i was even given things guns and bags but if you ever seen a green flair and you have stuff on you go home first or youll lose everything i got off my bike and was stun locked from how many times i was hit i tried too run but after being hit your stamina is gone there for this is a waste of money

I would really love this game if there werent so many bugs....
I would love to clear an area of puppets and remain clear without puppets, because they seem to spawn for no reason when you turn around... Also the Mechs are able to see you through some walls or small places (like the ones between a door and a doorframe)....
But the sudden respawn of puppets in an area that i just cleared is what drives me nuts...constantly...

I've played for almost 4000 hours, between the community drama and the haphazard updates, wipes with no warning, and just not delivering on promises in a timely fashion and reverting to old code for zombie spawns since the last update....I honestly cannot recommend this game. It's been a downward spiral ever since it was acquired by Jagex and this appears to be a trend that's going to continue. Things actually seem to be getting worse, and more shovelwared by the update. It may be time to say goodbye to SCUM.

I have 1,500 hours of gameplay. It has a lot of potential, but... You spend hours assembling a vehicle, running around the map looking for parts, gathering loot for your base and then when you finally get everything your car falls into limbo and you lose everything.

Man this game been out since 2018 and its only gotten worse! Yesterday i was 2 partied by the "server admin" and they silenced me in chat! They were so mad they even banned me from the game i bought! The game developers with out any questioning or considering anyone else's side just kick and ban people! This community is complete garbage without any progression for the game and its players! The loot is trash and it takes forever to get and now they put a system where if you die too many times you have to make a new character which makes no sense when you get teamed up on by the game developers themselves! This is the worse game on steam hands down! Don't give these losers your time or money!

What I wish the most is all the developers stopped releasing this kind if crар (say hello to DayZ, Rust, etc.) and concentrated on a good game design.

Options for degrees of scariness of zombies?
I got this game after watching a YouTuber or two play it. The whole premise is cool. I initially had a hard time figuring out how to craft. I don't know if I knew about the shift-z thing, I'll have to check that out. I also had a hard time finding tools, clothes and things that would increase my carrying capacity. I admit, I am kind of a wuss when it comes to scary games. I would love to be able to choose how aggressive the creatures are or how many. It sounds like the devs are making it scarier and more aggressive. I hope there is hope for us less fearless players. If there already is such a thing and I missed it, let me know. I also haven't ventured into any servers, so again, suggestions are welcome. But I am more than optimistic. I do like this game.

Was fun until an almost invincible AI mech flys into your base and destroys it, which is now the standard. Stupid idea has ruined the game.

Response to Developer
I can think of many ideas to fix life's problems but would cause detriment to others and therefore classed as bad ideas. This is a prime example of a bad idea.

Swear to god you guys are killing your game. After all the promises after you started churning out shit, and you still think people want fucking mechs and spaceships shooting lasers?

SCUM is having a major identity crisis into what it wants to be, and after 1,700 hours in this game. I am done.

Best survival game on the planet. Ultra-realistic features and systems. Great graphics and attention to detail.
Hard-working devs that listen to the community. Also, the game is in early access, so it can only get better!
Love from SRB

Played this game a ton, had a blast on PVE servers mostly, and am very thankful for my time being able to play.

0.95 puppet spawn system took the fun out of the game. Developer is obsessed with "fixing hordes" even though that isn't the problem. Latest dev update shows they have no interest in fixing spawns and likely won't before 1.0, so therefor likely never.

RIP

Welcome to the ultimate survival experience where you can flex your intellect while running around a deserted island like a deranged fitness influencer! It’s like Hunger Games meets a biology exam, with plenty of existential crises sprinkled in. Why hunt for food when you can spend hours obsessing over your character’s metabolism? 10/10, would try to eat a raw potato and regret my life choices again!

TL;DR Review of SCUM

SCUM is a brutal survival game where everything—nutrition, temperature, weight, and even bathroom needs—matters. You’ll bleed out, hallucinate from bad mushrooms, and die frequently, especially if you’re playing solo. It’s detailed and punishing, but there’s charm in figuring it out. PvP is unforgiving, with raiders and hackers on some servers adding extra chaos. Managing stats like strength and stealth over time makes every action count. The game is 10x better with friends, though it’s still enjoyable (and painful) solo.

