Scrap Mechanic

1. Summary

Players recommend Scrap Mechanic for its building. You put machines together from blocks, bearings, pistons, engines and logic gates, then drive, fly or fight with them in a world that runs on physics. Reviewers describe cars, tanks, farms with spinning saw blades, flying bases and working computers, and several reviews written or edited after 1.0 say the only limit is your imagination. Long-time players say they waited years for the 1.0 release, which in their telling gave the survival mode a story, quests, voiced characters, an underground mining chapter and an ending; 64 reviews call it worth the wait, and 4 say it was not. Friends, family co-op, mods and the Workshop also come up in the praise.

Most of the frustration is with the survival campaign and with technical problems. Negative reviews written or edited after 1.0 describe clumsy combat with no block or dodge, slow healing by eating stacks of corn and long walks back after death, a heavy grind for component kits, crops and mining quotas, and bugs that sink vehicles into the ground, block quest doors or corrupt saves. Reviewers say 1.0 added two enemies that split the audience: an unkillable flying Seeker bot that can burn down bases, and a bullet-hell boss fight that some call out of place in a building game. Players also disagree about the story's chatty cast, the mining chapter, the farm raids and the removal of hunger and thirst.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

A build-anything engineering sandboxHigh

Building or engineering comes up in 45% of the longer reviews. Players like that vehicles and contraptions are made part by part and then work or fail under physics: "The only limit to this game is your own imagination. Go wild and build some crazy contraptions." Another reviewer put it as "Only what I build drives, flies, spins or explodes". Minecraft is mentioned in 70 reviews, mostly as a point of comparison, and a few call this Minecraft with physics and engines, or with cars. Several mention learning logic gates, suspension design or basic engineering through it. People who don't enjoy working systems out for themselves get less from it, and a few negative reviewers say they simply could not get a working car built.

The 1.0 release gave survival a purposeHigh

The 1.0 update, Chapter 2 or Drilling Thunder comes up in more than half of the longer reviews. Returning players describe it as a different game: "Wow the 1.0 release is like an entire new game." They point to quests that teach building, new parts and wheels, blueprints, a reworked early game, better optimization in single player, and an ending to work toward. Dissent comes mostly from veterans who preferred the older, more open survival mode and feel the update leans toward shooting and grinding (see the split and frustration sections).

Playing with friends and familyMedium

Friends, partners or children come up in 12% of the longer reviews, mostly as a reason to buy: "Perfect for a group of friends to play!" Parents describe playing with sons and daughters, and couples call it a good shared game, sometimes with one partner taking over a part the other dislikes, such as the mining. Several reviewers add that survival is harder and lonelier solo, and co-op stability draws its own complaints (see the lag section).

Mods, the Workshop and creative modeMedium

Mods or the Workshop come up in 9.5% of the longer reviews. Players praise community creations and gameplay mods, especially Fant's mods: "Things get even more awesome with Fant Mod 3 + additional mods in custom game". Creative mode and custom games keep long-time players busy for hundreds of hours. Some modders say 1.0 broke or locked down parts of their work, and several want mods allowed in the main survival mode.

Where players are split

Story, quests and the castHigh

The story, quests, NPCs or dialogue come up in 25% of the longer reviews. Fans like having goals and a voiced cast: "There's quests, a really charmingly voice acted quest giver." Others find the quests are mostly fetch-and-build errands, and one wrote "All the missions are basic and awful fetch quests." The talkative characters draw both affection and eye-rolling; one positive review called the game "really great now.. except for Lorenzo.. and the phone calls.. omg the phone calls." A few reviewers criticise the final boss fight, one saying it gets stuck in co-op, and another calls the last boss and ending rushed.

Wonky physics: charm or obstacleHigh

Physics, bearings, suspension or clipping come up in 18.5% of the longer reviews, and players disagree about whether it is part of the fun. For some the odd physics are the comedy: "The physics are lovably bad and good at the same time." Engineers building heavier or more complex machines describe bearings that sag, suspension that shakes apart, wheels that slide and vehicles that clip into terrain, with one writing that "bearings are still just a suggestion, weight still causes horrible performance". Sticky wheels draw complaints of their own, with players saying they either let the car slide or get it stuck.

