Marauders (Early Access)

Powah Dunk | November 23, 2022 | Preview | No Comments

Marauders is a new PvPvE title, published by Team 17 and developed by Small Impact Games, hoping to take the winning strategy from titles such as Hunt: Showdown and Escape From Tarkov and put it in the cold and desolate setting of space.

The game has you piloting a ship, either solo or with your crew into abandoned space shuttles, mining facilities, and other science-fiction locations with the goal of stripping it of anything of worth and getting the heck out of dodge safely, being its PvPvE means you’re not alone and you’ll be stalked by other players and A.I from the second you load into your ship, while you navigate the abandoned locations and all the way to making your escape.

Marauders is a permadeath-based title so you need to play it very carefully with each and every step, make too much noise and you’ll draw attention to yourself, there is no map and bullets kill quickly which really adds to the overall tension of the game while you are trying to scavenge what you can to make your next run a lot easier.

The sound design is outstanding here and wearing a good pair of headphones is essential to capture the oncoming footsteps allowing you to plan your next move, many time I’ve been saved by hearing someone sprinting down a corridor giving me the knowledge to hunker down and prepare to fire on an unsuspecting and potentially panicked player.

Visually the game is very dark and gritty and this just adds to the overall atmosphere of the game, the stages do have a tendency to look a little samey and when you only have 1 escape area you can personally use this can lead to end game panic as you scramble to make it back to your ship, dodging bullets overhead hoping you can cash some loot in or complete some of the missions the game presents to you.

The space combat while basic is alot of fun and adds to the unique feel of the game knowing you can take out other players before they even land, you can hijack or even get hijacked forcing you to take the fight to the inside of your ship giving you that sense that no-where in space is safe.

There is crafting available and you can get better items to craft by finding various materials and leveling up from each successful extraction. The only issue I have with the game currently is it needs a little more of a focus on the gameplay loop aside from looting, like Hunt: Showdown when you have bounties, I feel if Marauders had something extra such as objectives it could really push the game forward.

As it stands it’s a very enjoyable and unique title and one for fans of the battle royale style gameplay, it’s hardcore to the bone and you’ll die a lot but when you make that first successful loot run you’ll be hooked and there is no better time to get involved that right now while the game is still improving constantly with hotfixes and upcoming content.