Scrapland Hands-On

So I'm sitting behind my PC (as I am often wont to do) and I get a message from Vince saying that we got a preview build from Enlight of American McGee's next game. But then I think, "Something isn't right here." I was pretty damn sure that McGee hasn't completed any games for the PC since Alice, and as it turns out, I was right. American is only the executive producer on this title, while the task of creating the game lies squarely on the shoulders of Madrid-based, Mercury Steam Entertainment.

Humans are a virus, Mr. Anderson.

Coming out of a giant womb?

So the next thing you know, I'm talking to our resident newsmonger Smap and he reminds me that we had a short but hilarious e-mail correspondence in regards to Scrapland with one of the guys from Mercury Steam a while back. Smap wrote something about how this game has robots with strap-ons in it and then the Spanish dude got all mad about it and demanded to know what a strap-on is. Needless to say, Smap obliged to his request and wrote about a very detailed description of what a strap-on is, and its primary function. I remember reading his reply and literally falling over from my chair from laughter. Luckily, I was tactful enough not to send it to the Spanish dude, preventing this minor diplomatic incident from escalating any further.

However, for a company that hires guys with a somewhat lacking sense of humor, (like that Spanish dude that we spoke to) Mercury Steam sure did manage to pull off an incredible achievement with Scrapland. This game is witty, funny, bright, vivid, full of character and excellently narrated. I honestly wasn't ready for what I was about to witness in terms of the dialogue, characters that are so full of life and the great sense of humor that made me chuckle on more than one occasion while skimming through the first few levels.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. For the uninitiated, Scrapland is a 3D sci-fi action adventure set on the world of Chimera - a refuge for robots of all shapes and sizes where no humans are allowed. You arrive at the planet as an outsider by the name of D-Tritus, looking for work and a warm cup of mercury (it's what robots drink on Chimera). Soon enough, you land a job working as a reporter assigned to investigate a series of murders. One thing leads to another and the next thing you know, you are caught in a web of lies and intrigue, trying to untangle a dynamic and non-linear plot.

The actual game play is highly reminiscent of the Grand Theft Auto series in a sense that you'll get to fly your spaceship and roam all over the huge city to get mission assignments, many of which are not necessarily directly connected to the main story. The atmosphere and the overall feel of Scrapland can be best described as a mix of GTA games, Beyond Good & Evil and MDK (don't ask why, that's just a vibe I'm getting), but it would be unfair to make any direct comparison as Scrapland has its own unique style.

The controls are incredibly easy to use and intuitive - it took me about two minutes to get into the groove of things. The physics and handling of the ships feels very natural, which is I guess very important for this type of game. The good news is that the controls were obviously optimized for the PC from the ground up, and that is a rare occurrence for games of this genre.

Going past the standard game play options, one thing that's definitely worth noting (besides the unique and immersive game world and narrative) is the dynamic character switching. Your robot can hack into the main database to assume the role of any of the 15 character types, acquiring their special abilities in the process. I'm not sure where this idea was used before, but I seem to remember something about seeing it in Quantic Dream's Omikron. In any case, this is a welcome addition to the game play, which should provide for some great variety during the single-player campaign. I should also tell you that Scrapland features a multiplayer mode as well, though at this present time, I haven't gotten a chance to try it out yet.

I was quite happy with playing the single-player game and so far, I'm absolutely thrilled with how immersive and damn funny the world of Scrapland is. For your first assignment as a reporter you're ordered to pick up a rusty old camera - only this rusty old camera is an adorable aging robot and it talks!

Blame it all on Bill!

It's impossible NOT to hit anyone here.

I have already mentioned that the voice acting is superbly done. It's highly expressive and professional, allowing the player to immerse himself fully in the fantasy setting. The musical soundtrack is also very fitting and it goes great with the in game ambient.

As for the 3D technology, Scrapland seems to be using a highly modified version of the Quake 3 engine, but that's just my impression and I couldn't get any confirmation of this anywhere. I just naturally assumed this seeing how American McGee is the executive producer (he has licensed the Quake 3 engine for Alice), and there are parts of the scenery (like the power-ups scattered across the city), and texture patterns that look very similar to the stuff in Quake 3.

That is not to say, however, that Scrapland doesn't use all the latest bells and whistles that today's 3D API's have to offer, like much sharper textures, realistic custom pixel shaders, a number of full-screen effects (deformation, motion blur and bloom), as well as the much ballyhooed heat haze effect for engine trails. But the biggest visual achievement in Scrapland is in the design of the character models that look and move beautifully and the futuristic city of Chimera. Art design together with the sounds creates an engrossing ambient that anyone with an appreciation for wacky fantasy settings should enjoy. I also liked the huge outdoor spaces and the effective use of particle and bloom effects to create a sense of depth in the larger indoor settings.

The game ran beautifully on my rig (AMD 64 3200+/ATI 9800XT/1.5GB RAM), but I should also point out that I couldn't enable any shadows in the preview build. Once the dynamic stencil shadows are in place, the frame rate will probably drop a little, but I see this one as being highly playable on mid-range rigs at the time of release.

It's not often that a game comes out of nowhere so to speak and pleasantly surprises me with its originally and sense of humor. If you're into this sort of games, you should definitely be on the lookout for Scrapland. This one oozes with loads of charm and delightful, lighthearted humor and it's not often that you can say that about a PC game.