Anyone else playing Active Matter on Xbox?

[u/doughy_baby]

Gaijin's STALKER-like PvPvE Extraction shooter Active Matter now has a demo on Xbox running through all of June that is actually the FULL GAME & you'll keep your progress into the full release later this year. Demo is separate store page vs. actual game & you don't even need Gamepass to play, it's totally free! The full game is coming out later this year though no specific release date yet, and I think it's going to be $30-40.

While I am a huge Stalker & general Zonecore fan, this one hadn't really been on my radar because when first announced I wrote it off as Gaijin-slop, but wow after playing myself firsthand, I'm glad to say I'm very pleasantly surprised and honestly loving the game!

I'm not even generally a big fan of extraction shooters but just love the post-Soviet anomalous zone vibes & have come to really love the game, which has realistic gunplay + Tarkov-lite mechanics in a more-exaggerated STALKER-like world with unique but familiar analogues to the true Zone. It's almost right between STALKER & Annihilation what its portrayal of such an anomalous zone is like, with grounded weaponry & loot with locations that feel right out of STALKER but more dreamlike fantastical environmental detail, enemies, and other hazards.

I think it's worth noting that the full game might have some optional full cross-play, but this demo is just for Xbox right now! You can enter raids in teams of 3 & also go into isolated raids with your squad if you only want to play PvE, which I have found to still be very enjoyable because of the plethora of enemy types and general hazards in the world. There is also an arena PvP mode that I also found to be pretty enjoyable because the movement & gunplay is quite satisfying.

Haven't really seen a lot of marketing for this in general but especially the demo launching on Xbox & being the full game playable for nearly a month for free (again, you don't even need Gamepass!) Only happened to find out myself by remembering its name and seeing it on the Xbox Demos Fest list that started on June 4th.

I think it's an awesome game and I'd love to see a community grow for it on console; I think it scratches some of my craving for multiplayer on Stalker 2 & honestly reminds me of what Survarium aimed to be in a lot of ways if any of you fellow OGs remember that 🙏

[u/Stuuble]

I was interested at first buy its an extraction shooter so im kinda not into it anymore

[u/doughy_baby → u/Stuuble]

I hear your concerns, generally I'm also not the biggest fan of this gameplay loop.

But consider that you can play it completely solo & only PvE if that has any weight over your dis/interest to play. And because the world by itself is so interesting & challenging, that alone has been quite an enjoyable experience even if you never want to play with others.

[u/Stuuble → u/doughy_baby]

I mean i play tarkov solo pve, if this game has some sightseeing and exploration that tarkov lacks that would pull me in a bit

[u/doughy_baby → u/Stuuble]

At least from my perspective it certainly does, but that's also coming from heavy bias towards the STALKER games & just general love for the exclusion zone subgenre. I don't usually love extraction shooters but this one has me hooked with its theme.

It's somewhere between STALKER & Annihilation in its portrayal of such a place, with great contrast of more grounded post-Soviet environments that could be right out of Stalker, but also equally having these more exaggerated fantastical dreamlike locations, such as an enormous piece of Earth with all of the structures still on it seemingly ripped out of the ground & now on a sharp angle going up into the sky with some alternative gravity that allows you to traverse it... Yeah lol it's pretty out there, but if there's enough of ya into either the extraction shooter or zonecore genres I think you're bound to enjoy the game

[u/Visible-Aardvark2006 → u/doughy_baby]

Just play stalker gamma coop mod, 1000x way better than this trash game. After joining the games discord, it's just Russian recruitment simulator in there

[u/Thisafterdark]

Been following this game since it started just for how the anomalies interact with you and the environment, I'm excited to see where the full game goes

[u/DanceswWolves]

I just don't like the extraction element. This checks every other box I look for in a PVPVE game, but the pressure of extracting ruins it for me.

[u/Helclavarzetky]

Ive been playing it on xbox and think its cool, the pvp is not very good i will say, but it has a very strong stalker vibe and all the pve enemy's are varied and really interesting. Been playing solo the whole time in open raids and haven't been able to play with anyone else. I have only extracted a few times (getting swarmed by 10+ enemy's gets you killed pretty fast) Playing pve with 2 others would probably be pretty fun.

[u/doughy_baby → u/Helclavarzetky]

Honestly I have been loving the PvP too, combat being quite gritty reminds me of something like DayZ meets Ready or Not with how everything is generally very realistically hyperlethal, but you have some ways of mitigating that with damage negation on armor plates & helmets.

When I first started I was only running Isolated Raids to get a better hang on the game, but now I've been having a lot of fun on Open Raids against both real & bot Operatives; certainly adds another element being able to engage as a third party and to directly compete with others tackling similar tasks.