10/10, but I’m a sucker for sales, so maybe wait for a discount to jump in. /end

Full SCUM Review: Welcome to the Slow, Brutal Art of Surviving Everything (Including Yourself)

SCUM by Gamepires isn't just a survival game—it’s a relentless, slow-burn simulation of everything that can (and will) go wrong. From the minute you drop into its massive island prison, SCUM gleefully throws you into the deep end, demanding you manage not just your hunger, thirst, and crafting skills, but also your bodily functions. Yes, you read that right. You’ll be keeping an eye on how often your character needs to relieve themselves. Welcome to survival in SCUM: where staying alive means managing everything from your calorie intake to whether or not you’ve eaten poisonous mushrooms that will have you tripping for half a real-world day.

A Learning Curve Steep Enough to Make You Dizzy

There’s no hand-holding here. You’re dropped into a world where figuring things out is both the charm and the punishment. Don’t expect to get comfortable. Expect to bleed out, pass out from dehydration, or die because you forgot to eat after meticulously crafting a backpack out of rags. Learning here happens the hard way—usually in the form of trial, error, and lots of death. And when you die? All those hours of progress can disappear in a heartbeat. Other players, much like the brutal world of SCUM itself, show no mercy. Getting raided or sniped by a more seasoned survivor just as you finally thought you were "getting the hang of things" is part of the package.

The early game was simpler: basic crafting, basic looting, basic survival. Now? Zombies (or “puppets” as SCUM likes to call them) come at you with horde mentality. One or two might not be a big deal, but get surrounded, and you’ll be torn to shreds in seconds. They won’t stop, and neither should you. Because if you do, you’re dead.

Nitty-Gritty Survival: Where Eating Mushrooms Can Ruin Your Day (Literally)

Managing survival in SCUM isn’t just about collecting water and food. You’ll have to manage nutrition, body temperature, the weight of what you’re carrying, and even your character’s hygiene. Wet clothes will chill you. Bad mushrooms? Hallucinations, blurred vision, and a weakened state that’ll last for hours—if you survive long enough to recover. And yes, those are real-time hours, not in-game hours. The realism is as unforgiving as it is impressive. The developers clearly pulled no punches when it came to building a survival experience that’s as detailed as it is brutal. Got an infection? Either find antibiotics or die slowly. That’s the choice.

Your Body is Your Own Worst Enemy

Where most games would just slap you with a hunger meter, SCUM goes a step further. Your character’s stats can be developed over time based on what you eat, how much weight you carry, and how many tasks you complete. Eat more protein? Your strength goes up. Sneak around more often? You’ll improve your stealth. Everything you do has consequences, and the game tracks it all. Want to be the best crafter on the server? Focus on building, disarming bombs (carefully), and gathering resources. Want to be the best sniper? Train on your rifles, and prepare for hours of tension as you defend your base from raiders.

But the world of SCUM isn’t just about you versus the environment. It’s you versus the players. PvP in this game is brutal, and dying to another player often means losing everything. Raids on unsupervised servers can be particularly painful. Hackers, unfortunately, are also an issue on some servers. Want to make the most out of SCUM? You’ll need to find a trustworthy, stable server—preferably one that isn’t crawling with hackers or lag. But don’t get too disheartened, good servers do exist, even in English-speaking regions. It just might take a bit of hunting to find one.

The Realism is Exhausting... In a Good Way (Mostly)

One of the most impressive features of SCUM is its realistic human simulation. The developers boast that it’s the most accurate human metabolic simulation ever made in a game. And they’re not wrong. You’ll track everything from your character’s calorie intake, vitamins, and minerals, to their weight and muscle mass. Everything you do affects your character’s stats. Carry too much weight, and you’ll tire easily. Fail to eat enough protein, and your stamina drops. SCUM doesn’t stop there—it’ll make you manage your avatar’s bathroom needs, ensuring no survival experience is too clean or comfortable.