The underground mining chapterMedium

Mining, the mines or the quota come up in 10% of the longer reviews. Fans call it a fresh second half where the vehicle matters most, and one would "pay full price even if it was just the mining part". Critics find it a long grind, especially the escalating currency quotas between floors ("the number of WONK bucks you need to collect gets out of hand fast"), or say it feels like a different game; one positive reviewer liked everything "only up to the underground part... when it goes full minecraft it looses my interest".

Farm raidsMedium

Raids come up in 8.8% of the longer reviews. Some players love designing defenses: "The farm raids scale really well and force you to adapt/build better." Others describe 1.0 raids as too large for high-value crops, drop pods landing inside walled bases ("the bots spawn IN your base and explode everything") and large raids that drop frame rates sharply.

Removing hunger and thirstLow

Hunger or thirst comes up in 4.2% of the longer reviews. Some welcome the change ("They removed thirst and hunger. Now this game doesn't suck."), while survival purists say "the survival game isnt survival" without them, and a few ask for an optional hard mode or setting that brings the meters back.

The new lookLow

Opinions on the 1.0 visuals split. Some praise the new lighting and weather ("Amazing visuals with new lighting system now"), while others find the image blurry, miss the old look or say the update raised hardware demands enough to push older PCs out.

Price after 1.0Low

A small group notes that the price rose with 1.0; one positive reviewer says it was "worth every penny even with the price increase", while a negative one called it "not worth the price hike the game took". A few players in other regions complain about local pricing, and some advise waiting for a sale.

What frustrates players

Grind for kits, crops and ammoHigh

Grind, tedium or repetition comes up in 15% of the longer reviews. Players describe farming the same robots for component kits, growing crops that trigger raids just to make ammo and healing food, and resource costs that leave little time for building: "Enjoy farming haybots for 12 more hours." Newcomers in particular call the opening hours a slog of walking and errands. Fans accept it as part of the loop: "Is it a bit grindey? yes. is it worth it? also yes."

Combat, healing and the walk back after deathHigh

Combat, healing, respawning or the run back comes up in 15% of the longer reviews. Players describe melee with no block or dodge, robots that kill in a few hits, hitboxes that feel unfair and ranged enemies that spot you instantly. Healing means eating large amounts of food ("Well, better eat 30 corn to get your health back up"), and death drops your backpack far from your bed. The unstuck option, mentioned in 17 reviews, adds to the anger because it "drops all items and respawns you all the way back at the beginning of the game". One reviewer kept it short: "Fire the person who built the combat system."

Bugs, crashes and lost vehicles or savesHigh

Bugs, crashes, glitches or lost progress come up in 17.4% of the longer reviews. Reports include falling through terrain with a full inventory, vehicles vanishing, quest doors that stay shut ("once you get to grow lab 4, you cant progress past the door that requires the 3 green lights."), frequent crashes after 1.0, a broken save system in the challenge builder, and a patch that one player said ended up "corrupting peoples save files". Even fans warn: "Great game, BUT ALWAYS MAKE BACKUPS, the game WILL glitch and delete your vehicles from the world". A number of players say later patches fixed their crashes.

Lag with big builds, raids and co-opHigh

Lag, frame rate, optimization or multiplayer stability comes up in 17.9% of the longer reviews. Players report frame drops with many bearings or large creations and during large raids; one player says an area that keeps spawning bots took their PC from "around 60-70 FPS to 17-18 FPS". Co-op players describe desync, rubber-banding and disconnects: "we get disconnected every few minutes in Co-Op, with no automatic reconnection system." Others say single player runs well even on laptops and the Steam Deck, which points to heavy builds and multiplayer as where the trouble lies.

Bosses and the Trashbot fightMedium

Bosses or the Trashbot come up in 7.2% of the longer reviews, and the Trashbot is named in 56 reviews. Critics object to a dodge-heavy arena fight in a game about vehicles, with no checkpoint and further progress locked behind it: "Idk who decided to turn it into a bullet hell, but that has absolutely ruined the game for me." Some say they stopped playing there, and one used cheat mode to get past it. A few enjoyed it: "The Trashbot was really fun to fight."

