Review: Marauders [PC]

Developed by Small Impact Games and published by Team17 comes a game that needs a little more of a hands on approach. Looking online won’t simply tell you how Maurauders does what it does. Even if you’re already familiar with the genre of FPS like Extraction Shooters. This kind of game is one that you need to know what you’re getting into, before you get into it. Let this be a sneak peek into what can happen, and hopefully dissuade some preconceived notions. In a strange blend of Sea of Thieves, Escape from Tarkov, and Bloodhunt: Showdown, this game is going to be someone’s niche.

Strap in, because we’re going in hot.

A war gone on far too long…

For 70 years war has raged on, pushing humanity into the stars. As three factions fight each other in the vacuum of space, you are the force that strikes from the shadows. As a Marauder, you pilot ships through asteroid fields in search of derelict space stations and other scavengers. You will barter with representatives of each faction, and take contracts from those who don’t want to get their hands dirty.

As of now there is little concrete story happening outside of the intro cut-scene. The whole premise is easy to grasp though, with factions appearing here and there as traders or other NPCs: The Central Empire, the United Allies, The Kingdom Alliance, and finally the Pirates. Perhaps more will be added to flesh these groups out.

Buckle up, Marauders. We’re going in!

There are three stages to Marauders. The first is building your character, gearing them up with the best or cheapest equipment that you have available or can afford. You will be limited to what you carry on you at any given time, backpacks and tactical rigs giving you overall more inventory space.

Finish up with your gear, and you are on to the second stage: space flight. Every raid begins you in an asteroid belt and you must navigate to the closest point of interest. Be wary as other Marauders are out there to attack you, as well as turrets that will try to shoot you out of the sky. Once you find a location, you can dock and begin the raid properly.

The final stage is scavenge and extraction. You will navigate various prisons, space stations, and the like in search of supplies, weapons, and valuables. These locations are crawling with scavengers and marauders alike, and both will not hesitate to drop you in a heartbeat.

No Rest For The Wicked

The game-play loop of Marauders is fairly simple. Get geared up, fly to a location, grab your loot and finally get out before your oxygen runs out. If you die in the raid, you lose everything you had on you going into it. You also lose your ship, but if you lose ALL your ships, you will always have a Rustbucket to do another raid with. Dozens of guns are customizable. Armor and backpacks can have different inventory slots and defense values. There is a lot of content in this game, and since it’s in early access, there is a lot more to come.

However, early access does mean there are some issues, unfortunately. The major issue is the sound in the game. Directional sounds is super scuffed, and most of the time you can’t tell if someone is walking above, below, near you or from across the map. It’s very disorienting. More as a personal gripe is the start-to-action time. Every raid has you spawn in your ship. You then have to go to the controls, fly the ship, find a location, dock, open two blast doors, all before you are in the action. This can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes per raid.

Concluding thoughts

The graphics of this game aren’t hyper realistic, however they are not cartoony. They feel like they were of the era, and that fits the setting very well. Outside of the audio issues, I had a lot of fun playing Marauders, and look forward to playing more in the future. Once more content like maps and ships are added, this game will scale indefinitely with what it has..

Marauders is in Early Access on PC.

Steam key was provided by Small Impact Games.