It’s not all bad news for solo players. If you prefer to avoid the PvP madness and carve out a life for yourself in SCUM’s sprawling, hostile world, there’s still some charm in the slower, more methodical gameplay. Just know that you’ll likely suffer a lot more without friends. SCUM is 10x better when you have people to watch your back—or at least laugh at you when you die. The pain is real, but so is the camaraderie.

Razor-Sharp Critique: Hackers, Servers, and the Early Access Dilemma

Despite its incredible depth and detailed gameplay, SCUM isn’t without its flaws. Servers can be a mess, especially when hackers get involved. And let’s be honest, the game is still very much in Early Access, meaning plenty of polish is still needed. Raids can feel like a waste of time on some servers, and lag is a constant issue if you aren’t careful where you play. But these are problems that can (and hopefully will) be ironed out as the game continues to develop.

Final Thoughts: Pain and Progress (10/10, but maybe wait for a sale)

In the end, SCUM offers something unique in the survival genre. It’s brutal, immersive, and requires a level of attention to detail that’s rare in modern games. It’ll punish you, confuse you, and occasionally make you laugh out loud at just how far the developers went to make your life harder. And yet, I can’t recommend it enough—especially if you’ve got friends to suffer alongside you.

That being said, I’m a sucker for deals, so grab it on sale. 10/10 for the experience, but maybe let your wallet survive this one, too.

Feels incomplete. EMPTY world. there are only like three small towns I spent an hour running to a town just to encounter a single zombie. I killed it and the town was empty. no loot... I immediately requested a refund.

ive tried playing this like 3 different times, once on official and others on a high pop and low pop high loot servers and every time ive played ive spent like 4 hours running around every village i could find only ever finding worthless junk that i cant craft with because i never find any tools and only have like 4 inventory spaces, every town is the same boring zombies, did manage to find some military bases but even then there was still never any loot, also the mechs have wallhacks and would aggro through walls. the entire map is a snore and doesnt have any interesting or unique areas, all the towns look the same and suck. never once ran into another player. Ive only seen gameplay showing people messing around with their dicks and shitting in toilets so i think they looked at dayz and wanted to make dayz but with something to do other than running and gave up at the part where they make the game fun

also 100 dollars in cosmetic 'supporter' packs and character packs for them to still have done nothing with the game, where is the breaking bad money going?

SCUM started off as a DayZ clone with a twist - better points of interest, a real backstory besides "hehe zombies in Russia", a vastly improved game pacing, and a much appreciated sense of humor.

Unfortunately, over the years of SCUM development, I have watched the developers take away parts of the game that are fun while slowing down and extending the core gameplay. This is really strange for what started out as a story about televised criminals battling each other in a puppet and robot infested hellscape.

Basically everything that wasn't fun about DayZ was eventually ported to SCUM.

I typically like hardcore survival elements but only when they actually make sense. For example SCUM has a bizarrely detailed nutrition system yet strangely your character is unable to replenish their vitamin D in sunlight as humans are known to do. This only serves to confuse and mislead players - experts know to just largely ignore the mechanic and eat tons of protein.

Cars are now absurdly difficult to set up and maintain compared to earlier on, requiring many hours of dedicated solo play to cobble together the requisite parts. One of the great aspects of DayZ was that you only really needed gas, wheels and an otherwise functional vehicle, so group vehicle play had a feasible barrier of entry for PvP.

All in all the gameplay of SCUM has been stretched out to such a degree that working humans no longer have enough spare time to succeed. This contrasts heavily to Rust where PvP gear can be had within a few hours.

SCUM should either be a survival game or a PvP game, it is struggling hard at doing both. IMO it would be served well by ditching the complex character stat mechanics and focusing on making an enjoyable arena battle - maybe the detailed survival mechanics could only come on for single player PvE play.

Trash ahh game don't play it . The game is infected with bugs and trash ahh graphics. My friend thinks this a good game but he might have brain damage so wont recommend trusting him , if you want a good game that will destroy your life then you should rather go and play rust.

Trash game 2/10

played it years ago. it was shit.


played it again today. it's still shit.

