Active Matter is an atypical extraction shooter. If other representatives are built in a more down-to-earth setting, and the gameplay consists of collecting expensive garbage with breaks for shootouts, then here everything works completely differently.
The key feature of Active Matter is the variety of gameplay. We are not talking about minor gameplay features, but about full-fledged modes! At the beginning, you play an extraction shooter, but then you realize that you are doing things that are characteristic of MMOs, battle royales, cooperative action games, and even multiplayer shooters, like the Arma or Battlefield series.
We could observe something similar in Delta Force: Hawk Ops. There are also Extraction shooter modes, team battles, and cooperative walkthroughs, but they are separate and do not affect each other in any way. There is no such distinction in Active Matter, which can either provoke discomfort or fuel excitement.
A bit from Tarkov
The gameplay in Active Matter directly depends on which map you choose. In total, the game features 9 full-fledged locations, but some may be presented in several variations. For example, the time of day may change, the map may be swallowed up by thickets or anomalies. Some are completely rebuilt for a special event, changing the concept of the raid.
Despite such a rich set of maps, you won't be able to play on just one: only 5 locations are available for selection, but they are shuffled every 30 minutes. Therefore, sometimes you will have to choose between the desired map, but with an unpleasant modifier, a long wait in the shelter, and choosing any other place for the raid.
On the other hand, the developers kindly provided players with the opportunity to complete raids exclusively in PvE format. There are no penalties for refusing to participate with other players, and the rewards received in all modes are saved to the account. The only difference will be bot operatives replacing other players.
In the raids themselves, the gameplay vector is greatly shifted: the main activity will be completing tasks and fighting monsters, while searching for garbage is the most useless thing. Items are cheap, and only a few are suitable for specific crafts. The most valuable things for the player will be weapons, armor plates, and medicines that drop from opponents. Everything else is worth collecting only if there is a task to collect items.
A special substance is of great value – Active Matter, which can be found near anomalies and on the bodies of fallen creatures. It currently has only two uses: resurrecting teammates and converting it into money. In total, you can take out 100 matter, which will bring you 10,000 local currency to your account. Another useful loot is artifacts. Thanks to them, you can turn into a monster with special skills that will be useful in skirmishes. But, unfortunately, they cannot be sold.
Preparation for raids is also similar to Tarkov, but in a simplified version. The game has a large arsenal of weapons, but few modules for customization. Some guns cannot be modernized at all, and ammunition does not have distinctions in damage and armor penetration. There are also no body armor – instead, you need to purchase armor plates. And for particularly thrifty players, there is the option to take random equipment without the risk of losing everything.
But the game added "shells" - operatives with their own characteristics. Another original feature is chronogenes – modifiers with various enhancements. These can be both banal bonuses to the operative's characteristics and special skills that change the style of play. For example, with the "Parkour" gene, you can jump off walls and climb high obstacles. "Detector" perks allow you to sense certain opponents nearby. And the "Knife Master" and "Marksman" perks open up the possibility of taking two knives and pistols at once, respectively.
The health system is copied with divisions by limbs, but without the need to treat bleeding, fractures, and knocked-out limbs. Therefore, death occurs only when the "health points" in the head or chest are depleted. But the developers presented an interesting solution to the issue of death in a raid – there is a resurrection mechanic.
If you are playing in a team, then a partner can take the clock from your body, and resurrect you thanks to the collected active matter. For solo players, there is another resurrection option – using a resurrection beacon. But in both cases, you will return to the game without things. Therefore, you will have to play as carefully as possible until you return your equipment.
A bit from Stalker
In the story, we play as an operative of an agency for the study and fight against space-time anomalies. And our main task is to explore locations for valuable items and clear the territory of dangerous creatures. In this regard, the game stands out from other extraction shooters: the main opponents are not armed people, but monsters that have become victims of an unknown catastrophe.
The game's bestiary includes not only insane armed soldiers. Much more often you will encounter infected people who can teleport, become invisible, or be shrouded in floral armor. They are many times more tenacious, but fight only in close combat. Therefore, most skirmishes are built on the "hit-and-run" strategy or shooting from afar. And the most unpleasant collisions occur when you are surrounded by a whole pack of such enemies.
In addition to the primitive tactics of responding to the player, a number of monsters have additional triggers by which you can determine the enemy's territory. Flower-monsters react to the release of pollen from flower-alarms. A similar alarm system is present in the statue-"blinkers". If you accidentally destroy small towers made of stones, they will instantly appear next to you. Other monsters appear during specific tasks. For example, hellhounds and mimics regularly appear near you when you pick up special quest items. The most "harmless" creatures will seem to be carrion flies. They appear at the sites of battles and fly away after they have gnawed all the bodies of the fallen.
But not only aggressive creatures pose a threat. Many other anomalies are scattered around the locations that can harm the player: ball lightning, live mines, and even invisible traps. When you come into contact with them, you will be thrown a long distance and take a lot of damage, and you can use an endless supply of nuts to detect and neutralize them.
