Marauders News

Marauders is at the "precipice of a new genre"

The hardcore extraction looter genre has been dominated by one game and one game only recently and that's Escape From Tarkov. Developers have tried to muscle in to get a slice of the pie, only to fail somewhere along the way. However, Small Impact Games, the team behind Marauders, a game that will be getting its first public demo at WASD, believes we're about to see a whole wave of new extraction shooter games in the near future.

Speaking to The Loadout following an exclusive look at the game, Small Impact's Cameron Small and James Rowbotham believe we're "at the precipice of a new genre". While there are certainly games that cater to that looter shooter experience, none quite nail the experience like Escape From Tarkov - and it's something these two know has caught the attention of the development world.

"I think we're going to start seeing other competitive titles crop up soon," Small says. "I think we're hitting it at a good point, though. I'm not saying it's going to be like battle royale and this thing is going to explode and everyone's going to do it, but I know people are hungry for it.

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Marauders is much more than Escape From Tarkov in space

When Small Impact first told me it was creating a space game inspired by hardcore looter shooters like Escape From Tarkov, I had my doubts. Developers have long tried to replicate the success of Battlestate Games' extraction shooter to no avail. DICE attempted it with Battlefield 2042's Hazard Zone mode, as did Improbable with Scavengers, but neither really fulfilled the brief. After playing Marauders, though, I'm convinced Team 17's new developer is onto a winner.

Marauders is much more than just Escape From Tarkov in space. You're not just dropped into a No Man's Sky dieselpunk adventure with a gun and told to crack on. Instead, you're put behind the controls of a spaceship - in my case, the grand old Rust Bucket - in an alternative history setting and given the keys to the galaxy.

This is made even more exciting by the fact there are essentially three layers to the game: space exploration, ship fighting, and raids. Everyone starts out in space, where you and your squad pilot your way through a procedurally generated world, looking out for other ships or points of interest in the process. From there you find yourself a target, and you dictate how you want your raid to go; you can go full space pirate and attack other ships or you can dock at the nearest station and head in on foot.

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Marauders' developers looked to the Fear games for AI behaviour

One of the best things about playing an extraction shooter game are the interactions you have with others in-game. In Escape From Tarkov, real players and AI scavs patrol the map as you do, and distinguishing who's who during a tense firefight is part of the fun. Marauders is looking to replicate that success by basing its AI on the enemies of one of its biggest influences - Fear.

Monolith Productions' first-person shooter might look a little dated these days, but it really helped set the bar for having realistic non-playable characters. In Fear, the AI could dodge, fire from cover, and communicate with each other in order to set up ambushes. These skills made the AI seem more realistic - and at times, you felt like you were playing against real players.

This is something Small Impact Games is looking to replicate in Marauders, a new extraction shooter that'll be making its debut at WASD next month. James Rowbotham, Small Impact's UI, animation, and design developer, says Fear served as an inspiration for the team, especially in making their raids - which can accommodate up to 16 players - more lifelike.

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Marauders is a new Tarkov-style survival FPS game in space

Marauders is a Tarkov-style survival FPS game that wants to impart one key lesson - life is cruel. Indeed, it would have to be, in a Dieselpunk alternate history in which 'the Great War' never ended and everyone is fighting over scraps of the asteroid belt in the early '90s. Darwinism reigns supreme and Marauders is not going to give you a shiny insurance payout if you lose all your stuff.

"Losing all your stuff is tough," Cameron Small tells me. He's lead designer at Small Impact Games, a four-person studio that's working on Marauders with Team 17. "It's a tough thing to get over. But I don't think any feeling beats it in terms of progression." It's also a very risky strategy for an indie game in the battle royale-adjacent space, as he's quick to acknowledge, but: "as long as we can educate the player that they can go in with nothing and come out with everything, maybe it's worth [the risk]".

Small Impact was founded on a love of survival games, hardcore shooters like Escape from Tarkov, and about half a dozen other influences that all combine to make Marauders. The studio clearly revels in the harshness of Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' theory and the winner-take-all opportunities it implies; Cameron tells me he enjoys going into a game of Tarkov naked and seeing what he can walk away with. "Your first raid could be your best raid, or your worst," he muses.

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Introducing – Marauders

Small Impact Games and Team17 have partnered up to bring first-person, multiplayer, sci-fi looter shooter, Marauders, to PC.

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Marauders will be launching into Early Access on Steam in 2022.

Set in an early-1990s dieselpunk alternate future, you’ll step into the boots of a roving space pirate to explore and breach hostile spaceships; salvage valuable loot, including an arsenal of iconic weapons from the last century; and do battle with other players and AI enemies in tense multiplayer combat.

Play solo or squad up with three other players. Equip gear and weapons to increase your chances of survival while embarking on daring raids among the stars. Should you make it out alive, you’ll be able to use your haul in further matches, put those resources scavenged toward upgrading your ship, or sell everything for a tidy profit.

Key Features:

Immersive dieselpunk setting: Discover a gritty sci-fi world where Earth is on the brink of collapse and survival is in looting and shooting among the stars
Raid, loot, escape: Plunder deep-space battlegrounds and embark on daring raids for troves of valuable loot, then get out alive to claim your spoils and turn a healthy profit
Tense first-person combat: Work alone or with up to three other players to survive intense combat encounters with realistic bullet simulation against enemy teams and AI opponents
Persistent gear and XP: Keep your best gear match-to-match and tweak your favourite weapons with mods while using XP to unlock new items and increase your chances of survival
Upgradeable spaceships and explosive sci-fi dogfights: Upgrade your ship's armaments; build a brand-new craft with scavenged resources; or take someone else’s by force

[h2]Add Marauders to your Steam Wishlist to keep up to date with news and get notified when pre-orders go live![/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1789480/Marauders/

Marauders is being developed by Small Impact Games, an independent development studio based in the UK. Pre-orders will be live soon on Steam and will grant access to the game’s upcoming closed alpha.

Want to get hands-on before then? Marauders will have its global public hands-on demo at the Team17 booth during W.A.S.D., 7-9 April, in London, UK.

Join the conversation now and be a part of the Marauders community over in the official Discord server!

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