This game sucks. From its poor rendering performance to straight up deleting shit out of nowhere. The commands you should be able to use dont work, logs suck at trying to find shit, and to top it off the way you build shit is clunky and almost unusable. Dead ass if the devs fixed the problem with cars being deleted, changed the way building stuff works(look at the way rust does it shit works), and fixed the way commands functioned or gave a reliable way to make them function it would be fun
edit: I do want to thank one of the developers for reaching out to explain. However i dont see how its helpful to explain that instead of fixing the bugs and problems that are happening you want to shelf them and add more stuff that could cause worse or more bugs.

I have been playing Scum off an on since 2019, the reason for the off time is because when you have all the gear you need and a base, there is not much left to do. The world needs to be fuller in a way.

The other reason is the bugs. And they are almost game breaking every time.
My last session, i played for 3 days. I spent the first 2 days running around across the map trying to find enough parts to get a working car. Finally got one running, And the next day when i logged on, my car and all that was in it was gone. I had vehicle parking enabled and did not park in a safe zone so this should not happen.

I also died in a bunker, before this and when returning to loot my body i only saw my weapon, rest was gone.
This seems to be a theme with the game, and from my point of view, it never seems to get fixed.

In trying to find info on the company i went to their website, but it was hard to find any info since the about us section is blank. I found a Joberty link where they state they are 20-50 employees, and they work with IT Services.

From this i can assume the game is never going to finish and it's just a big money trap. So i wont be recommending this in it's current state.

This is one of that games never will be fully realised . Played it for years back , check if its getting better once in every coming year and no improvement..

hACKERs makes this game unplayable. COD a better choice, atleast there you still stand a chance,

very bad mechanics, you cant outrun any zombie which is stupid and the night time is longer than the day and has already lasted me 3 hours in real time life its fucking descusting they want 34 pound for a game thats full of very bad mechanics. robbing bellends. if i didnt spend more than 2 hours i would for sure get my money back this is garbage, its like cod robbing people of thier money. i was wanting to make a base to store stuff but for a flag you need 10 tool boxes and they charge 1000 for 1 toolbox and you cant find them anywhere so you have to buy them its stupid, its devs with no brain cells as usual. its a flag, a stick some cloth and maybe a rope or two but to have all that for a flag, what planet do you live on if you think a flag takes that. the amount of money you have to spend on a tool box and other things is descracfull. the fact you cant even fun that fast and the zombie are faster is also very bad you can run from them if your in a chase you might aswell just die and loose all your progress and stuff its the worst game iv played in a long time i have not played a game this bad for at least 10 years. this game needs some serious help and the fact its been in early access since 2018 and its still this bad shows they have no clue what thier doing. give the game to other people who know what thier doing or cancil it as your ust robbing people of thier money and time

This game was insanely boring. A real walking simulator.
Everything from desirable respawns to even hairstyles were locked behind a pay wall. I bought this game on sale for $20 but if the devs were honest they would admit they want you to spend $141 for the actual game. The base game is awful. I roamed around the map for almost an hour and at the start it said to state my experience with scum so the tutorial would play, I put beginner and then there was no tutorial! In the entire time I was playing I didn't find a single weapon or tool. When I would respawn to get a better location, it would charge me some kind of in game currency and since I didn't have it, it kept spawning me in the middle of nowhere and it wouldn't let me control the descent of the parachute to get anywhere better. I remember when this game launched in 2018, watching rust youtubers stream it. It was a completely different game back then. It wasn't long before these streamers were loaded with loot and guns and armour and actually able to play. It was a much better game back then. Now literally everything is locked behind a paywall Electronic Arts style. I didnt have any fun playing this hot mess and refunded it.

tl:dr
The base game is extremely bare bones and actively sabotages you if you don't spring for the extra $100 worth of "content" that really should just be included by default.

Good game, always runs really well even on the Steam Deck and looks great too, only reason it is unsupported I'm guessing is the EAC and since it's Early Access optimizations come later. Slight pop-in when entering some larger locations with lots of boxes around but that happens on DayZ too, in 1.0 I'd love to see some more official support for the Steam Deck, but the game runs better on the PC so not bothered, good survival game regardless, puppets are a little annoying to hit with melee so stick to the bow, mechs are the worst I'd be happier without them, and no sleep-to-pass-time in single players is a big disappointment, the days and nights (if I ever get to experience a night time, 5 hours and it is still day) are very long in this game so being able to pass the time or even make it go by quicker would be really great.

