Scum Review (The Wrath of God)
TLDR: Just buy the game, what are you waiting for? Yes, I highly recommend this game!
As someone who's played this game intensively, I feel it's my duty to inform new players on this game with my knowledge of the game prior to them purchasing it.
At it's core... SCUM is a **open world zombie survival that is both PVP and PVE**. It has MANY other features within the game such as:
EVENTS: mini games you can play with other players, found at the top tabs when opening up your inventory. These are isolated to the server you're playing on, so you won't find cross play for all the players on other servers. It's good to find a populated server to enjoy events on, but that comes with risk as the more players you'll play with, the more likely you're going to lose all of your stuff and start over again.
SKILLS: An intense, grindy, well fleshed out skill system that makes each player's attributes important. With nearly 2 dozen skills across 4 categories, and only able to make 1 or 2 skills in each category to the Advanced level, you have to choose wisely, then grind grind grind the other skills to a higher level. This pushes for a diverse team to work together... which leads me to...
SQUADS: A good squad system, although the recent update has removed the ability to see where your squad mates are, which greatly increases the difficulty of teaming up with players. Having a squad increases the amount of elements you can have in your base, which makes your base bigger of course, as well as makes the game less grindy AND FUN! My only complaint is, without seeing where yours quad mates are, it makes it VERY complicated to run missions and loot runs together as you'll need to be actively communicating where you're at, because you won't want to run into another player and not know it... which leads me to...
GUN PLAY: This game has magnificent gun play. The quality of your gun and bullets can cause your weapon to jam, requiring you to do a small "minigame" or to choose 1 of the 4 options for how your gun is jammed to unjam it. Good thing there's a hot bar where you can quickly pull out another weapon you've got on you such as your pistol in the holster or the other weapon on your 1 of 2 back slots (or from a backpack if you have on in there). Guns degrade as you use them, and you'll have to manually load each bullet into the mags that you find. Military bases and the Weapon Factory down in sector z1 are the best places to find weapons. Either way, the gun's kickback, sounds, range of sound, damage, everything is addictive. That's exactly why I've got 1,000 hours on this game, is due to the epicness of how they fleshed out features like this compared to other games. I love that you can lean as you shoot so you can shoot around corners, and if you're in third person, you cannot see other players over walls unless your character can see them (So yeah, play PVP in first person for the best experience).
ZOMBIES/PVE: There are various zombies, all with certain characteristics and abilities such as the skinny zombie who's super fast but weak, fat zombie who's normal speed but beefy, I wont' spoil the other scary OP zombies you'll encounter (See the trailer videos), but they're super epic especially when tied with the lore of game's military establishments across the island ;) There's also "Mechs" that are AI super soldier robots that will WRECK you if you aren't ready. The only complaint that I have is that the AI is pretty predictable with some of the zombies and the Mechs walk in patterns similar to enemies in Splinter Cell games. The mechs also have "cheats' on as they can see just your foot around a corner across the parking lot and they'll shoot the heck out of you with their FMJ .50 cal bullets, rockets, tear gass and energy weapons. In certain situations, if you hear a mech say "Assume a non-threatening posture", you can press "F4" and your character will "Surrender" with their hands up and the mech will give you 10 seconds to GTFO. If you "surrender" to another player, they can take anything they want off of you, or tie you up with a rope and put a bag over your head and kidnap you lol. Be careful.
BASE BUIDLING: Base building is modular, and a huge part of the game. Build pretty much wherever you want as there's dozens of elements you can add to your base (There's very minimal internal lighting for the long nighttime though), but it's pretty difficult to build a base the way YOU would like as most players who know how to raid can bust into your base with ease and take everything you've got. I recommend looking up guides on youtube for good anti-raid bases, because... well.. goodluck.
HEALTH SYSTEM: This game is epic because it's always trying to kill you. Whether it's from infection, diseases from radiation, zombies that (literally) knock your teeth out, gun shots to the arm or leg that make you sway with a weapon or walk with a limp all the way down the the Vitamins that you need to have a healthy immune system, they FULLY fleshed this out. Don't fret, it's easy to take care of your person when you understand how it works, just focus on eating and drinking and you should be fine. Also, a rag with STRONG alcohol can make a sanitized bandage on the fly which will be your best friend!
LORE: This is a GAME SHOW (kind of like the hunger games?) Where you're a POS Prisoner who's been sentenced to death and placed on the island. The only known entity outside of the island is TEC: 1 which is a private military group who's been experimenting with babies and women with new drugs, attempting to create a serum that will make you immortal, or at the very least, cure all of your ailments when you take it. I won't spoil anything you'll find in POIs as you play, but that's the basis of what you need to know :)
VEHICLES: Vehicles are a BIG part of this game. From boats to airplanes, they will get you around this massive map with ease. Driving requires fuel, and the handling of the vehicles feels nice. I've never had any complaints other than the fact if you get your vehicle in 12 inches of water it gets totaled instantly and cannot be repaired, be warned. Also, I don't like that the players don't stand up and pedal on a bicycle when going uphill... lol
HUNTING: Yes, there's wild game that roams the land. You can hunt a variety of animals from rabbits to deer to horses (No, you can't ride them sadly). The hunting system feels nice. My only complaint is that the animal's have horrible rag doll effects when they get killed lol the arms stretch and look weird sometimes.
There's so much more to this game, I've just scratched the surface. If you decide to buy it, which I HIGHLY recommend that you do, keep this in mind:
1. If you see another player, expect to be shot on sight unless you're in a trader outpost (Green circles) which is non/pvp.
2. Make sure to keep your vehicles and base locked at all times.
3. If you join a server from the server list that says "Bot Shop" or "boosted loot" don't be THAT upset if you lose everything. Those server's items are worthless and you'll realize that when you play on a non-bot/boosted loot server.
4. If you see people from China, they're known to use various hack clients (I've had them admit this to me and other players have complained about it within the community). It's probably best to jump servers until you find one that's free from Chinese players or Region Locked to the USA. You can see the top layers on the Events tab.
5. Be prepared to live a second life, as this game is a TIME SINK almost comparable to the game Runescape or WoW (for those who know what those are)
In conclusion, I highly recommend you purchase this game. It'll be your next favorite!