The Seeker botMedium

The flying Seeker bot comes up in 84 reviews. Players describe an unkillable patrol that scans through cover, attacks vehicles and bases near roads and keeps returning: "Seeker bot is the most stupid thing you add to this game." Because the menu does not pause single player, several lost bases while away from the keyboard: "PLEASE MAKE THE PAUSE SCREEN ACTUALLY PAUSE THE GAME!" A few like the dread it adds ("seekerbot overhated, i honestly love that it just feels so alieny"), while others ask for fewer spawns or a way to destroy or remove it.

Missing basics: map, pause, controller supportMedium

Missing quality-of-life features come up in 9.2% of the longer reviews. The same requests recur: an in-game map, a real pause in single player, native controller support, toggle sprint, stack splitting, storage sorting and the ability to clear bushes when building. One reviewer listed: "No map. No pause. No brakes on your vehicle." Another asked "No Native controller support in 2026? No Toggle sprint."

Thin onboardingMedium

Tutorials, the learning curve or a lack of guidance come up in 5.1% of the longer reviews. New players say the game explains too little about building, healing and where to go ("the tutorial isnt helping a single soul."), and some say they asked for a refund within the first hours. Veterans tend to reply that the in-game guidebook and YouTube creators fill the gap.

Online requirement for single playerLow

Eighteen reviews object that the game needs a Steam connection even for solo play: "Thumbsdown due to online only requirement for a singleplayer game." Players with unstable internet describe being thrown out mid-session.

3. The player conversation

The older reviews in the slice, last edited before 1.0, are about the long Early Access wait. Players who loved the creative sandbox called the survival mode unfinished and the game abandoned, and joked that Chapter 2 would arrive after GTA 6. After 1.0, 1,237 reviews first written before release were edited, 82% of them positive, and some of those writers say in the text that they switched their rating after the update. Reviews written or edited since then judge the game as it now stands.

Reviews written after the game left Early Access are less positive (79.7%) than those written during it (85.4%). One likely reason is that they judge the new survival campaign. Newcomers who bought at 1.0 write about the opening hours, combat, healing and the lack of a tutorial or map. Long-time players praise the new content and also argue about the game's direction: the turn toward bosses and shooting, the removal of hunger and thirst, raid scaling, physics problems for advanced builds and changes that affected mods. Co-op players add netcode complaints.

Fans write warmly and joke a lot, with memes about clankers, wocs and spud guns turning up in many short reviews. Negative reviews are often detailed and reluctant, and many say how much the writer loves the building system. Several positive reviews raise the same problems as the negative ones, so much of the disagreement is over how much the survival friction weighs against the sandbox.

4. What the developers could do

1. Fix progression blockers and protect saves. Bugs, crashes and lost vehicles appear in 25% of the negative longer reviews, and players describe stuck quest doors, corrupted saves and vanished vehicles ending their playthroughs.
2. Rework early combat, healing and death. Combat and healing appear in 30% of the negative longer reviews, which ask for a block or dodge, some natural health regeneration, a less punishing respawn and an unstuck option that does not send players back to the crash site.
3. Cut the grind for kits, crops and mining quotas. Grind comes up in 15% of the longer reviews, which name component kits, ammo farming and escalating WONK quotas.
4. Give the Seeker bot and the Trashbot fight more options. Players ask for fewer Seeker spawns or a way to destroy it, and for checkpoints, difficulty settings or vehicle-based approaches in the Trashbot arena that gates progression.
5. Improve performance for heavy builds, raids and co-op. Lag and multiplayer issues come up in 17.9% of the longer reviews, which point to bearing-heavy creations, large raids and co-op disconnects.
6. Add the missing basics: a map, a true single-player pause and native controller support. These requests recur across reviews, and players who lost bases to the Seeker bot while away blame the missing pause.
7. Stop raid drop pods landing inside built bases. Players who build walled farms describe bots spawning inside them and destroying their crafting setups.
8. Allow offline single-player play. Reviewers with unstable connections say the online requirement kicks them out of solo sessions.