The Wonderful World of Scrap Mechanic

I knew from the moment I watched Bob build a car while Mark attempted to keep his garden safe from the oncoming onslaught of robots that I absolutely wanted, no, NEEDED to get my hands on this game. I'll link the YouTube video, so that I can give credit where credit is due. I definitely recommend watching it. It's absolutely hilarious. Anyway, everything else that happened in Markiplier's videos related to Scrap Mechanic was just an added bonus or icing on the cake, as they say. So as soon as Steam announced their summer savings list and my husband and I saw that Scrap Mechanic was on sale, we immediately jumped on the offer. I have no regrets, well, minus that time that we drove our car off to a warehouse where we died multiple times to robots with spud guns and then got lost for like 40 minutes real time. That's a stretch though; because honestly, despite the chaos that was ensuing right before my very eyes, I was still having a lot of fun even down to the cinematic ending of us making it back to base right as we ran out of gas for our vehicle. And, trust me, we had packed A LOT of gas.

So, survival mode of Scrap Mechanic has all the general features you get with survival games in that your characters have a hunger and thirst meter, as well as a health bar. Thus, it's important to make sure you keep your character fed, and, you know, don't die. Then there's the crafting/building component of the game, which I find to be very unique if not a little difficult. Then again, I'm not going out and saying that I'm an expert in engineering or building things in general. My husband does most of the building/crafting for us in game and he seems to have it figured out, mostly. I'm just saying it helps that other people share their creations online, so you can get a real sense of what you are doing wrong when trying to build your own vehicles or crop irrigation system, for example. That being said, this game is just a fun time. Even though I can't figure out what I'm doing for the life of me in terms of building anything, I get to explore the world of gardening and resource collecting by planting crops and watering them. I go into the ocean to collect clam glue/glue clam (??; I don't know) and crude oil, while also running around whacking burning trees for their ember and giant corn stalks, so I can, questionably and possibly unethically, feed it to wocs in order to get some of their milk for making revival baguettes for me and my friends. Oh, and there's these cute little guys at the bottom of the ocean floor, where you can also, questionably and possibly unethically, snatch them from their habitat and bring them back to your base.

So, if I haven't made it explicitly clear here, there's a lot to unpack in this game and I think it's a great investment if you are someone, like me, who likes survival games and just wants to have a good time. The game is still fairly new, so I think there's potential for the game to continue to improve and get better as the developers continue to work on the game. As of now, yeah, it's a little glitchy and buggy and we did still get lost for 40 minutes real time, but it's not unbearable and, in fact, it's quite hilarious at times. The vehicles we make constantly have steering problems and are prone to flipping, while the irrigation systems we try to build water most, but somehow, not all of the crops. I still have had some of my best laughs watching my husband frantically try to will the vehicle to surmount the hill without rolling us back down. I constantly get stuck trying to exit the vehicle before getting ran over only to lay on the ground, completely unconscious, for several seconds as robots descend upon us. But again, these are features that may be hashed out as the game continues to be improved on, and even if they aren't, I'm still here for a good time. Plus, it's absolutely hilarious.

The world of Scrap Mechanic is beautiful and vast with so much to offer and explore. I mean, as I stated earlier, I've pretty much gotten lost in just the resource collection/management component of the game. There's something deeply relaxing and therapeutic about running around planting seeds, watering them, and then running off into the wild, blue yonder in order to collect cotton, honey, and/or corn to bring back for my friends to do stuff with, because I have no idea what I'm doing. So my final thoughts are that this game is fantastic and worth buying if this sounds like your cup of tea. I've only played it with friends, so I definitely think it's more fun when you have someone to help you manage things because the map is very big, and although, you can probably handle the game on your own, I don't think you'll be able to work a large farm and make quick progress in the game without the help of some friends to collect resources, help build, manage crops, and of course, defend from the robot apocalypse with. As I am currently writing this, the game is still available on Steam at 30% off its usual sales price, so if you are interested, now is the time to get it. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I know I certainly wasn't.