Game: Scampr
Genre: Adventure
System: Steam
Developer|Publisher: Pandora Machine
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: UK £2.89 | US $3.99 | EU € 3,29
Release Date: June 7th, 2021
Review code provided with many thanks to Pandora Machine
Unusual Premise
Scampr is a first-person adventure game set in a large open world with quite an unusual premise. So it seems aliens came to Earth to have a picnic but ended up causing a lot of damage. Well, the aliens decide to rebuild the world from the memory of a goldfish, ‘Matilda.’ This has created a world with giant chess boards and whales that literally float around in the sky. It really is one of the weirdest premises I have encountered in a video game so far. This story is delivered in an opening cutscene which is fully voice acted. It certainly grabbed my attention but is it any good?
It turns out Matilda the goldfish has gone missing. The aliens summon you, a squirrel, to find her as well as carry out some other objectives in a large open world. These missions include throwing acorns at animal statues to activate them, climbing trees, riding on a whale and finding new areas. Some objectives are certainly easier than others, but the game gives you a handy map to get your bearings and give you an idea of where the next objective is.
Once you finish all the objectives you find the zeppelin and the game ends. And that’s kinda it, there is no big resolution it just ends. Not even a golden acorn for your success. But if you do find one of these in the world it acts as a save hub. This whole game experience takes around 2 to 3 hours depending on how you get immersed in the environment.
Forest of Details
Graphically the game looks pretty good. You start out in a detailed forest environment with several trees and all sorts of weird buildings dotted around like a lighthouse, a giant chessboard and random statues. As you explore you also encounter a winter area, a nighttime area and a sort of underwater lab like place. You are greeted with a cutscene each time you find a new area followed by a cute load screen of your squirrel moving in between two parts of an acorn which I kinda dug.
There is also some nice attention to detail to the sound and ambience. In the forest, you can hear the water rushing by in the nearby river and your footsteps will change depending on the surface you are walking on. It’s a well put together world but it is far too big which may not suit everyone. You could just play this game getting lost in the environment. But, for those looking to complete the objectives you need to be aware most of your time is spent walking around aimlessly looking for the next objective, which is either throw an acorn at something, interact with something or just reach a destination. The game keeps things overly simple and goes at a squirrel’s pace.
Motion Woes
My biggest niggle of the game was the performance on my PC. I ended up playing with mouse and keyboard since you have to manually map buttons for a controller. Whenever I turned my character in the game the performance just felt off and weird.
This is probably the only first-person game I have ever developed motion sickness playing. The only way I seemed to contain this was by trying to avoid turning and sidestepping which was not ideal. Now, this could be because my PC is not the best rig in the land but I have run much more demanding games than this and never felt the need to have a sit down afterwards.
Conclusion – You are Hired
Scampr to me feels like someone’s portfolio project to help them get a job in the game industry. If that is the case they certainly deserve that job. Scampr has a lot of good ideas in it. But it doesn’t fully form into a complete experience. More just feeling like a proof of concept for possibly something better later. But with rough performance issues and generally little content, this won’t be for everyone. For its ridiculously cheap price, it’s certainly tempting to have a go but there’s not a lot of game here, just a very peculiar squirrel walking simulator.
Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure
