Active Matter
Gaijin Entertainment · Shooter, Horror, Action
Overview
Join dangerous raids for loot or intense PvP/PvE battles in this new realistic military shooter set in a fractured multiverse. Fight in quantum-unstable zones for control of active matter - the substance that bends time and space.
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You’re an operative stuck in a time loop, always brought back from the dead to the same point. Choose your loadout and enter quantum unstable zones rich with active matter – the most valuable and the most dangerous resource in all multiverse. Fight against rivals from other timelines, survive physics-breaking anomalies and try to stay alive. Harvest active matter, gather loot and extract to a safe place before the whole zone ceases to exist with everything inside it.
Active matter changes things and bends space and time, so you might encounter operatives and other survivors that lost their mind and humanity after exposure to this substance. Other players, though, would always be your most dangerous enemy. Expand your syndicate base, upgrade your arsenal and participate in fierce battles between syndicates over the key sources of active matter, as they’re your only chance to break out of the loop and gain control over your destiny.
Fight your way out in extraction-style PvE and PvPvE raids
Go solo or team up in small squads to venture into quantum-unstable zones in PvPvE and PvE raids. Harvest active matter, grab valuable loot, and extract before everything goes to hell.
Realistic weapons and gear
Active matter randomly brings things from other timelines to the quantum unstable zones and allows you to replicate a specific item from other timelines in the safety of your base. Despite the mysterious origin of your weapons, your arsenal is always rooted in real-world military technologies and tactics, as war seems to be the only constant in this chaotic multiverse.
Gameplay-influencing active matter effects
Mind-bending anomalies that change gravitational force and space topology right in front of your eyes. Thrilling encounters with eerie SCP-inspired objects would send shivers down your spine, and creatures transformed by active matter would attack you on sight.
Intense PvP battles
Syndicates of operatives fight over control of a passive source of active matter, using all the weapons and other gear they can bring into battle or craft on site. Join PvP battles you like and make a real impact on the fate of the multiverse!
Fascinating maps
Battles take place at locations that exist outside of space and time boundaries. Active Matter features a variety of maps, including a huge island with rusty Soviet industrial complexes and cryptic science labs that were among the first to study this new phenomena. Explore these places to find hints on the origin of active matter.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT953 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Active Matter is a first-person extraction shooter set in a fractured multiverse full of Stalker-style anomalies, gravity-bending zones and horror creatures, with PvPvE raids, a fully separate PvE mode, and a single character that carries progress between them. Nearly a quarter of reviews compare it to S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Escape from Tarkov or both, and a few sum it up as "Stalker meets Tarkov". PvE comes up more than anything else: a third of all reviews mention it, and several come from players who dislike PvP extraction games and say the PvE mode is why they are playing this one. Reviewers also praise the creepy atmosphere and creature design, the performance on modest hardware, the gunplay, and the amount of content for $30.
Complaints about the menus and UI appear in 27% of negative reviews. Other complaints cover thin onboarding, edition-upgrade pop-ups after raids and level-ups that some compare to a mobile game, clunky movement, and head bob and camera sway that made some players motion sick with no way to turn them off. Enemy AI bugs, grind and the loot available in PvE come up less often.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
A full PvE mode that shares progression with PvPHigh
A third of all reviews bring up PvE, most of them to praise it. Some reviewers say they "hate extraction shooters", and one admits "i cant do pvp at all anymore"; they say "Isolated Raids" (solo or co-op, no other players) finally let them enjoy the genre. Loot, quests and levels carry over to PvPvE on the same character, so players can learn maps and gear up in peace before risking open raids. A few players with jobs and families single this out ("a game that someone with a job and family can play"), and some point out that PvE is included in the base price, unlike in Tarkov. PvE fans also list caveats: some objectives, maps (Scrapyard, Gigastructure) and the best loot are tied to PvP, and PvE rewards are reduced compared to open raids, which a minority see as pushing them into PvP (see the split section on progression).
Stalker-style atmosphere, horror and creature designHigh
Reviewers compare the world to S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Roadside Picnic, Annihilation, SCP and Control. They praise gravity anomalies that let you walk up walls or fight upside down on floating debris, maps that shuffle weather, time of day and enemy hives, and a bestiary with real personality: flowermen hiding in poppy beds, statues that only move when unseen, mannequins that move when you look, invisible stalkers, mimics, devourers, a walking bus. Many say the game is genuinely scary ("ignore epic montage in game page, this game is a psychological horror", one writes), and the sound design gets frequent credit: footsteps that change by surface, distant echoes, and hideout music you unlock by finding tapes and CDs. A few reviewers find the look muddy or dated, and a couple call the ideas derivative.
Performance and optimizationHigh
Many reviewers report high frame rates on mid-range PCs and old laptops, 60 fps or close on Steam Deck, Xbox Ally and a Steam Machine, and native Linux support, often noting it runs without leaning on upscaling or frame generation. The complaints are specific. AMD users say FSR is missing or broken and DX12 is still labelled beta, some see stutter when fights start or new areas load, and a few with high-end hardware think the visuals do not justify the GPU load.
