SCUM is a open world survival game developed by Croatian studio, Gamepire and published by Devolver Digital.
Up to 64 players per server take control of a prisoner competing in a Deadly Game to survive on an island and win their freedom.
The character you play as will possess four main attributes: strength, dexterity, constitution and intelligence. These will allow you to form the play style of your preference – from long distance runners to big bulky tanks.
The game boasts an in-depth simulation of the the human body and players need to keep an eye on their character's vitamins, calories, health and other stats via a special interface called the "BCU monitor". Getting wet weighs the characters down with sodden clothes and they must get somewhere warm in order to dry off.
This game has no relation to a movie of the same name, which also has prison as its main theme, ironically enough.
SCUM contains examples of:
- Action Bomb: Bomb puppets are strapped with explosives and will run up to you and blow up, killing you instantly. They're often found in high-loot areas such as gun stores or emergency aid stockpiles.
- A.K.A.-47: In general, guns with a military designation (i.e. the M1911, M16, M1887, AK47, etc.) are given their real names, while branded guns are named with an alias (i.e. the Glock 21 is the "Block 21", while the Desert Eagle is the "Deagle".)
- Awesome, yet Impractical: Heavier armor vests will provide more protection, with Heavy Body Armor providing the best protection, but these armors also weigh a lot (the same vest weights 13kg as is), making them only viable for extended carry with stronger characters.
- The Hiking Backpack has the best storage, weight and volume wise, out of all the backpacks, but its size also means it's easier to see, even with camouflage.
- The Deagles pack a nasty punch for a handgun, but they're easy to spot (they come in stainless steel or gold) and use harder to find .357 Magnum or .50 AE, alongside having small magazine capacities, like in real life (9 for .357, 7 for .50).
- Bears Are Bad News: Bears are probably the most dangerous creatures on the island, other than other human players and the Humongous Mecha Sentries.
- Boring Yet Practical: An Improvised Wooden Spear is nothing more than just a sharpened stick, but it can still be enough to deal with Puppets.
- The Hunter 85 lacks punch, but can fit a scope on it without the need for a RIS, it uses light .22 rounds, and does not need magazines. The less boring but still roughly practical M1891 and Kar 98 have the same benefits without trading damage per shot.
- The M9 pistol has a good mag size and uses easier-to-find 9mm, alongside taking only some space (2x2 to be exact). 9mm rounds can also be crafted with only a Basic skill level, while most other ammo requires Advanced skill level to craft.
- An Assault Pack has the second best storage and is smaller than the Hiking Backpack, making it harder to spot.
- If all else fails, some skin (human or no), with the right tools will make an Improvised Pack, though there are smaller ones that are easier to make (the courier pack needs a few rags, some rope and a bladed item).
- The Police Tactical Duty Vest and the Military Ballistic Vest may not have the protection of the later vests, but they're much lighter (the police is 2kg, the military is 5kg) and provide decent protection as is. On top of that. They still have the pouches like the later vests (pocketed vests start at the Police Riot Vest).
- Competitive Balance: Character builds typically aren't perfect in all fashions since they specialize in some ways that cut down on other aspects.
- Strong characters (High STR/CON) carry more gear than others and have the most health (120) at the cost of DEX and INT, while also needing to eat more to maintain their strength.
- Fat characters have higher INT and their weight lets them go without food for an extended period, though their endurance is reduced to the bare minimum.
- Skinny characters have plenty of DEX, making them faster in movement and interactions. They lack the strength of others though and don't have the weight of Fat characters or the durability/strength of Strong characters.
- Deadly Game: The prisoners are participating in a game show called SCUM where the compete against other prisoners to win their freedom. Performing actions that entertain the audience earns fame points which can be spent on various useful things. Fame can also be a double edged sword, attracting camera drones that can give the player's position away.
- Gang Up on the Human: Puppets, carnivores, and Sentries will all ignore each other and solely focus on attacking human players.
