Summary
Scavenging is the act of searching for and collecting resources from a source that is otherwise discarded or abandoned. It can come in many different forms, but the basic idea remains the same. A good scavenger can find some really interesting things if they know where to look. And video gamesloveto give players opportunities to scavenge resources. A fairly common example, one that many gamers will be familiar with, is looting the bodies of fallen enemies. But some games go a bit further.
Scavenging of some sort can be found in video games of all genres, even if it’s something as simple as being able to pick up a dropped weapon. But it’s a particularly great mechanic for open worlds. It makes sense why. The ability to find resources, be it weapons, food, crafting materials,or just informationabout the setting, is a good incentive for players to explore. This is especially common in post-apocalyptic titles, where scarcity makes scavenging necessary to survive, though it is hardly limited to that genre.
Atomfalltakes place in a world where scavenging is kind of essential to survival. In the game’s alternate timeline, the real-life Windscale Disaster took a much darker turn and produced a lot of weird anomalies in the surrounding area, among them a literal force field blocking anyone from entering or leaving the exclusion zone. Naturally, this creates a situation where resources are harder to find with any reliability. Just about everything, from weapons to crafting materials, is scavenged one way or another. It may be obtained by searching abandoned buildings or vehicles, or by killing other survivors and looting their bodies. The player will need to be constantly watching for things that might be useful. They even get a useful tool for it - a metal detector, which can uncover hidden stashes left by others.
However, there is also limited inventory space, which forces the player to be a bit more pragmatic in their scavenging. They will sometimes have to make decisions on what to keep and what to lose. Fortunately,many items can be bartered; it’s just a question of figuring out what the player can spare. That could be any number of things, depending on the current circumstances and what takes priority at the moment.
This cult classic adventure from Bend Studios putsa lotof emphasis on motorcycles. Its protagonist, and a large amount of the supporting cast, are bikers. But it’s not just about riding motorcycles, it’s also about maintaining them. The thing is, there’s a zombie apocalypse going on, and motorcycles are kind of a valuable utility for getting around. With so many roads choked up by abandoned cars left over from a failed evacuation, anything larger than a motorcycle is going to have a very hard time. That means Deacon St. John needs to keep his bike in full working order. While there are mechanics in each of the major settlements, that doesn’t help much when his ride breaks down or runs out of gas on the open road. The solution? Scavenging, of course! For repairs, there are car wrecks all over the place, full of parts he can use. For fuel, Deacon will sometimes have to look for old gas cans, which might be harder to spot but valuable when found.
Of course, while motorcycles are the main focus, it’s not the only thing Deacon has to scavenge for. After all, there’s a variety of zombies to watch for and, occasionally, even more dangerous human enemies. He needs to be able to defend himself, and scavenging is one of the best ways to gain weapons. And failing that, it’s a good way to earn money to buy weapons from merchants. On the simpler end, this can mean finding improvised melee weapons like sledgehammers or finding guns and ammunition dropped by others. As he progresses, Deacon startslearning to craft weaponshe can use against the zombies, which also require him to scavenge the right materials.
Capcom’s iconic survival horror series follows various characters trapped in an urban open world during a zombie outbreak. The exact location changes and grows with each installment, from a shopping mall in the original game to a whole city district in4, but it still relies on the same basic idea of battling hordes of zombies using whatever’s available. One upside to experiencing a zombie outbreak in an urban setting is the abundance of abandoned stores full of items that can be turned into weapons, and not having to pay for them. On the simpler side, Chuck, Frank, and Nick can repurpose items like frying pans, baseball bats, and golf clubs as effective zombie-bludgeoning weapons. On the more extreme end, they can make use of chainsaws. And there’s a host of wackier options, like battleaxes, swords, guitars, mannequin parts, and barbells.
But therealfun of scavenging inDead Risingis the bizarre concoctions that come from combining improvised weapons. Like creating deranged polearms by putting chainsaws on each end of a kayak paddle or a drill motor on the end of a spear. There’s even a combination that basically allows Chuck to make a lightsaber.
