Danger Scavenger | PS4 Review
Updated: Nov 18, 2021
Danger Scavenger, developed by Star Drifters and published by Forever Entertainment is a fast-paced roguelite, and it is available on Windows PC, PlayStation, XBox, and Nintendo Switch. For the purpose of my review I was playing the PlayStation 4 version.
The object of Danger Scavenger is to progress up the rising tower blocks, taking down robots and building up your arsenal in preparation for the big boss at the end of the level. You start each level in your underground hide-out which is where you select your character; choose your starting weapon and use the resources you’ve collected during your runs to upgrade your character's loadout. The variety of characters is very stereotypical for these types of games and the options will likely cater to just about any playstyle with each character having their own select skill set.
Danger Scavenger sticks fairly rigidly to a very typical roguelite method where all the floors are totally randomised. After you clear a floor you get shown what type of enemies will be on the other side of the door and within the floors there are chests with randomised weapons and stat upgrades. There are also shops randomly around where you can buy other upgrades or some extra health if you're struggling. Alongside this, there are also rooms where you get the option of 3 perks that, whilst they help you, they can also hinder you for an amount of time. For example, your movement speed is reduced by 30% until you kill 50 enemies but after that you do more damage.
Danger Scavenger has a lot of aspects similar to other big titles in the genre. For me it very much felt like a cross between Risk of Rain, Enter the Gungeon, and Hades. It really felt like a nice mash-up of those games with aspects clearly inspired by these games. There's a wacky and unique variation of weapons including a frying pan along with your typical variety of shotguns and pistols. My favourite weapon was a revolver as I found it easiest to use and had a really good time with it. Whenever you pick up a stat upgrade, it comes in the form of a cowboy hat or glasses so they visually appear on your character during the run which is a really fun, quirky feature.
I feel like the skill level required for Danger Scavenger is a difficult one to quantify. Whilst it's to be expected for a roguelite to require a good bit of practice before that first initial completion, I feel like I would need to spend far too much time perfecting every aspect of the game to get terribly far because the levels are so long - I’d almost say too long. By the time you're halfway to the boss room you’d just rather be done with it. I’ve now beaten the first boss and haven’t even come close to the second. Considering I’ve played quite a substantial amount, I’d have generally expected to make more progress through the various levels but it really is a struggle. This kind of sapped the energy out of me.
With all this said, it doesn’t make Danger Scavenger a bad game. I think the challenge in terms of the amount of floors per level will be a welcome one to roguelite enthusiasts. The levels have a great, unique feel. The gunplay is fun and the mechanics are pretty functional and cause little problems. I think I’d have liked to see Danger Scavenger bring something unique to the roguelite table; but I don’t feel like it does. Instead, it takes successful aspects from other popular titles and merges them together into one.
Lj’s Rating: 3.5 bits of scrap out of 5.
For more information on Danger Scavenger please use the following links...
Star Drifters - Developer | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Forever Entertainment - Publisher | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Many thanks to Forever Entertainment for the Review Key.
Danger Scavenger | Steam | PlayStation | XBox | Nintendo
#DangerScavenger #StarDrifters #ForeverEntertainment #Roguelite #IndieGame