Great Graphics and mechanics, fun as a solo game when working in places without internet

Cons:
I won't get those few hours of my evening spent downloading and trying to get into this game.

I genuinely would rather have been at work. Or the doctor's office.

I've never, ever encountered a more disappointing and frustrating UI and inventory system. This is coming from someone who's player the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games since release.

I literally did not finish building the tent. Goodbye and good riddance. It's exactly as garbage as my subconscious was screaming at me that it would indeed be. Why I don't listen to myself more, I don't know.

Pros:
Maybe I finally learned my lesson about buying new games.

Great pvp pve survival shooter with rpg and mmo elements!! it is an open world single/multiplayer game with base building, vehicle customization, endless loot system and raiding other players bases!!

I bought the game on 12/31/2018, played 4365 hours, not a single warning for 6 years, even on private servers. And then bam, a ban comes. I create a ticket on the developer's website, and in response I get (After a thorough study of your account and the evidence collected, we came to the conclusion that your account was involved in fraud, hacked or other actions were taken.) They do not write what rules I violated. EasyAntiCheat writes (Since the sanction was not imposed directly by Easy Anti-Cheat, we can neither remove it nor provide information about it. We recommend contacting the game's support service for help in solving this problem.) It turns out that any admin (drunk, stoned, or just toxic) can ban you on hardware, simply and without even an explanation. They write that evidence has been collected, why do they not present it? I am an honest player, I have never used third-party programs, I am ready to provide access to the computer. The developers don't care, they are right by default! It is written in the license: https://store.steampowered.com/eula/513710_eula_1

## 9. TERMINATION

9.1 We may terminate this Licence and any user Account in the Game immediately if you commit a breach of this Licence.

9.2 Upon termination for any reason: (a) all rights granted to you under this Licence shall immediately cease; (b) you must immediately cease all activities authorized by this Licence; (c) you must immediately delete or remove the Software from all computer equipment in your possession, and (d) your access to and use of the Game under the Terms and Conditions will immediately cease and be terminated.

SCUM isn’t your typical survival game—it’s more like being stranded in the woods with a hangover, no pants, and a deep-seated fear of public restrooms. You start with basically nothing, and by “nothing,” I mean you’re literally running around in your tighty-whities wondering why you signed up for this masochistic camping trip from hell.

The first thing you'll notice? This game cares more about your character’s bowel movements than your real-life doctor does. You ever play a game where you have to stop looting a dead body because your guy’s gotta drop a deuce in the middle of the forest? Welcome to SCUM. You’ll be checking your bladder and colon like it’s your new hobby. Forget tactical reloads—this is tactical toilet time.

Then there’s the puppets. These freaks don’t just want to nibble on you; they want to tear you apart like you’re the last piece of toilet paper in a gas station bathroom. One minute you’re enjoying a peaceful stroll through the woods, thinking, “Hey, maybe I’ll finally find some pants,” and the next, you’re running for your life, screaming like a little kid who’s just seen their first horror movie. You better have a weapon, and no, your fists won’t cut it—unless you like being a human chew toy.

And just when you think you’re getting the hang of it, some random player will show up and shove a spear up your backside just for fun. Trust issues? Oh, you’ll have them after this. The PvP in SCUM is like Tinder with guns—swipe right and hope they don’t ghost you with a bullet to the head.

But honestly, that’s what makes SCUM beautiful in its own twisted, depraved way. You’re not just surviving; you’re constantly questioning why you didn’t just go play something chill, like Animal Crossing. But nah, you’re here, knee-deep in puppet guts and somehow having the time of your life while simultaneously wishing for a therapist.

All in all, if you’re into hardcore survival, love tracking your urine output, and enjoy being screwed over by both NPCs and other players, then SCUM is your chaotic dream come true. Just don’t forget to pull your pants up before the puppets pull them down.

No ... sorry i just cant with this game atm .. running round for 2 hours picking up basic loot to then be killed by a Chinese hacker ...

its that bad in a server of 100 there will be 20 ... so its pointless and it shows by the player base dropping!

