Scum
Gamepires · Survival, Action, Open World
Overview
Welcome to SCUM, a ruthless open-world survival game where deep character customization defines the prisoner you become. Loot, craft, hunt, build, and fight to outlast a hostile island where every choice can change your fate. Stay alive. Stay dangerous. Become harder to kill.
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Welcome to SCUM, a ruthless open-world survival game where prisoners are dropped onto a vast, hostile island and forced to survive by any means necessary.
Every decision shapes who you become and how long you last. Scavenge, loot, craft, hunt, build and fight for every advantage as you adapt to a world that wants you dead.
Stay alive. Stay dangerous. Become something harder to kill.
A Survival Game With Teeth
SCUM is built on deep, interconnected survival systems that give every choice weight.
Your health, survival skills, metabolism, and fatigue are all shaped by an intricate progression system that defines how long you last.
But you’re not alone out here. Former contestants re-animated as Puppets shamble across the land, mutated experiments twisted into monsters lurk in the dark, and every other player has the same goal as you: Survive long enough to leave a mark.
Risk-taking, high-stakes and tragedy all make for a great show. In SCUM your actions directly shape how you are perceived through the world’s reputation system.
Team-up or go it alone. SCUM gives you the systems, what you do with them is up to you.
The Island
You're trapped on a vast and dangerous island built for opportunity and discovery, so scavenge what you need and craft what you don’t have.
SCUM’s 225㎢ map is inspired by all aspects of Croatian territory. Sprawling across beautiful Adriatic coastline, lush forests and harsh freezing mountain sides. Explore high-security military zones and hidden corners of the island, all offering something worth claiming or something worth fearing.
The prisoners who look beyond the next meal may begin to understand what’s really going on here, if they live long enough.
If you can survive here, you can survive anywhere.
Do you have what it takes?
Key Features
Massive open world with diverse and dangerous environments
Deep character customization, metabolism and survival simulation systems
Complex crafting, looting and base building
PvP and PvE with no fixed progression path
Persistent character development and skill growth
A live-broadcast survival premise with real attitude
Ongoing development with expanding systems and world depth
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,996 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
SCUM splits its players. Fans describe one of the deepest survival simulations they have played: a body you manage down to vitamins, digestion and injuries, a large island that looks good, and the choice of playing solo, on a private server with friends, or on PvE and PvP community servers. Some of them say the steep learning curve is part of the appeal. 63% of the reviews in this slice recommend it, below Steam's lifetime English rating of 73%.
On the negative side, 28% of reviews with text mention bugs, crashes or updates that break working systems, and 20% mention spawns or AI: zombies ("puppets") and armed NPCs that appear right next to or behind the player, and NPCs that shoot through walls. Long-time players also object to the number of paid cosmetic DLC packs released while old bugs stay open, and some say 1.0 arrived without mod support or controller support. Cheaters on official servers, a cluttered UI and slow, empty stretches of play come up too. Praise and complaints often share a review: a reviewer will call the survival systems excellent and still not recommend the game because of spawns, bugs or cheaters.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Survival systems with real depth and realismHigh
20% of positive reviews with text praise SCUM's realism, immersion or simulation detail: metabolism, nutrition and vitamins, calories, illness, wounds that need real treatment, wet clothes that weigh you down, and a character whose attributes and skills grow with use. "The survival mechanics are deeper than most games in the genre, and the mix of PvP, looting, and base building keeps things interesting," one fan writes. Another singles out the diet model: "Excellent food and vitamin intake system."
Many reviews compare it with DayZ. Fans who make the comparison often call SCUM the deeper of the two, while some negative reviews tell readers to play DayZ instead. The depth also shows up in negative reviews (14% of them mention it), usually as the part that still works before the reviewer moves on to spawns, bugs or cheaters.
Many ways to play: solo, with friends, PvE or PvPHigh
A quarter of positive reviews with text (25%) mention how they play: single-player sandbox, a private server with friends, PvE community servers with traders and chat, or hardcore PvP. Fans advise newcomers to shop around for the right server: "Find a good PvEvP server and you will be set for a good time." Solo players like being able to learn the game offline first, and groups say it is at its best with a few friends on a server with their own rules. "Play solo or in groups, this is easily one of the most under rated games I have ever come across."