The only safe and interesting anomaly is gravitational surfaces. Thanks to them, you can walk on walls and ceilings - this allows you not only to climb on the roofs of buildings without going inside and arrange shootouts in unusual conditions, but also creates entire segments with houses in the air and inverted land plots. Although the latter sometimes completely breaks the passage of quests. It is impossible to get into such buildings.
A bit from Live Services
Another unpleasant feature is the availability of exits. They are visible to everyone on the map, but access to them is only possible after completing priority quests: find an item, install and protect a sensor, or place a scanner in a random box. If you do not complete them on time, the raid will not end, and the game will not consider that you are "missing in action". Instead, the map will begin to narrow like in Battle Royales. And a new exit will appear in the center, which will be available to everyone without exception.
Quests in Active Matter also do not represent deep stories with memorable adventures. As in any other MMO, you will be required to find the necessary items, come to a certain part of the map for a photo or scanner installation, or kill a certain number of monsters or players.
The most incomprehensible, but no less interesting activity in the game is the "Nexus Battles" mode. In it, you take part in pure team battles where there are no monsters, and the maps contain gravitational anomalies and portals. Therefore, players can set up ambushes for each other from the ceilings and teleport from the battlefield. And this mode does not require the player to prepare like raids. The reward in this mode is small, but this arena helps beginners understand all the intricacies of PvP in this game.
A bit from myself
The developers were able to create a project that simultaneously resembles Escape from Tarkov, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and PUBG. But if you look at the game in more detail, veterans of Gaijin studio games will notice a huge number of similarities with other games of the company: War Thunder and Enlisted.
This is noticeable not only in the Dagor Engine game engine used, but also in assets from past games. You can find rifles, opponents, equipment and fortifications from the times of the Great Patriotic War and a lot of equipment from the past and present era! The developers plan to release controlled military equipment in their extraction shooter: the KA-50 helicopter and the T-90 tank. Now they cannot be opened, but the community is already wondering how exactly it will be implemented. The maps are large, but they are not suitable for equipment at all.
Another borrowing was the specific leveling. There are two branches of development in Active Matter:
- Leveling your own character. For each raid, you get a little experience. Therefore, leveling one level stretches for dozens of raids, and as a reward you will only be given minor character modifiers.
- Leveling the Monolith, consisting of 12 levels. At each stage, you need to complete certain tasks in the raid: survive in the location, collect items, or kill monsters. After gaining access to the next level, you will be given the opportunity to complete the most difficult quests and open access to the best equipment and recipes for crafting.
The research mechanics migrated from Gaijin games. But here you need to study not high-level equipment, but the equipment used. This requires research points, obtained in two ways: find and use the necessary item in the raid, and also recycle the found loot into free research points, which can be spent on any item of interest. After successful research, this item can be created on a special 3D printer. And the product itself will only require time. You do not need to spend money or other garbage to create items.
The most atypical and unique innovation is drones. In the current version, we can only use two types: a robot dog that performs the function of a loader, and a quadcopter that can scout the area and drop grenades on the heads of opponents. The game also features an attack drone, but it is currently blocked. And the developers have already announced that they will present more robots and drones in the future.
A bit of early access
Despite all the positives, the game has drawbacks that interfere with a pleasant pastime. The key problem today is synchronization between players. The game servers crookedly register actions during shootouts with other players, which makes some think that they are playing against bots, while others do not understand why all the ammunition spent did not cause any damage to the enemy.
There are also problems with connecting to a raid when playing in a team. Active Matter may not allow a partner into the match without specifying the reasons. And the team will have to quickly run to the exit in order to try again to go to the raid with a full squad, because there is no reconnection button here.
Another reason for concern is buried in the project's monetization system. To access the beta test, you need to pay from 1,500 to 6,000 rubles. Paid content is currently completely absent: there are no price tags for donate currency, no battle passes or loot boxes present in other Gaijin projects. Now this gesture simultaneously evokes respect and suspicion. However, everything may change in the future and we will witness the emergence of another donate project, parasitizing on the loyal audience collected during the beta test.
Diagnosis
Initially, I had an extremely skeptical attitude towards Active Matter. It seemed that a large studio wanted to make its own cash cow in the extraction shooter genre. But in fact, a multifaceted project with crazy ideas and interesting prospects turned out - fans of the genre should definitely take a look at it.
But even with my admiration for what I saw, there remains a feeling inside that the game is not waiting for success. Not because of too intrusive advertising, not because this game is made by Gaijin, but because it is perceived as "another Tarkov clone" in the gaming community. And this feeling does not go away from the community.
Despite all their differences, the audience of extraction shooters is now preparing for the release of the genre's behemoth, and they simply do not need the remaining projects. Therefore, in six months, Active Matter risks ending up in the same row as Delta Force and Dark and Darker – outsider games with interesting ideas, but which never managed to displace the king.
However - we'll live and see!