"After a promising start, a disastrous few years, and a return to glory, the world's most realistic survival game is about to leave early access, and for better or worse, the survival genre will never be the same."
Scum is a survival game like no other. While games like Deadside focus more on instant gratification and DayZ combines survival with high-end PvP combat, Scum has found a niche for itself to the far left of DayZ, focusing on the experience of survival by offering players one of the most comprehensive metabolism simulators in existence.
Eating too fast, too much, or too little food can result in your player becoming sickly, and while many survival games have a mechanic to flag spoiled or raw food, Scum takes this even further by requiring players to consume the correct amounts of vitamins and nutrients to stay healthy.
While eating a dozen candy bars a day may fill you up, it will also increase your character’s physical weight, reduce your agility, make you more prone to certain illnesses, and increase your hitbox, making you an easy target for other players and the undead.
In addition, Scum is one of the few survival games to allow for cannibalism, and a hungry survivor may not think twice about making you their lunch.
While the world has been lovingly created and some truly stunning locations exist to explore, character models are hideous.
Even the best-looking character models are aptly described as “Butterface Bob and Friends.”
While I do not expect hardened prisoners to look like catwalk models, I feel that characters having some semblance of facial muscle control and having their heads firmly attached to their necks is not too much to ask, especially when other titles using the same engine manage to create characters that at least look human, if not attractive.
When killing a puppet (zombie) in Scum, the loot drops are consistent with what the puppet was seen wearing or carrying. This is a step above most survival games where you walk past perfectly good zombie pants only to loot a tin of tuna or sunglasses.
This design philosophy extends to the world itself: clicking a pile of logs lets you gather logs, fridges yield food, cars yield car parts, and scrap piles yield scrap metal.
This is great—unlike games such as Population Zero, where you might walk past a mountain of stones while looking for a single stone that is actually lootable.
While Scum launched without female characters, this lack of diversity was eventually addressed in what could only be described as one of the most cringe-inducing displays of unintentional misogyny by an established developer I have yet to encounter.
The announcement of female player characters came via a short video showing a barely clothed woman dancing suggestively with censor bars over sensitive areas. While it was undoubtedly meant in good fun, it was demeaning to female gamers and borderline offensive.
Although the censor bars were eventually removed, it did little to improve things—revealing bare buttocks and a suggestive shirt that displayed ample flesh, with inappropriate detail visible through the material.
While in-game clothing options are suitable for a survival game, many will struggle to look past the cringe-inducing trailer and its outdated portrayal of women.
While some may dismiss this as a non-issue, I feel strongly that creating content purely to titillate is wrong. While there is a time and place for nudity in games, making every female character eye candy is offensive, and for those who are prone to acting on lust, dangerous.
(Picture: Screenshot from the original censored trailer.)
There is nothing wrong with nudity that is tastefully used in a video game. In a survival title like Scum, where clothing can get wet and lead to hypothermia, removing clothing at times makes sense.
Unfortunately, not everyone is so mature, and when playing on less moderated servers, you will see plenty of exposed male and female “private parts.”
While it is clear the developers have a cheeky sense of humour, allowing players to create comically exaggerated body parts does nothing but encourage vulgarity and immaturity.
(The character used in official screenshots is named Ben Dover,a euphemism for non-consensual acts.)
Survival gamers continually ask for depth, complexity, immersion, stunning visuals, and realistic survival mechanics. However, when Scum came along ticking all those boxes, players abandoned it en masse because it was not the gank-fest murder-hobo simulator they secretly wanted.
Conversely, Deadside launched as a murder-hobo simulator, and the same crowd migrated to it—only to leave again when they realised it was not the deep, immersive experience they had hoped for.
Fortunately for Gamepires, enough survival gamers are willing to weather the storm and stick with titles through the good and bad times.
This core community is essential for the long-term health of any game. Titles such as DayZ, Conan Exiles, Ark Survival Evolved, and Scum all endured harsh early criticism but went on to enjoy long-term success thanks to their loyal communities.
Scum has weathered the storm, and presuming Gamepires retains its community’s goodwill, its best days may still be ahead.
For some reason, a Danny Trejo DLC was released on June 30, 2022, giving players the chance to play as Danny Trejo for $14.99.
While more customisation options are welcome, I would hate to see Scum turn into a crossover sandbox, despite my generally favourable view of crossover and celebrity skins in lobby-based titles.
Scum is a survival game developed and published by Gamepires, it released on 29 August 2025, and is available exclusively on PC.
Scum offers the following matchmaking options:
Scum supports the following peripherals:
Scum is unrated and contains:
Scum is a fantastic game for those looking for a more immersive post-apocalyptic role-playing experience. However, for those seeking faster thrills and a lighter survival curve, Deadside or DayZ may be better choices.
Scum enjoys the benefits of a large, engaged community and transparent developers and is reasonably priced. At this stage, it is well worth a purchase despite still being in Steam Early Access.
Scum is mechanically impressive and rich in survival systems, but potential buyers should be aware of the developers’ crass sense of humour and the unintentionally offensive portrayal of female characters, which may be dealbreakers for some.
We found Scum to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
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