14 DAY TRIAL // There was one point in NEO Scavenger when, despite having won two fights and the fact that I was carrying a handgun and had access to a solid backpack with supplies, my character was dying and I seemed to be unable to do anything about it.
It was night and I had two bottles filled with coffee but no water, which meant that I needed to cover ground in order to find a hex which had a pond or scavenge enough to get access to a filled bottle.
I was not eagle-eyed, which meant that my vision was limited, and I was also afraid of some feral dogs that roamed around the area.
NEO Scavenger is the kind of game that can easily create these kinds of situations, where gamers need to take risks in order to keep their characters alive while also trying to make sure that they lose as little as possible in the way of resources so that they can thrive if they manage to survive.
I managed to find a hex with water, used the pond and drank deeply, even if that had its own dangers, and then I dumped all the coffee and loaded up on more H2O, although it was clear even as I made the decision that at one point I might regret it.
NEO Scavenger understands how to place limits
A character can only carry stuff around in bags, baggy pants or backpacks, some of which are very hard to find and have a tendency to break down at the most inopportune moments.
But even if the player has a lot of supplies, he or she never has enough to protect against everything the world of the game can create, and fear and tension are companions for all those playing NEO Scavenger.
Water might seem easy to find, but I had moments, especially after a tough battle that I barely managed to win or escape from, when it seemed like the most important thing in the world.
The kind of tension that NEO Scavenger can create reminds me of FTL, another game that allowed players to try and create successful builds for their character, in this case the ship and the crew, while also making it clear that there were enemies that could easily take them out at any point.