Gunplay, weapons and soundMedium
Most who mention the shooting like it: weapons have weight and punchy audio, recoil patterns differ, attachments matter, there is one ammo type per caliber so nothing feels locked away, and time to kill is fast. A smaller group calls the guns floaty or weightless, dislikes heavy weapon sway and inertia, finds automatic rifles (AKs especially) and SMGs underpowered against bullet-sponge melee enemies compared to shotguns, and wants punchier reload and gunfire sounds. Those complaints overlap with the movement and motion-sickness themes below.
Lots of content for the priceMedium
Many players call the $30 standard edition a bargain: many maps, hundreds of quests and investigations, vehicles, drones, a robot dog, crafting, a customizable hideout, a 5v5 arena, battle royale and faction modes on top of raids. One says it launched with features Tarkov took years to add. On the other side, the upsell prompts undercut the standard edition's value for some (see frustrations), there is no regional pricing, so $30 is steep in South America and elsewhere, and a few early refunders felt it was not worth the price yet.
Better with friendsMedium
Co-op in both PvE and PvPvE brings steady praise and stories: friends extracting without each other, friendly fire mishaps, dragging a teammate's body to revive them. Some say solo is noticeably harder and the game is at its best in a squad of three. A few ask for four-player squads and for matchmaking with strangers in PvE, since solo players without friends have no way to group up.
Developers who respond and patchLow
Some players who came over from the launcher credit regular patches and a team that listens to feedback. One thanked the developers for the camera-sway reduction late in the second week after launch, while another says they measured it and could not tell any difference. One reviewer also found the developers' replies to reviews annoying and even insulting.
Controller and platform supportLow
A handful of controller players praise unusually complete native gamepad support with remappable tap, hold and toggle behaviours, and Linux and handheld players appreciate that it runs at all. A smaller number found gamepad aiming and inventory navigation awkward, and one PC player felt controller aim assist is too strong in crossplay.
Where players are split
No progress wipe for the Steam launchMedium
Players who had spent a year on Gaijin's launcher kept their levels, perks and gear when the game came to Steam, and 8% of all reviews discuss this. On launch day, when the rating dipped to 72% positive, short and highly upvoted negative reviews said new players would be stomped by maxed-out veterans in PvP. Most reviews that mention the wipe still recommend the game, and many of those push back: the game uses voluntary "self-wipes" with rewards instead of forced resets, gear is easy to replace, the ammo and armor model keeps starter guns competitive, and the PvE mode lets anyone catch up. At least one would have preferred a wipe but says the lack of one is not game-breaking. Mentions of the wipe drop to a handful a day after the first two days. Some returning launcher players still want a simple optional account reset or a replayable tutorial so they can start fresh.
PvE difficulty and enemy densityMedium
Players disagree about whether PvE is too hard or too easy. More of them find it punishing, especially solo: enemies swarm in large numbers, respawn while you loot, keep pace when you sprint, and make stealth nearly impossible, so fights become attrition over ammo and healing. Some newcomers refunded because they could not survive a single raid, and a few ask for difficulty options. A few others say the monsters have been nerfed until PvE is trivial. Others describe a steep first few hours that turns fair once you learn each creature's counter. Certain enemies draw repeated complaints: flowermen, devourers that need a shotgun, invisible mine enemies, and flying orbs that chase endlessly.
PvP: camping, spawns and bot-filled lobbiesMedium
Players who try open raids report roof campers, spawn points close enough that squads meet in the first minute, camped extracts, and in some cases bots filling empty lobbies (including the 5v5 Hired Operations mode), which several found immersion-breaking. Others say PvP is tense and fair, point to the solo-only queue, and say the invisible-entity punishment for campers helps. Some reviewers advise newcomers to stay in PvE for the first days. Cheating comes up now and then, most often on launch day, and a few PC players worry about BattlEye's track record.
Ms. Second, the in-ear AI voiceLow
The sarcastic AI assistant divides people. Some enjoy her and the "sarcasm slider", but more find her repetitive, badly timed in combat, and at odds with the lonely-Zone atmosphere. They also say she talks over important audio, that the speech volume slider does not affect her, and that her lines sound AI-generated. She can be turned off, which several recommend.
Progression, grind and PvE rewardsLow
Some call progression quick and rewarding and the self-wipe loop satisfying. Others are more mixed: quests become repetitive fetch tasks, only three investigations can run at once, printing an item can take real-world hours, Monolith tokens become a grind wall, high-tier loot is rare in PvE, and some daily objectives only count in PvP. A pre-launch veteran describes economy nerfs to salvage values and crafting costs just before release.
What frustrates players
A cluttered, confusing UIHigh
Raised in 27% of negative reviews and in many positive ones too. Players describe too many tabs, currencies and pop-ups, a menu that feels like "a tax return after every raid", an inventory where discarding or rearranging items is fiddly, a cluttered in-raid map you cannot scroll without opening the pause menu, and HUD prompts (hold breath, flashlight reminders) that cannot all be hidden. Positive reviewers often say you get used to it in a few hours; early refunders say it drove them away before they got that far. A few launcher veterans say the old UI was better, while others say the rework improved it.
