The battle royale genre needs a good shakeup, and precious few releases seek to serve the contingent of gamers looking for more than the standard loot-and-gank routine. Experiments do occasionally arrive and carry their own considerable peril, and upcoming free-to-play Scavengers joins that shortlist this week. Its snappy UI and solid foundational elements smooth a lot of the rougher edges of the PvPvE battle royale concept out, with 60-player matches offering a new spin on a still-competitive core.
Screen Rant was able to take a few treks through Scavengers' post-apocalyptic frozen earth landscape ahead of its early access release on Wednesday. As the debut from aptly named studio Midwinter, the project seems like an enormous undertaking, both in scope and intention. Comparisons to Yager’s The Cycle and Battlestate Games’ Escape From Tarkov seem unavoidable, though Scavengers’ inspirations and aesthetic set it apart; it’s primarily just the linked notion of a battle royale which doesn’t always emphasize PvP, with Scavengers’ streamlined focus feeling much more accessible so far.
The game leverages a culture of selectable and unlockable explorer characters, clearly inspired by Apex Legends, each of whom feature their own class weapon and ability. They’re a diverse bunch, with each aligning to a particular class type, though players can mostly utilize and outfit them in-game however they see fit, and their powers lean towards frequent usage with light cooldowns. Scavengers players are scattered on a map at random in 20 teams of three, with the early game portion designed for resource collection, scouting, and battling AI, leaving plenty of breathing room before any human player encounters.
Scavengers’ visuals set it apart from other battle royales right from the word go, with the wintry setting a hint at the light survival elements within. Stamina and heat meters are affected by hunger and temperature, respectively, so players need to hunt or forage for food and manage their character’s warmth when caught in a storm. While there isn’t exactly a “blue wall of death” like in more familiars games like PUBG, winter storms disrupt pathways through the map and a large overarching blizzard similarly works to kettle teams closer to the eventual final fracas.
Fending off the cold means lighting bonfires or seeking temporary shelter in the run-down wrecked houses and encampments found throughout. Another is to craft a “thermal boost,” which will keep a character toasty or temporarily “re-warm” them. A massive pyramidic dropship also provides safety from the elements, an end-of-match cue that lands at a random point when the timer’s down to five minutes and must be entered - and endured - to complete a round of Scavengers with all loot intact.
General games flow like this: players spawn to a random position in the map alongside their two teammates with no weapons or items on hand. Nearby ransacked outposts and camps will contain at least a few basics, like low-level firearms and resources. A rich map view shows off nearby sites and datapoint objectives, so routes should be quickly pinged and negotiated with the group. As explorers move through each Scavengers location they can encounter enemy mobs, some docile or dangerous wildlife like deer and bears, and, eventually, other competing players. The team with the most datapoints intact on the dropship wins the match.
As teams advance they gather datapoints from dead enemies and stash objectives, which can be permanently banked at data uplink locations or halved if a player is killed in battle. Nearby teammates can resuscitate their fallen friendlies, who will otherwise be “cloned” and returned to the fight after a long timer so long as another member of the team yet survives. It’s a harsh penalty, but also helps Scavengers dismiss the transient team compositions found in other battle royale games.
Taking down high-reward camps of mutated spawning mobs is one way to secure a top-scoring victory in Scavengers, but players can carefully stalk enemy teams to tip the scales; the character Kali’s class ability Active Camo makes her a perfect choice for those motivated by this approach. Still, leveling up a character’s shield and crafting their class weapon requires a small bounty of plundered scrap to start, a deliberate component of the game’s design that tempers matches from immediately turning to pure battle royale scenarios from the get-go. Another feature is how weather plays into this - enemy teams pop up on the HUD map, but crouch-walking or hiking through a storm effectively camouflages teams from radar, setting the groundwork for exciting ambushes.
Each character in Scavengers seemingly feeds a certain playstyle, like sniper Tarik and healer Halden. Again, players can select the sniper hero but spend the match armed with an SMG and axe if they so choose (only two weapons may be equipped at a time, with quick-swapping reminiscent of The Last of Us Part II), though maximizing the unique character kits seem decidedly key to competent play. The abilities are snappy but hardly novel, echoing those seen in the many games from which Scavengers takes inspiration, but they make for pyrotechnic last-stand fights at the dropship point.
Other games like The Cycle had a similar mechanic where rounds ended at a central location and saw teams battling for ship placement or pulling off last-minute ganks. Scavengers’ dropship is enormous, though, more like a miniature arena where players will fire off their powers and empty any gathered item reserves to survive. When the timer hits zero the round abruptly ends on a dime, with any surviving players inside the ship retaining their salvaged loot to craft additional tools and upgrades at the home screen to be used in later skirmishes.
Unlike The Cycle, Scavengers has much quicker and more direct gameplay at its heart, in lieu of fetch quests or elaborate skill trees. Upgrading and crafting gear on the go works smoothly, and the game trades in the oppressive inventory management in Apex Legends or PUBG for a snappy and elegant system that works great mid-sprint. Respawn Entertainment’s crouch-to-slide maneuver is fully present, can be leveraged in combat, and allows lengthy sled-like slides down snowy mountains.
If anything, Scavengers’ largest threat seems to be the giants upon whose shoulders it stands. There’s some presence of character in the heroes and the bosses, but neither is amplified or over-the-top, which - combined with the setting - does grant the game a more serious or grim vibe. Regular evolving upgrades through the loot system also imparts a more significant sense of growth than the pay-to-skin routine familiar in free-to-play games, which might be the most important feature - hopefully the resultant differences engages the player-base rather than divides it. Scavengers' gamble will be enticing players with a longer-match investment for a richer experience, borrowing a little of the survivalist tension from games like Escape from Tarkov along with enjoyable combat against AI. Luckily, it has promise, and may just deliver on it when early access begins this week.
Scavengers releases on PC/Steam in Early Access on April 28.