Neo Scavenger - Official Release

Kyrer let us know that Neo Scavenger releases today. If you'll recall, it's a post-apocalyptic scavenging/survival game with a retro feel.

NEO Scavenger is my first commercially released game, and is a sort of love letter to the pen and paper role-playing games I grew up playing. In it, the player takes on the role of a character who wakes up in a strange facility where the world has experienced some cataclysm. Using their wits and anything they can scavenge from their surroundings, they explore this strange wasteland, piecing together clues about their past.

It's a hard game, where the player must take care to think of everything from dressing appropriately to disinfecting wounds. The story will not come spoon-fed to you, and the game will not hold your hand. But for those who are persistent and clever, rewards and answers await!

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More information.

More information.

It's a hard game, where the player must take care to think of everything from dressing appropriately to disinfecting wounds. The story will not come spoon-fed to you, and the game will not hold your hand.

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I'm highly interested. However, seems that lately describing something as hard means grinding 24/7. So… Anyone has more input on this game? Does hard here mean a real wits challenge or the game is yet another grind2win?

EDIT:
Forgeddit. Just googled. It's a roguelike where the player doesn't have to "take care to think of everything from dressing appropriately to disinfecting wounds" but instead can pray to the lord for luck and only luck.
And I'm not a gambler.

Next!

joxer said:

I'm highly interested. However, seems that lately describing something as hard means grinding 24/7. So… Anyone has more input on this game? Does hard here mean a real wits challenge or the game is yet another grind2win?

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No grind to win. It is a survival rogue like, and you will die in this game. It is based on discovering your surrounding and map regions to scavenge for basic necessities to survive and find out what is happening. Every new game is different, and the survival and scanvenging is done with extremely high detail (it was my first joy when I found a plastic bag to put my stuff in!).

Below is a small review from a Steam player which describes the things that you need to do to survive:

"I had a Strong Melee Hacker, with lockpicking, a crowbar strap, and a box cart. None could stand in my way, not even the Detroit Mercs could withstand my maniacal crowbar swinging techniques. I was immortal. I confidently strode through the Michigan wastes knowing that I could never die. I came across some water in an urban location. I was a bit parched and decided to sate my thirst on the water. I didn't need to boil it, I was immortal! I drank the water, and a few hours later my charcter began to develop severe diarrhea as my skin turned a horrific shade of blue. I checked my supplies, I had no antibiotics, I needed to get to the health clinic. I desperately made my way to Detroit. 3 hexes away from gate 11 my character died from Cholera. I lost everything and died because I was too lazy to boil my water."

It is not a hard game.
It is a challenging game.

The game does not comply with the player's idea on how the game should play.
Very often, in these days, the idea of the player on how the game should play must prevail.

In NeoScavenger, there are right and wrong options. Stubbornly going for the wrong options is not rewarded.

One example: fleeing is an option in the game. Depending on the character build, this option might pop up more or less often.
Even with a build designed for combat, the option to flee might appear. Players who keep stubbornly staying in combat because they are the boss, right, despite the flow of the battle going obviously against them wont get any love here. The game wont correct their decision for them.

That is how the game is challenging: it does not bend to the player's wishes on how the game should play.

It is not a hard game because once the player complies with the game requirements, the odds of success/failure is usually in favour of the player.
For example, in a combat, the player will be given several notices, signs the PC is not having the upper hand, signaling time for flight.
Once the player has learned how to flee (depends on the build), the odds of successful flight are largely favourable to the PC (something like 80 %)

Things get hard when the odds of success are low despite doing things are supposed to be done. It is not the case of the game.

Grinding: I havent played for some time this game, I waited for the final release. Up to that point, though, the designer took extreme care of limiting the power of the PC. The PC has spells of dominance in the game but they do not last.
Grinding is associated to the quest for power and is absent from the game. Grinding is no way in this game.

I wanted to add some additional remarks on various builds and their consequences but as I was withdrawn the authoring of the article written in the corresponding section, I can not edit and add to it. Would have made it clearer how grinding is left out of this game.

joxer said:

Forgeddit. Just googled. It's a roguelike where the player doesn't have to "take care to think of everything from dressing appropriately to disinfecting wounds" but instead can pray to the lord for luck and only luck.
And I'm not a gambler.

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Neither am I, so this statement about luck is not totally true. You still choose your character traits and skills at the beginning and the game is balanced enough to give you a very good chance of survival initially - the rest is up to 'how' you play the game and your actions and decisions rather than just pure luck.

Thanks for posting this, Aubrielle.

Forgeddit. Just googled. It's a roguelike where the player doesn't have to "take care to think of everything from dressing appropriately to disinfecting wounds" but instead can pray to the lord for luck and only luck.
And I'm not a gambler.