The same choice has costs that come up in the complaints: other players, admins and cheaters on public servers, and server settings that private hosts say they can't loosen as far as they want.
A large, good-looking islandMedium
Positive reviews often praise the graphics, lighting, weather and the size of the map, and the sense of exploring a big, dangerous place. "Insanely beautiful graphics, and the game play is really fun, hard but is rewarding." When the map is criticised, it is for what is on it. Some long-time players say the island feels empty between points of interest and that most buildings stay closed, and owners of small private servers say the map is too big for a handful of players.
Where players are split
The difficulty and learning curveHigh
Around 20% of positive reviews with text and 19% of negative ones talk about how hard, complex or punishing the game is. Fans warn newcomers to expect to die often, recommend YouTube guides, and say the effort pays off once they understand the systems. For others the same complexity is a wall. New players describe weak tutorials, long runs as a fresh spawn, low stamina, and character creation that feels opaque: "I spent nearly an hour just trying to figure out how to create a character so that I could start the game."
Other players, raids and community serversMedium
PvP fans enjoy the tension of a world where any stranger can kill you, and PvE players praise friendly trader hubs. The negative side is about how other people behave: spawn camping on PvE servers, groups that drive smaller players off a server, lockpicking that empties bases while their owners are offline, players hoarding vehicles, and admins on community servers who abuse their power. Several reviewers say they were banned without explanation and insist they never cheated. Complaints about admins come mostly from long-time players with hundreds of hours in the game.
Base buildingMedium
Some players call base building decent or a highlight, especially on PvE and private servers. Others, mainly veterans, describe a frustrating placement system: stairs and roofs that refuse to snap, "overlapping" errors, rules on building in caves, and restrictions that a private server owner cannot switch off. One fan who recommends the game anyway writes: "Base building sucks when comparing to other survival games but there is just so much more than that." On PvP servers, raiding and lockpicking make building feel pointless to some.
Bodily-function realismLow
Toilets, bowel movements and medical detail are a running joke in positive reviews, where players enjoy the absurd realism. A smaller group, some of them new players, find it tedious micromanagement and wanted a simpler survival game.
What frustrates players
Bugs, crashes and updates that break thingsHigh
Players describe "fatal error" and Unreal Engine crashes on launch or on joining a server, bodies that vanish after death, items lost from locked chests, vehicles launching into the air or sinking into the ground, and single-player saves that had to be deleted. Bugs, glitches, crashes or broken systems come up in 28% of negative reviews with text, and the reviewers raising them are more often long-time players than new ones. Some say the 1.0 release had more problems than Early Access ("1.0 full release is has more bugs then early acces"), and that updates break mechanics that worked and then need chains of follow-up fixes ("DLC Simulator with Bugs. Hotfixes for hotfixes.").
Puppets and NPCs that spawn on top of youHigh
A cleared town that fills up again the moment you make noise is the typical story in the 20% of negative reviews with text that complain about spawns or AI. Zombies and armed NPCs are described as appearing next to, behind or around the player rather than already being somewhere in the world, and armed NPCs and mechs as tracking players and shooting them through walls and buildings. "If you do hear them it just means they spawned 2 feet from you and you are going to get one shot or crippled if you have armor." Several veterans trace the problem to an earlier change to how puppets spawn and say it took the tension out of sneaking through a town. A minority of positive reviews enjoy the NPC raiders and mechs as a source of danger.
Too much paid DLC while the base game waitsMedium
DLC, cosmetics or cash grabs come up in 14% of negative reviews with text, against 2% of positive ones. These reviewers object to volume and timing: a steady stream of paid cosmetic packs (outfits, vehicle skins, character packs) while long-standing bugs stay unfixed. Some object to basic options such as hairstyles, music or photo mode being sold separately. "Stop pushing out DLC, fix the game, ban the cheaters already." Long-time players raise it most: 56% of the negative reviews about DLC come from players with 500+ hours in the game. A few fans defend the packs as cosmetic only and as funding for free updates.
Cheaters on official serversMedium
Cheaters, hackers or anti-cheat come up in 12% of negative reviews with text. Players describe aimbots, wallhacks that reveal stashes and vehicles, noclipping into bases, and lockpick hacks on official servers: "after gathering resources and building things and crafting equipment, only to lose it all in half a second to a hacker." Some reviewers point to private or whitelisted servers as the way around it. A smaller group objects to ID verification that reviewers say is now required on some official servers, and a few report crashes they trace to BattlEye.