Sort your anti cheat out or just give up Dev's.

This game used to be the survival game to delete all survival games. I've got probably somwhere around 1,300 hours in this game now, and I can say that it isn't what it used to be. A solid 1,000 of these came before .9, and almost everything they've added since has either been broken, or is an element of the game that just makes it worse.

Hordes? Broken as shit. If I clear an area of puppets, then I should be free and clear and devoid of any humanoid threats. Not the case. Oh, you gave us the pickup and quad back? We had those 3 years ago, and they were great. Finally gave us back improvised rafts? Well, that's nice, until a dropship descends from the sky on you to obliterate you for... What reason? Then, you get 2 more dropships on you trying to get your shit back from the raft.

Alright, we don't use vehicles anymore. I hear you loud and clear. I'll fucking run everywhere. Oh shit, I triggered a horde IN THE WOODS, now I died. Spend the coin to spawn in sector. Oh, neato, I can't search anything, including rocks to make a spear to have at least something to defend myself with getting my stuff back. Alright, I'll just go low and slow. Spend an eternity getting to your body. Ah, right, can't loot that either. Must be a sync issue or something. Re-log. Oh, the body despawned.

Every single update in the past year has only made this game worse, and we're supposed to believe that it's going to be great at 1.0? I'm sincerely losing faith, and I feel like an idiot for arguing for this game til I'm blue in the face for 4 years. It was great. It was damn near everything you wanted. Realistic survival with detailed metabolism, maybe missing a natural threat here and there, but it was made up for by having the threat of the random puppet, bear, or wolf stalking about.

Find your core, guys. I want to have my favorite game back, but as of now, I'm hanging it up. I hope and pray that y'all find what made this game great in the early days, and fix the horrendous things you've done to it before 1.0

Players have been waiting on a fix to zombies spawns going on a year. Nothing.
If you are wanting this for the zombie aspect, you're not going to get it. Zombies go through walls, dirt, and only spawn behind you. Actually.
If you are wanting it for the PVP aspect, it is not going to be a PVP game. It will have pvp, with a focus on PVE. Atleast that's what THEY say. Albeit, the zombies spawns are broke beyond reason. Nor do they do anything about cheaters.
If you are wanting it for the 'survival' aspect. Tea will give you THOUSANDS of calories. Wells are often broken. Base building is incredibly underwhelming, and janky at best. And some genius thought all the survival players would be eager for these airborne 'mechs' to target their base and wipe the floor. These airborne boys are new by the way. They made MULTIPLE new enemies, they did! Instead of fixing their zombies and zombie spawns. Not brilliant.
Instead of fixing the zombie spawns, arguably the mainstay of the game, they added a 'ripper' or 'razor' character to their form of dungeons(bunkers). Ain't tried it myself. Not gonna. Go read the backlash on that nonsense.
If you can get the game for a few bucks, ok sure. When they maybe one day eventually fix it(It's already been almost a year) THEN it would be worth something. But at $30 you're paying them, to test their game, realize it's in bad shape, and provide feedback they WILL ignore. You're paying for air.. Oh snap. It's up to $40 now XD

Its a good ass game its relly good i love the game i do wish you could put cow muvers on the trucks lol

A good game, very realistic health mechanic which looks more daunting at first than it actually is. Once you find a good server with a good community you'll have great time.

Cons-
shit gameplay
shit graphics
shit everything

Pros-
Fat supremacist

Many great ideas with half a,ss execution, puppets(zombies) spawning is horrible, they appear in front of you out of thin air, when you clear an area, they respawn in there in the next 5-10mins, the same with razors(special enemies). Enemies fazing through walls, this is especially bad in abandoned bunkers with razors that can grab attack you.

Base building is, I don't know how to even describe it, the worst out of all the survival games I have ever seen.

The good stuff is like the metabolism, you have to keep track of food, thirst, the health and injury system is interesting, vehicles are quite nice too.

From my 100 hours of playing, I have seen only 2 wild boars, 1 bear and 2 or 3 chickens, the map is empty as f,uck.

