NEO Scavenger

I love Neo Scavenger. I was first put on to it by the good folk at RockPaperShotgun.com, if I didn't frequent their site I might have missed this little gem. ROLE-PLAYING: NEO is the first time in a long while that I've "role played" my character based on my imagination, and not how I feel I should based on the game's world, stories, encounters and game-play "style" dictate to me usually. First few runs I went through the motions, game mechanics, what abilities might be handy, after dying a few times I realised this game was so much more. It was a story I could make of my own inside a story, this world of Neo Scavenger. I started runs with random traits, or mixing traits I was avoiding earlier on. I made myself think about "why" I was myopic if I include that negative trait? I decided I was an alcoholic! But I had great strength as I was pit fighter how lost a job in construction leading to a life of hard earned cash, drugs and other lurid acts. I played the game in character, I drank every bottle of booze found, I was killed due to intoxication in a brawl. Imagination running wild. COMBAT: Combat is it's fun. It's slow paced, but it's considered and has it's own special touches that modern games don't have. In modern 3D based games you see your enemies beaten, bloody, and decapitated. In NEO reading the feedback, the torment you and your enemies place upon each other as you punch, stab and shoot each other you really FEEL the pain and anguish, the true fight for survival each step of the way until you crush in their skull, or they run away - or you simply bleed to death as they peel your clothes off and steal your shoes. STORY/ADVENTURE I honestly haven't gotten far in to the game, it's a slow boiler, and I don't mind that. It's not quite Dark Souls, but if you've played the series you'll appreciate the mystery of finding little bits of info at a time, opening more of the world up, and discovering what's actually going on. GET IT - PLAY IT - PREPARE TO DIE.

As other reviews have stated, this is an amazing survival game. Arguably the most realistic (in terms of mechanics, not graphics) to come along in years. Possibly period. There are loads of skills you can take at the beginning of the game, such as Strong, Melee, Ranged, Botany, Mechanic, Lockpicking, Trapping, Tracking, etc. All are useful, though some more than others. Also, you can find a huge number of items in the game, from twigs to glass shards to pants to plastic bags to crowbars to gas masks to shotguns, and so on. All have their uses. The crafting system is quite ingenious as well, with an insane number of possibilities if you have the knowhow. Also, as mentioned by others, this game is far from easy. The atmosphere is great, and the story tidbits keep things intriguing, but you die easily and frequently. And there is permadeath. But you learn bit by bit as you go, and it can be an extremely rewarding experience. One of my favourite aspects of the game though, is how many interesting stories can come out of playing it. Let me share a couple. 1) On one run, I was doing fantastically. I found loads of clothes, fashioned myself a spear out of a branch, a glass shard, and some dirty rags, found a backpack and some plastic bags and a ton of gear. I fended off/killed enemies, even scaring one of them into dropping all his gear and clothes and running away naked. Then, just as I was about to make camp for the night, I ran into a shirtless guy who also had a spear, and made the mistake of trying to talk to him. He took that opportunity to stab me to death, and I was unlucky enough that I couldn't get a hit in. 2) On another run, I got EXTREMELY lucky. I ran into the leader/king of one of the big cults in the game immediately after starting. I snuck up behind him and beat him to death with a large stick, and took all his stuff. That included lots of clothes, water, a gas mask, a duffel bag, and a shotgun. Then I accidentally drank a vial of clear liquid he had and contracted blue rot (a very deadly lung disease). This game is awesome.

This is one of those games that you wouldn't think was good, at all. It's not the best looking, it had a few glitches here or there and the genre is getting really stale. Fortunately, all those expectations of a terrible game are false. This IS real survival. If I was to create a game based on military survival tactics, this would be the game I would make. You will die. It's a simple fact. You will die, a lot. You'll have fun dying though, because each time you die, you find ways to stop dying, and slowly progress from there. It's not for the CODers, but then, those people don't really count on PC anyways. If you want a deep, immersive, turn-based survival game, that doesn't have zombies running around (although you will have mutants, but they aren't as stupid nor as plentiful as zombies) or crappy FPS click-click-click mechanics, this is the one for you.

This game really proves that great graphics and perfect music and SFX is NOT what makes a great game. I´ve spent countless dollars on countless games since I discovered GOG. But this is probably the most expensive game that I enjoy. Neo Scavanger is more like how I hoped Wasteland 2 to be - a realistic Fallout type of game, that is slow paced. The mood is spooky and mysterious. It feels like I´m back in the 80s with solo roleplaying books and Mars Saga on the C64. But it´s much more than that... The mechanics feels more optimized than most other games out there. And I keep coming back to this game - which I can´t say I do with most others... Neo Scavanger is interesting, controversial, dark and fun! There´s only one drawback and that´s the save system. But since even the creator of the game knows that, it´s nothing to do anything about - just live with backups. :)