14 DAY TRIAL // 
The first time I played NEO Scavenger, I chose to be a muscular and agile guy who would be able to move quickly through the world, using resources as he finds them and trying to piece together what happened to the world.
I died because of hypothermia before I met another human being to interact with.
This is the kind of experience that the rogue-like title is delivering, one in which life is cheap, challenges are hard to overcome, and the world is extremely inhospitable.
At the same time, NEO Scavenger manages to be engaging, fun to play, and strategy-focused, the kind of experience which can deliver tens of hours of fun to a player who understands its core mechanics and can adapt to the quality of the graphics.
Story
NEO Scavenger is smart when it comes to narrative and opts to obscure the situation the player is in, basically executing the classic amnesia move that has characterized so many other big video game stories in the past.
Players are able to first customize a character, using an interesting set of both positive and negative traits, and then they are dropped into a science facility from which they need to escape in order to try and survive in a very unforgiving post-apocalyptic world that seems designed to take out those who make even the smallest mistake.
The good news is that developer Blue Bottle Games understands that, from time to time, the gamer needs to find out some small clues about what happened to the world and it drops tidbits of info that sketch a scenario for the downfall of humanity, with some cool revelations delivered for those who survive long enough.
NEO Scavenger is a rogue-like, which means that the narrative created by the team is less important than the stories created and shared by gamers, and the game has all the tools to deliver some memorable ones.
I made stupid mistakes that destroyed some initially successful campaigns, I survived at times despite the odds, and I often tried out ideas just to see how the world would react to them.
Regardless of what the player does, NEO Scavenger reacts in interesting ways and the permanent death concept means that a bond has formed between me and my characters, despite their lack of personality.
Gameplay
NEO Scavenger starts off by asking players to choose what they are good at, and I initially thought long and hard about the options.
My advice is to choose relatively randomly, especially after a few initial playthroughs, in order to see the options that each of the characteristics open up during gameplay.
Then it’s easy to escape the initial facility in order to move into a world of hexes, filled with forests, cities, houses, enemies and weird creatures that should be avoided at all costs.
Each space offers a range of potential activities, the most important of which is scavenging initially, which involves selecting a location in order to try and find the things that can help with survival.
In the beginning, cold is the biggest enemy, and a sleeping bag or better clothes can do wonders. Later on, as NEO Scavenger progresses, gamers will need to worry about their hunger, thirst and pain levels.
Characters do not carry too much initially, so plastic bags and cardboard boxes can be crucial during the early phase.
“Combat is turn-based and relies on choosing moves and executing them at the same time as the enemy, which means that guess work is involved and the results can sometimes feel unfair, but unlikely victories are also a possibility.”
Regardless of how well a character performs or how much equipment he manages to gather and use, the world around him remains very dangerous.
I once had an assault rifle, and though I was safe from attack, I died because I failed to identify a berry and I probably got some weird future disease.
I was taken out by dogs, by humans and by other creatures, and even when I knew I was unable to escape, I was determined to return and try again, hoping that my choices and luck would deliver new and interesting situations.
NEO Scavenger can crush hopes at times and there are moments when gamers might need to drop it for a while and explore cheerier video games.
The difficulty level basically ensures that players will be unable to ever survive on their own long enough to explore the entire world or get to the end of the narrative, but I suspect that Blue Bottle Games does not mind the fact that gamers will turn to wikis and videos to learn strategies that can help them survive longer.
Graphics and audio
The graphics of NEO Scavenger might be the biggest obstacle gamers will have to face in order to enjoy it, but their simplicity and their focus on function over form perfectly fit the theme of the experience created by Blue Bottle Games and its mechanics.
The entire experience is delivered using blocky, pixelated textures and models, and it’s often hard to understand what an object is using just visual cues. For instance, only a quick hover motion can show the difference between a bag and a pebble.
There are moments when NEO Scavenger is downright ugly, but this serves to underline how unforgiving and dark the world that players explore is.
Initially, the interface will pose some problems, especially when it comes to moving stuff around and trying to find out exactly how to equip and drop certain items, but after about one hour, the entire game makes sense and it’s easy to make the character do what he needs to do in order to try and survive.
I would have liked the developers to spend a little more time on the look of their title, but the mechanics and the stories created more than make up for the unattractive looks.
The sound of NEO Scavenger is eerie and engaging, suited to the theme, although a little limited in its expression.
The Good
- Turn-based exploration and combat
- Survival mechanics
- Story elements
The Bad
- Difficulty level
- Graphics quality
Conclusion
The development team at Blue Bottle Games has created a title that has carefully balanced mechanics and plenty of options for players to use, with each death offering at least one reason to return and try again, with a new strategy or hoping for better luck.
The graphics might be a stumbling block for some players, but they are relatively unimportant to the enjoyment of NEO Scavenger, and after a while they fade into the background of the experience as gamers focus on their actions and their consequences.
The biggest asset and problem that the game has is its difficulty level, because it does create that feeling of challenge that every good rogue-like needs and can produce moments of small but enchanting triumph, but it also tends to limit access to the story a little too much.
NEO Scavenger is well priced and has some very solid mechanics, suited for both fans of the rogue-like genre and for those who are only now discovering it.