The spawning system works like this: There is nothing ever around you, unless you enter POI(point of interest) like a town, and even then, zombies spawn only after you entered the town, I believe the radius is around 30meters around you that they can spawn, this includes animals too. So then they sometimes spawn in walls, bushes to camouflage this awful spawning system. It was fun engaging with zombies/puppets prior to the 0.9 update which gutted the spawning system, rendering whole roster of weapons like snipers and DMR's useless. Shotguns are questionable too, they have no stagger when you blast enemies from like 2meters, but pistols do stagger?

The reasoning for this god awful spawning system is that they want to "optimize the game". That's not how you optimize it by essentially removing 90% of the NPC's from the map, creating an empty wasteland.
Devs never backtrack on their mistakes even when the whole community disagrees with like the spawning system, seems like they have the "never wrong mentality" and are surrounded by yesman content creators that won't say a single bad thing about them(there are exceptions, few of them do critize them thankfully).

I hope that the full release 1.0 update which is supposed to come in Q2 2025 will fix many of these issues, but from what I've seen what they did(or rather, didn't) for the past 6 years since this game has been in early access development, I don't think it will get anywhere unfortunately.

This game is great if you don't want to go into bunkers where all the best loot is yet the non-kill-able Brenner lives. I honestly hate that stupid thing and makes this game not worth playing since it always sneaks up on me while I'm either looting, or manually opening the large vault doors.

Having an non-kill-able enemy period just ruins the whole experience, the thing that makes "non-kill-able" enemies viable in games like Resident Evil is that they are mostly scripted events that trigger at certain points, and they lead up to a "final boss fight" where you can have the chance to kill the "non-kill-able" stalker type enemy. When encountering the Brenner, it gives you a prompt to button mash a key to escape if it pounces on you, this never works, even when you're fully kitted out, have full stamina with full health and you're button mashing a key to break free the end result is the same, death. There's no indication of WHAT key you need to mash, it just says something along the lines of "Mash Key to escape/break free".

12 in game hours of game play is more than enough to determine if a game is the right kind of game in general you only need about 2 hours of in-game hours to determine this, for me this game just feels like another DayZ clone, but with a non-kill-able stalker enemy who makes the funner part of these kinds of games, not fun. Heck, even having an option to turn off the Brenner would open this game up to a lot more people who are turned off by the prospects of there being a non-kill-able, inescapable monster. That's one of the joys of playing DayZ, is that you're not forced to loot as quickly as possible to try and avoid an unavoidable creature you can't kill (You can kill other players unless they're hackers and are cheating). Sure, you can temporarily stun the Brenner, but that stun only last about a minute at best then suddenly the creature is right back on top of you before you know it.

At the very least making the Brenner actually kill-able would benefit this game greatly, it doesn't need to be easy, but it shouldn't be impossible. And judging by other replies to other reviews it would appear the Brenner is remaining immortal which is a massive turn off.

Also this game has been in Early Access Purgatory for the last 6 years, sure it's set release is due for sometime in 2024, but we're 9 months into 2024, we have 3 months left, hopefully the game is actually released in 2024, unlike a lot of other games where they get pushed back further and further from the initial full release date that was announced.

Not inherently a bad game but very grindy and the grind you go through is undone by some glitch on a ladder where as soon as you get to the top you fall to your death, this is one example only there are more things so, cant recommend it. The map is awesome and the level of detail on the survival aspect is impressive. Again, not a bad game but until the devs fix these bugs you might lose 30 hs of gameplay through no fault of your own. This, in my opinion kills the fun.

The new zombie spawns ruined the game for me. I imagine it was for performance reasons but watching 10 zombies spawn in a small circle when you enter a new area was unimmersive.

Edit: The developer responded to me with straight transparency and it shows me that they care about their customer which makes me incredibly optimistic about the future of this game. The game itself is very incredible - I do just PVE with my friends and when they had changed the zombie spawns it felt like the difficulty/immersion of the game was greatly reduced. I have no idea what struggles a dev team goes through and I imagine they had their valid reasons. Hopefully it can get resolved because for me personally I would put another 100+ hours in once they figure it out. Best, Mitch

legit no storage shit mechanics, dont waste 40 dollars not even worth 10. zombies can jump over fences like on steroids, and can go through doors