Ostensibly, this weird title that blurs the line between cozy game and survival horror is about fishing, but make no mistake. There’s a reason it’s calledDredge, a term used to describe the process of pulling materials up from underwater. Sure, fishing is a central part of the game, but recovering items from the depths is just as important, and at times even more important. There is a lot of stuff todredgeup throughout the game, especially with lots of shipwrecks leftover from others who perished in these treacherous waters. A common use of dredging in the game is pulling up materials like wood and metal that can be put toward upgrading the player’s fishing boat, but they will also occasionally find artifacts that can be sold to a local trader for money.
It’s also a good way to find parts that can be used for researching new fishing technologies. There are even cosmetics that can be obtained this way,like flags that can be displayed on the mast. And, of course, several quests involve recovering important items lost at sea, including one mission that is central to completing the main story.
As is common with FromSoftware,Elden Ringtakes place in a fallen kingdom. Everything is in shambles thanks to tragic events from long ago. And there’s no shortage of dangers threatening what remains, from the Scarlet Rot disease to an unstoppable corruption that warps everything it touches into the face of a half-dead god. Its surviving inhabitants are shadows of their former selves.
Sometimes players will even find the remains of giants or dragons from past battles. So it’s not a huge surprise that scavenging is a big part of the game. In fact, it’s kind of central to the story. In typical FromSoftware fashion,Elden Ringrelies heavily on environmental storytelling. A lot of information about the world and its history comes from clues within the environment and items recovered by the player. So scavenging items is crucial to piecing together information about what’s happening.
Guerrilla Games’Horizonseries, currently comprising two main games and a VR spin-off, takes place in a post-apocalyptic world full of machines that behave like animals and the ruins of a once-thriving human civilization. So naturally, scavenging is a big part of the world, and even incorporated into its economy. The primary unit of currency is metal shards originally obtained from broken machines. So it’s not much of a surprise that Aloy needs to be good at scavenging to get ahead. Whether it’s battling robot dinosaurs, spelunking into ancient human buildings, or just taking them off the bodies of slain enemies, there is no shortage of places to search for valuable resources.
A lot of the scavenged material is used for crafting, which is an essential survival skill, but even the things Aloy can’t use, or at least doesn’t have immediate use for, are still valuable to others. Machine parts and relics from the old world can still be traded to merchants. There are even questlines that specifically center around scavenging a particular artifact.
Scavenging is a big part of theMad Maxfilms. Throughout the series, characters drive around in vehicles thrown together from various odds and ends found throughout the wasteland, while dressed in outfits thrown together from whatever is available and eating whatever they can find. And of course, those vehicles require gasoline to run, leading to literal wars being fought over any that can be found. So it makes sense that the same would be true of a video game adaptation. The 2015Mad Maxvideo game puts players into the shoes of the title character as he travels the Outback wasteland putting together a special car known as theMagnum Opus. To do that, Maxhas to survive everything the wasteland can throw at himwhile collecting parts and provisions. And that’s easier said than done in a world where car chases, explosions, and general carnage are an everyday occurrence.
Max spends a lot of the game scavenging for parts, both to keep theMagnum Opusrunning and to upgrade it with new features. He also needs to find food and water. The hard part is that those resources are often found in places occupied by rival factions. Max, therefore, has to spend a lot of time both gathering materials from old-world wreckage and off the bodies of deranged wasteland survivors who get in his way. Either way, he has to take some big risks in the hopes of bigger rewards.
BothSubnauticagames follow a character who is left to survive in an alien ocean, and scavenging is a big part of getting started. This is especially true of the first game, where theAurora’s crash-landing leaves debris everywhere for Ryley Robinson to find. One of the simplest things is just collecting bits of scrap metal that broke off the hull, which can be recycled to make titanium, which is an essential material for most starting equipment. As he explores more of 4446B’s ecosystems and becomes better equipped to take on their challenges, he can also use scavenging as a means to collect information. When he finds pieces of broken equipment, he can scan them to collect data for the fabricator. Sometimes, there are even pieces of information about the setting or the fates of other crew members. Later in the game, he can also scavenge from the wrecks of a previous expedition and the remnants of an intelligent alien race who once occupied the planet.
Even inBelow Zero, where Robin Ayou arrives willingly and a lot more prepared, she still needs to do a fair bit of scavenging in her quest. The game’s story already concerns her investigation into the disappearance of the previous research team, which means exploring their old base and collecting materials and blueprints for equipment. Building vehicles still requires finding and scanning enough pieces to have a complete picture. And there’s even a shipwreck with some valuable resources.
