Scrapland is a 3rd person action game, whereby the player controls lead character D-Tritus (a robot) when he goes on foot and also when he is in his gunship on the Chimera streets. By hacking into the GDB, D-Tritus can transform himself into 15 different characters, which also enables him to acquire the special abilities of every one of them. D-Tritus can also drive any gunship he finds and/or create his own collection of unique gun ships by freely combining pieces from the other ships he finds.

The game is structured in missions whose objectives are always “doing things”, instead of “finding out how to do them”. That is, the player will never wonder what to do, which object he needs or which character he has to transform into to accomplish a mission; The game itself provides that information constantly and clearly. The fun and challenge lie in what happens and how the system reacts when the player does what he is asked to, when he uses the object he needs or when he transforms into the precise character needed.

The player has total freedom of movements most of the game time, although it is a little restricted at the beginning for tutorial reasons. In Scrapland, one can freely wander round all levels/maps, interact with all characters, drive all ships and combine, with no restrictions. The main mission can be undertaken with any other tasks the player feels like doing. The possible casuistry is huge, thanks to which the game world is perceived as living, realistic and unpredictable.

Gameplay:

SCRAPLAND is divided into two clearly defined phases, on foot and then ship based action. There is really a chalk and cheese element to some of the missions, with some being so short and easy that you question their inclusion into the game, and others that are so complex and long that they require 20 attempts to complete. The game bounces from simple to impossible in the blink of a mission controller’s eye.

There is no Live support on this release either, which is strange as the PC version does contain a great section where you build ships online then enter into combat, but instead the Xbox gets a split screen multiplayer offering. Performance wise this section does tend to suffer for a bit of frame lag and being able to see what your opponent is doing in a dog fight really does take the edge off things.

Graphics & Control:

Visually, Scrapland looks superb, bringing to life a unique vision of the post-human future with weird and wonderful robot designs and architecture. Comparisons to Disney’s Robots film and game are inevitable, and apt, though Scrapland has a bit more of an edge to its look, and the obsession with destruction, death and rebirth take it into much darker territory. In fact, Scrapland seems perfectly suited for a CGI movie- it already looks on par with Pixar’s production values, so the potential is definitely there. Indoor environments are a tad bland compared to the exceptional outdoor environments, which are not only huge, but beautifully realised and filled with places to go and explore. Better yet, the framerate is exceptional even with the throngs of traffic and sporadic combat you may bear witness to. Oddly, it seems to be the much smaller scale indoor arenas that suffer from Scrapland’s rare patches of slowdown, but even then it’s minor. This game really does look good on the eye.

Much of the game is played while on-foot, but a large portion is experienced in the cockpit of a personal spaceship. The control here is simply flawless, and definitely under-appreciated by the level designers; not nearly enough dogfights are present during the course of the game.

Sound:

Aurally, Scrapland falls to pieces like an Airfix model of the Millennium Falcon. This is due in no small part to the utterly horrible script, which feels as though it has been translated by a drunken language exchange student in exchange for a bottle of Jack Daniels. This lends the dialogue a painful, embarrassing quality that may occasionally make you laugh at how bad it is, but other times it’ll just plain annoy you. Speaking of annoying, the default background music is some of the most irritatingly dull electronica you will ever have the displeasure of hearing this side of a 6 hour life breakdown, which you happen to be stuck in. The music in combat and during events is passable, but the occasional beeps and bops that allegedly pass as a soundtrack do a disservice to real music. The sound effects are decent at least, though they rarely excel past functional, and thus won’t be memorable, especially compared to the other audio atrocities you’ll endure.

Longevity:

The single player game can be completed in around 20 hours, although there is a fair amount of frustration here, caused by the inconsistent difficulty level, this really does detract from the replay value of the game. If the developers had included more space combat then this would have really helped and reduced the repetitive nature of the game. The glaring exclusion of Live support and the mediocre multiplayer games almost hit this onto the scrapheap.

Round up:

Scrapland is a tough game to dislike; there are huge problems with the consistency of the mission difficulty, the sound that is awful, the flawed story; but after all that Scrapland has just enough going for it to make it enjoyable to play through, although the experience might be slightly frustrating. The general quirkiness of the world you are immersed in just does enough to save it from the scrapheap. I really would recommend renting this release and then picking it up if you can live with its short comings.

Pros:

• Tries a bit of Genre mixing
  
• Some stylish ideas
  

  Cons:
  

  • Poor Multi Player
    
  • Sound
    
  • Unbalanced difficulty