- Heavily Armored Mook: Armored military Puppets can be found guarding restricted bunkers; they wear heavy body armor and can take considerably more damage than regular Puppets, requiring 3 shotgun blasts or a couple dozen melee weapon hits to bring down.
- Humongous Mecha: Mech Warrior-sized Sentry robots guard the restricted areas such as military bases where the best loot is. They're armed with miniguns and missile launchers and can take anywhere from a few hundred to several hundred bullets to bring down, but can be avoided by stealth or simply outrunning them while using buildings for cover.
- I'm a Humanitarian: You can cut up human corpses for meat the same as any other animal. This led to a scenario before that made food very easy to obtain, since you could hack up Puppets like animals, though this was removed later on.
- Item Crafting: Another point of the game is crafting equipment, though unlike most other games, the crafting system permits substitution of materials (human skin in place of animal skin, dirty rags, and/or any item that has an edge, like an axe or knife).
- Improvised Weapon: And armor too, made from tape and rope! For weapons, there are three flavors of spears (wood, stone and metal), swords (from a plank or metal scrap) a club from a plank (optionally with nails or barbed wire) a bow, or even handmade guns (a handgun or shotgun).
- Nobody Poops: Averted, the player needs to monitor their digestive system and relieve their bowels in order to stay healthy.
- One Bullet Clips: Zig-Zagged, since while some guns (like the M16 and SVD) need magazines to fire more than one shot, some guns like the bolt-actions rifles, the pump-action shotgun and improvised guns don't, with the former having internal magazines reloaded shot by shot, and the latter only being able to fire one shot before reloading regardless.
- Additionally, magazines in SCUM are not included with the weapon, and have to be found separately. Also, each individual magazine needs to be individually loaded and carried in the inventory.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Across the island there are the Puppets who are the corpses of previous SCUM competitors re-animated by their implants.
- The Puppets have the same "physical appearance affects stats" system as regular players; skinny zombies go down after only a couple of hits from a spear, but are insanely fast and can easily outrun you.
- Potty Emergency: Waiting too long to relieve yourself (whether peeing or pooping) will cause your character to exclaim they'll need to urinate/defecate.
- Potty Failure: Typically happened if you don't keep your Intestine Volume in check (Colon and Intestine Volume are seperately tracked). When this happens, your character will stop doing what they were originally doing, and hastily drop their pants to let it out, leaving you open to attacks.
- Savage Wolves: Large wolves roam the island and attack on sight; they're considerably more dangerous than Puppets, but can still be dealt with reasonably effectively by a reasonably strong character with decent weapons.
- Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: There's a fair amount of it displayed here.
- Food and water doesn't immediately treat hunger and thirst
- Over-exerting your character may lead to a heart attack
- You can suffer diet deficiencies if you're not eating the right foods
- Likewise, unlike most survival games you can't survive on meat alone. Your stomach can be full of meat and you'll still suffer from starvation if you haven't eaten any carbs for a while
- You need to keep track of your bowels
- Storing too many calories without trying to use them will lead to your character storing fat, though this has its uses, as fat is used if you starve yourself
- Armor will provide protection, as usual, but its performance is affected by its durability. Alongside that, effective armor is not light.
- You can only see what your character sees. Using third person will not fix this, since anything out of their view will be blurred.
- In a case where it isn't necessarily negative, a fair amount of craftable items can be made with a variety of tools (knives can range from the Stone Knife to the N9 Bayonet, blunt objects can range from a stone hammer to a Sledge Hammer, bone and metal needles can be used, etc.) or similar items (any kind of rope, or even wire can be used to make stuff like chests and bags).
- Past the 50% mark, increasing breast size also increases your character's body fat (breasts are fatty tissue, and large breasts without above-average body fat are a statistical outlier). For male characters, increasing penis size also increases body fat; unlike the female example, this isn't based on biological reality (if anything, science and statistics point to the opposite), but is a similar balancing feature.
- Why Am I Ticking?: The BCU-2 implants in every prisoner has small explosive to kill them if they attempt to remove them.
- Wrench Wench: You can be a female character and fix vehicles in the game just as the male ones can.