Thin onboarding for a game with many systemsHigh
The tutorial covers basic movement and little else, so the refiner, replicator, fusion, Harmonization cycles, Monolith tiers, sleeves and investigations are left for players to discover, and some say they only understood them by watching videos or asking in chat. Even fans advise newcomers to "give it a couple hours". Some add that the lack of teammate markers and unclear loot values make it harder.
Edition upsells, battle pass and refundsMedium
Monetization appears in 15% of negative reviews. The specific grievance is the prompt after raids and level-ups showing the extra credits and rewards you would have received with the Advanced or Deluxe edition, which some call mobile-game style and some read as pay-to-win in PvP. Players call the Harmonization "cycle" a poorly explained battle pass, and a returning launcher player reports new early-tier gear locked behind it. Several players warn that edition upgrades could not be refunded alongside the base game. Defenders reply that there is no cash shop for power, that the standard edition is enough, and that everything can be earned by playing. Some positive reviews still object to the pop-ups.
Clunky movement and animationsMedium
Players describe movement as floaty or "like I'm steering a boat", sprint starts and stops so instant they feel arcade-like next to slow healing and mag-loading, stiff reload animations, lean that cannot be toggled, and the character's legs shuffling on their own when you look around. It comes up often in negative reviews, though some who stayed say they adjusted within a few raids.
Motion sickness from head bob and camera swayMedium
12% of negative reviews complain about head bob, camera sway or motion sickness, nearly all after an hour or two of play, and one of the most upvoted negative reviews is among them. They say head bob, camera roll and weapon sway had no toggle and still caused nausea with motion blur off and a high field of view. The camera-sway reduction late in the second week after launch drew thanks from one reviewer, but players still asked for full accessibility toggles.
Enemy AI bugs and pathingMedium
Apart from difficulty, players report broken behaviour: enemies clipping through walls, floors and doors, teleporting near stairs, getting stuck on half-open doors or cars, sliding while strafing, human soldiers that pause before shooting or snipe with impossible accuracy, and devourers that attack through surfaces. These bugs make some deaths feel unfair.
Bugs, crashes and lost gearLow
A smaller set of reports describes crashes on entering a match or changing settings, a launch-blocking EULA screen, anticheat kicks on Linux, a softlock after rebinding the interact key, and disconnects with no working reconnect, where players lost their whole kit and progress. One says support told them this was not a bug.
Missing regional servers, pricing and optionsLow
Australian, Oceanian and South American players ask for local servers and regional pricing. Other recurring small requests: FSR support for AMD cards, hold-to-aim (one player refunded over its absence at launch), a separate viewmodel FOV slider, crossplay visibility, and a longer PvE raid timer.
Slow magazine loadingLow
Packing magazines by hand takes long enough that several players carry a dozen pre-loaded mags or avoid automatic weapons entirely, and ask for faster loading or smoother mag-check-to-reload flow.
3. The player conversation
The conversation is warm and protective. Some positive reviewers write specifically to answer the launch-day negatives, calling the game underrated or a hidden gem ("It deserves way more attention", one says), and many of the reviews come from PvE-first players relieved to find an extraction shooter they can play without other players. Negative reviews often name the UI, the feel of movement, motion sickness or the upgrade prompts, and several still praise the atmosphere or the concept before saying they refunded.
The tone settled quickly. Launch day was the most divided (72% positive), with the no-wipe argument at its loudest; from the second day onward the daily share held in the high 70s to high 80s, and both launch weeks ended at 81%. The wipe argument faded almost entirely after the first two days, while complaints about the UI, monetization prompts and nausea continued at a low, steady rate.
4. What the developers could do
- Overhaul the menus and inventory flow. UI complaints appear in 27% of negative reviews and in many positive ones, and early refunders often cite them.
- Build a real onboarding path for the hideout systems. Reviewers say the replicator, refiner, Harmonization, Monolith and investigations are unexplained and that they had to learn from videos or chat.
- Remove the post-raid and level-up edition upsell prompts. Some players who recommend the game object to them too, and they feed the pay-to-win perception; clearer Harmonization explanations and refund handling for edition upgrades would address the rest.
- Add full motion accessibility toggles. Head bob, camera roll and weapon sway come up in 12% of negative reviews, often from players who refunded, and one reviewer says the partial sway reduction made no difference they could measure.
- Fix enemy clipping, pathing and respawns, and tune solo PvE density. Players describe enemies passing through walls and endless respawns while looting, and solo players say swarms make stealth pointless.
- Add PvE matchmaking with strangers and consider four-player squads. Solo players without friends ask for this, since the game plays best in a group.
- Make disconnects recoverable and stabilize launch and match entry. Players report losing an entire kit and progress to a failed reconnect, alongside crashes on entering matches.
- Address PvP spawn proximity and bot transparency, and offer an optional account reset. Players report spawn camping and bot-filled lobbies, and returning launcher players want a clean restart without climbing the whole progression first.
