Scum is a survival game like no other; while games like Deadside focus more on instant gratification and DayZ combines survival with high-end PvP combat, Scum has found a niche for itself to the far left of DayZ, focusing on the experience of survival by offering players one of the most comprehensive metabolism simulators in existence.
Eating too fast, too much, or too little food can result in your player becoming sickly, and while many survival games have a mechanic to flag spoiled or raw food, Scum takes this even further by requiring players to consume the correct amounts of vitamins and nutrients to stay healthy.
While eating a dozen candy bars a day may fill you up, it will also increase your character’s physical weight, reduce your agility, make you more prone to certain illnesses, and increase your hitbox, making you an easy target for other players and the undead.
In addition, Scum is one of the few survival games to allow for cannibalism, and a hungry survivor may not think twice about making you their lunch.
Image credit Scum - Published and developed by Gamepires.
While the world has been lovingly created, and some truly stunning locations exist to explore, character models are hideous.
Even the best-looking character models are aptly described as “Butterface Bob and Friends”.
While I do not expect hardened prisoners to look like catwalk models, I feel that characters having some semblance of facial muscle control and having their heads firmly attached to their necks isn’t asking too much of the developers, especially when other titles using the same engine manage to create characters which at least look human, if not attractive.
Image credit Scum - Published and developed by Gamepires.
When killing a puppet (zombie) in Scum, the loot drops are constant with what the puppet was seen to be wearing or carrying. This is a step above most survival games where you are pantless and must walk past perfectly acceptable-looking zombie pants only to loot a tin of tuna or a pair of sunglasses.
This design philosophy extends to the game world; clicking a pile of logs will allow you to gather logs, fridges containing food, cars containing car parts, scrap metal, etc.
This is great, unlike games such as Population Zero, where you would be required to walk past a mountain of stones while looking for a single stone that is lootable.
Image credit Scum - Published and developed by Gamepires.
While Scum launched without female characters, this lack of diversity was eventually addressed in what could be described as the most cringe-inducing display of unintentional misogyny by an established developer I have yet to encounter.
The announcement of player-base female characters came as part of a short video that showed a barely clothed female character dancing suggestively with censor bars over sensitive areas; while this is undoubtedly all meant in good fun, it’s demeaning to female gamers and borders on offensive.
While the censor bars were eventually removed, it did little to improve things, revealing bare buttocks and a naughty catholic girl shirt that displayed ample flesh, and an inappropriate amount of detail was visible through the material.
While in-game clothing options are suitable for a survival game, many will struggle to look past the cringe-inducing video and its outdated and offensive portrayal of women.
While some may dismiss this as a non-issue, I feel strongly that making content purely to titillate is wrong, and while there is a time and place for nudity in games, making every female character eye candy is offensive, and for those who are prone to acting on their lust, dangerous.
Image credit Scum - Published and developed by Gamepires.
Picture: Screenshot from the original censored trailer.
There is nothing wrong with nudity that is tastefully used in a video game; in the case of a survival game like Scum, where clothing can get wet and lead to hyperthermia, removing clothing at times is a necessity.
Unfortunately, not everyone is so mature, and when playing on less mature servers, you will see plenty of exposed male and female “private parts” and large breasts.
While it’s obvious that the developers have a cheeky sense of humour, allowing users to create comically large “body parts” does nothing but encourage vulgarity and immaturity.
Image credit Scum - Published and developed by Gamepires.
The character used in official screenshots is Ben Dover, a euphemism for non-consensual anal intercourse.
Survival gamers continually ask for depth, complexity, immersion, stunning visuals, and realistic survival mechanisms. However, when Scum came along ticking all those boxes, players abandoned it en masse because it was not the gank fest murder hobo simulator they secretly wanted.
Adversely, Deadside launched as a murder hobo simulator. The same group migrated to it, leaving it en masse upon discovering it was not the deep and immersive survival experience they hoped for.
Fortunately for Gamepires, enough survival gamers are willing to weather out the storms and stick with titles through the good and bad times.
This core community is an essential catalyst for the long-term health of any game. The importance of the nucleus community is made clear by the continued renewed success of titles such as DayZ, Conan Exiles, Ark Survival Evolved and Scum, all of which were declared as failed projects during the darkest times of their early access journeys, yet now enjoy healthy grow and player engagement.
Scum has weathered the storm, presuming Gamespire retains its community’s goodwill; its best days are yet to come.
Image credit Scum - Published and developed by Gamepires.
For some unknown reason, a Danny Trejo DLC was released on 30 June 2022, giving players with $14.99 to spare the chance to turn their character into Danny Trejo.
While more customisation options are nice, I would hate to see Scum turn into a crossover sandbox, despite my generally favourable view of crossover and celebrity skins in lobby-based titles.
Image credit Scum - Published and developed by Gamepires.
Scum is a survival video game developed and published by Gamepires, it was released on 29 Aug, 2018 and retails for $34.99.
Scum is available exclusively on PC.
Scum remains in active development, and its early access journey is almost complete, with the developers confirming that update 0.95 (December 2023) is the last major update before the launch of version 1.0 in 2024.
As of April 2024, around 200,000 people play Scum on a fairly regular basis.
Scum is very active, meaning that very short matchmaking times and even instant matchmaking are possible in populated regions, while less popular regions enjoy stable but less instantaneous matchmaking.
Scum offers the following matchmaking options:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Scum is unrated and contains:
Scum is a fantastic game for those looking for a more immersive post-apocalyptic role-playing game; however, for those seeking more instant thrills and a less intense survival experience, Deadside or DayZ would be more suitable.
Scum enjoys the benefits of a large, engaged community and active and transparent developers and is reasonably priced; at this point, Scum is well worth a purchase despite being in Steam Early Access.
Scum is a great game mechanically, and much of the in-game content is suitable for mature gamers. Still, potential buyers need to be aware of the developers’ crass sense of humour and unintentionally offensive portrayal of female characters, which, to some, maybe dealbreakers.