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You should play it instead of just relying on Google. I'm not sure on what site you found that information, but I certainly wouldn't agree with it. Maybe some of the earlier builds were a little rough, but the game has come a long way, and some of the more recent additions have really rounded out the gameplay. It can take a little while to get into, and you will die, but it's rewarding once you learn how to play. There is also a lot more depth than initially meets the eye, it's not just about scavenging.

Play the demo, skeptics! I wouldn't say the game is fair, in the sense that every playthrough can be won. It's a brutal roguelike and the expectation is you will die many times. Certain builds are going to be much easier than others. If you think about wandering around and maybe finding (literally) nothing of value, you'll see that stuff like Botany, Strength and Melee are always going to be handy. One of the best "treasures" in the game is the sleeping bag, since it means you won't die of exposure. I was always running into people with high powered rifles when all I had to defend myself was a shard of glass. Not so threatening when they don't have bullets though.

It is a pretty cool rogue like....and very unforgiving.

Unforgiving is ok if the player has a chance if they play well. Some of the roguelikes I've been playing just crush you with RNG and that gets very old very fast.

I tried the demo ages ago and didn't care for it but it it's getting all kinds of good reviews and comments so I'll likely try it out again with a more open mind.

How does this game compare to Dont Starve?

Kyrer said:

I'm not sure on what site you found that information,

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I am used to watching video series to check if I miss something in the gameplay.

A number of video makers I watched took the route of the luck based approach.
I remember a series that started with the creation of a combat oriented PC (with T, S and CM skills). The guy thought he would run the show, that every PC would be destroyed, that it was impossible to be killed because that was the build to prevail in close combat.
All battles were dealt the same way: charge, hit.
The guy found a wrench and this approach worked for some time until he met a bad mutha.
The combat was not going his way, a first warning was ignored, a second warning was ignored, then the PC got his arm crippled, then he got a concussion, then he was killed.
The conclusion drawn by the video player: lack of luck.
The whole approach was based on looking for a critical in combat.
At no point, despite the clear warnings that the PC was on the losing side, no will to flee, no will to change the approach.

Not the only video maker I watched who went with a gambling approach.

So yes, the game supports that approach and when you take that path, you want to be the luckiest possible. And when this path is taken, the conclusion is set: it is all about luck, all about landing criticals etc

It is one approach among many though. Usually leading to short lived survival attempts. Another approach is to understand how the build works and how to make the most out of it. And once done, to apply consistently the acquired knowledge.

One quality in this game: there is no bad build. In some games, players demand bad builds so they can make the smart choice of not picking those bad builds. In those games, starting with a bad build ends the game from the beginning.

In Neo Scavenger, no bad build, only better than some builds.

I went random to pick a build over a dozen of times and it was possible to survive ingame months with these builds.
You cant survive months out of sheer luck multiple times.

Cronis said:

How does this game compare to Dont Starve?

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Play the demo to find out? I think it quite different from Don't Starve. Turn based, not real time. But similar in that you die a lot.

What I found incredibly boring in Don't starve is that the first 30 minutes or so in your games are basically 100% identical. Improving your "micro" and proecesses is rewarded in Don't Starve which I don't like as well. it doesn't give you time to think. From what I have seen in Neo Scavanger, it can present you with different situations right away and it's alot about thinking of how to act and what to do next.

I already bought the game a while ago but hardly played it as it wasn't a finished product yet. But I am interested to hear if you know anything about a storyline and a "goal" you can reach in the game, which I think should have been added until release.

I love Neo Scavenger but can't claim to be an expert. Don't think I've gotten too far. Something terrible always happens to me.

But there is a story, which starts when you get to Detroit. Even have to run a quest to get into the city.

Kordanor said:

I am interested to hear if you know anything about a storyline and a "goal" you can reach in the game, which I think should have been added until release.

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There are several story-lines in the game, all of which can be concluded in a number of ways. There is also one over arching story that brings the game to a conclusion, so it's also possible to "win;" this was only added relatively recently, however. I've already put in quite a number of hours, and have completed the main story line, though I know there is still a lot of content I've not found yet. Neo Scavenger also supports modding, though I've not tried any of these out.

Cool, nice to hear! Looking forward to playing it!

This is one of the first real games in a very long while. It is like an 80s DOS game with a Windows interface. It shows that a picture and some paragraphs of text are much better than blurry DirectX graphics wiht $50 million budgets.

However the unique content seems to be pretty limited and in some respects it gets repetitive fast. Nevertheless it remains uniquely intriguing. Finally a character game that is all about the player's choice and ingenuity, not about holding hands.

Played the demo.

Didn't like it at all.

NEXT!