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Neo scavenger12/25/2023 ![]() ![]() Each turn you must decide where to go, how to scavenge for supplies, and how to deal with anything and anyone you encounter. Especially when I’ve done the Bear Grylls thing for several hours and made it to a new story dungeon, only to be insta-killed and forced to start all over because I chose the wrong option in a dialogue screen.Ou must survive in the wasteland long enough to figure out who you are. The survival game and the mystery/thriller RPG really shine on their own merits, but they often don’t mesh to provide a smoothly-flowing, enjoyable experience. Still, there comes a certain point where the process of stopping to build a campfire and boil eight bottles of water every other day just so I could make it to the next bit of story became a chore. ![]() Seeking out help from those who have been demolished over and over before me was part of the game itself. It’s the sort of non-user-friendly sadism that forces community interaction and collaboration in games like Don’t Starve, Dwarf Fortress, or Crusader Kings II. This intrepid reviewer had to pore over wikis and advice threads from the early access build to get anywhere near the right strategies. A lot of effort has been put into the storyline, but only the most persistent, meticulous, and lucky players will ever make it through the wicked gauntlet of disease, starvation, and overpowered cannibal death squads to see it to the end. And then I would die of hypothermia again. What began as vague hints in discarded newspaper clippings as to how Earth came down with a near-terminal case of Armageddon soon progressed into deep conspiracies, encounters with weird science and the outright supernatural, world-changing character choices, and some of the downright creepiest side quests in any recent RPG. While these mechanics add texture and believability to the world to a degree no other survival game I’ve ventured into ever has, they also work to the detriment of the surprisingly deep and involved story. Disinfectants and bandages are just as valuable to a combat build as ammo and sharp objects. A high-level character with night vision goggles and a sniper rifle need only sip from a stream without boiling the water, and he may well be dead of gastroenteritis in days. Even minor scrapes earned in a scrap with a cowardly, drug-addled looter could become infected and end my life-permanently, as NEO Scavenger has only one save file and no option to reload from an earlier state. The turn-based combat is brutally realistic, in that everything has deadly consequences. Scavenging buildings and the open wilderness for essentials, carrying containers, warm clothes, and useful tools introduced me to further peril, like diseased cultists, werewolf-like Dogmen, and other folklore-inspired enemies. But unlike the “Hardcore” modes of similarly themed games like Metro: Last Light and Fallout: New Vegas, sheer survival was nearly always my primary concern, as opposed to combat or questing. Every skill I chose mattered, both in opening up new story paths and easing my day-to-day struggle against the forces of nature, which added welcome weightiness to my initial build choices. Flung from a cryo-stasis pod with only a hospital gown and a roster of pre-selected skills like Tough, Medical Knowledge, and Tracking, I was forced to satisfy my avatar’s persistent needs for food, water, warmth, and sleep. To call the cartoonishly bleak, sprite-decked hex grid that stands in for the ruined Michigan countryside “unforgiving” would be a fatal understatement.
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