A game that still feels unfinished after years of developmentMedium
Long-time players in particular say SCUM left Early Access without the things they were waiting for. Mod support and a workshop are the most frequent request; others name native controller support, smoother private server hosting or an endgame. Some say features they liked were removed or reworked for the worse along the way. Several of these reviewers still like the core game and want it completed, even while not recommending it: "Bro just finish the game. Great game."
A cluttered UI and clunky controlsMedium
The interface, inventory or controls draw complaints in 13% of negative reviews with text. Players mention crafting that does not recognise items in the inventory, items dropping out of hands, too many movement speeds on the mouse wheel, and dense stat screens. "I don't care if my character ate crackers two hours ago." New players raise this more than other complaints: 29% of the negative reviews about the UI come from players under 10 hours, against 19% of negative reviews overall.
Slow, empty stretches and little to do later onMedium
Boring, repetitive, grindy or short on endgame: 12% of negative reviews with text describe the game that way. Newer players describe long runs and scarce loot ("loot over 20 buildings, find 3 pairs of gloves and 1 nail"), while veterans say PvE has little to aim for once a base is built and that the map has stayed the same for years.
Performance and netcodeMedium
Stutter, frame drops, desync and rubber-banding come up in 9% of negative reviews with text, often together with crash reports. Some players say performance got worse as content was added, and a few mention high ping on servers in their region.
Price and refundsLow
Price, refunds or the game not being worth the money come up in 10% of negative reviews with text, often from players who quit early or who bought it to play with a friend and could not get it working together. Several say to wait for a sale.
Linux and Steam Deck players locked out of multiplayerLow
A small group of reviewers on Linux and Steam Deck say multiplayer is greyed out because of anti-cheat, while the rest of the game runs: "Allows servers to launch without battleye but still gatekeeping linux users from accessing multiplayer."
3. The player conversation
Some of the longest negative reviews come from players with hundreds or thousands of hours who still praise the survival systems while explaining why they stopped playing. Positive reviews range from one-line "best survival game" notes to detailed advice telling newcomers how to survive their first days.
Newcomers who quit early complain about the UI, controls, tutorials, the price and the general complexity. Veterans complain about bugs that survived many updates, the spawn system, cheaters, admins, base building rules and the DLC. The DLC and admin complaints lean furthest toward players with 500+ hours.
The weeks before the 1.0 launch were mostly 65% to 80% positive. The 1.0 launch week in June 2025 was the busiest week in the reviews (602 reviews) and only 46% positive, with complaints spread across bugs, spawns and complexity. Weekly shares recovered to roughly 60% to 75% over the following months, peaking at 88% in the last week of November 2025. September 2026 brought the lowest weeks since 1.0: the weeks of September 7 and 14 sat at 46% and 35% positive. Close to half of the negative reviews with text from those two weeks raised the DLC, and a similar share raised bugs.
4. What the developers could do
- Rework the spawn system so puppets and NPCs never appear next to the player. Spawns and AI that shoot through walls come up in 20% of negative reviews with text, and several veterans say the spawn change took the tension out of sneaking through a town.
- Put bug fixing and stable updates ahead of new content. Bugs, crashes and updates that break working systems are raised in 28% of negative reviews with text.
- Slow the pace of paid cosmetic DLC and pair each pack with visible fixes. 14% of negative reviews with text bring up DLC, mostly long-time players who see new packs arriving while old bugs stay open.
- Strengthen anti-cheat and make bans transparent on official servers. 12% of negative reviews with text mention cheaters, and several reviewers who say they never cheated report bans with no clear explanation.
- Simplify the UI, inventory and crafting, and improve the tutorial. New players describe getting lost in menus and character creation before the game even starts, and UI complaints lean toward players under 10 hours.
- Deliver the long-promised mod support and controller support. Mod support is a recurring request in negative reviews, and some controller players say they bought the game expecting native support that never came.
- Give private server owners full control over building and server limits. Hosts say placement restrictions and hard caps on settings stop them running the server they paid for.
- Add longer-term goals for PvE and solo play. Players who settle in describe little to aim for once a base is built.