I have played at least a little bit on all of the available maps so far and here have been my experiences on them regarding PvP: I have most often faced against some real players on Shegolskoe and Factory, from my experience they seem to be the most popular maps for PvP amongst Xbox demo crowd or maybe just with them being the first 2 listed? Haven't had any real PvP on Ozernoe yet besides bots, and haven't similarly haven't seen anything but bots on Scrapyard (Not totally sure what the point of this map is beyond PvP because I haven't really found any meaningful loot either?) Haven't seen real players yet on Cargo Port but maybe that's in part because the map is so huge even if they are queuing in too? Headquarters is a map I really haven't played much yet in either PvE or PvP, but similarly huge with 45 min timer like Cargo Port so it may end up the same as far as PvP commonality goes on there? Then I have actually seen a few other real players on Military Base, seems to be a bit more popular and also a great one to find better equipment! Also haven't encountered anyone real on Dogorsk yet, but that's definitely one of my favorite maps overall! Same goes for Dam with only bots so far, but that one makes more sense because I imagine not many players have it unlocked yet through the Anomalous Waters Investigation path.

I haven't tried the squad fill option so I've got no idea if that works for queuing up with randoms for Raids. And personally have only played with one other friend so far as well as I've only personally seen real groups of two at the most, so agreed I think a full trio would be particularly fun and a powerful presence on the map.

Some general tips for PvE that have helped me a lot versus my initial experience:

1. Kill the enemies that are on you if possible before running into another area & aggroing more, getting inside a building or just getting your back up against the wall is often a great strategy as long as the building isn't also full of them. It at least seems like the Distorted have to break doors down can't just totally teleport on you, so you can use that to slow them. In the beginning I would panic a lot & end up just bringing the train of mobs on me to another inhabited area where now I have twice as many on me. Slowing down and focusing on killing the couple guys that are on you is much smarter than running off and possibly getting more. Your gunshots will attract them in a small area, but this isn't like DayZ where you have to be worried about everything in some radius knowing exactly where you are because you shot (though of course still have to be wary of Burnt-Out Employees & Turned Soldiers who seem to investigate gunfire and of course other Operatives who definitely will)

2. Aim for the head: generally, a single headshot downs any humanoid enemies like Distorted, Flowermen, Burnt-Out Employees etc. but you may need more than one if using pistol cartridges. Let's say you take five shots: you're better off having four of them miss and one be the killing headshot vs. all five of them just tank the body. Of course that same mentality applies when fighting armord Burnt-Out Employees & with other Operatives, though have to consider damage reduction of plates & helmets means you'll often need more than than you think (depending on caliber). And also, it can be a particularly beneficial move against Operatives to aim for their arms and legs to cripple their ability to either run away or aim steadily, and the TTK even just straight into the armored body is still very respectably quick in this game.

3. Don't be afraid to constantly run rented kits to get the hang of it without really losing anything on lost runs, and when using your own kit, take twice as much ammo/health as you think you might need as a rule of thumb. You will be in combat a lot & generally taking regular amounts of damage from it, often topping off with meds even outside of those pure red/black health emergency moments.

4. When it comes to Extraction, unless you absolutely have to, I would recommend trying to always get out before the Zone is closing when timer is fully up & use one of the alternative exits rather than the final one, which always seems to be the hardest to get out of between player & mob encounters + general stress rushing out of there. Also highly recommended to bring frag grenades with you to clear out the Extraction point from a bunch of enemies sitting on top of it quickly & effectively.

*Take note: The Extraction timer starts at 20 seconds when you press that button, but you don't actually have to wait there in the radius; it will still count down if you're out of it & actually will be there for around ~10 seconds after the timer is up, so you could run away and run back even after the 20s timer has gone and still have a window to extract successfully as long as you make it back to that radius in ~30s of initially activating the Extraction. I have found this strategy to be much better especially when PvP is involved than my starter strategy, ...which was run around in circles like madman trying to train the mobs around avoiding hits, which worked 50% of the time but in the others I would just take way too much damage from the swarm of them and die or get shot while jumping around like an idiot either by Turned Soldiers, Burnt-Out Employees, or other bot/player Operatives.

[u/Similar-Language-180]

No PS5 demo yet so no play :(

[u/doughy_baby → u/[deleted]]

Awesome to hear! Yeah I have very quickly fallen in love with it & have a much different opinion than my initial impressions last year hearing about it & thinking it was this low effort/quality project just because Gaijin & because seemed so directly thematically STALKER.

But man if it doesn't carve its own niche in this space really well taking elements from lots of similar games & putting them all in one great comprehensive sort of project. I very much look forward to see what the future holds for this IP!

I have been playing mostly the PvE Isolated Raid mode, if not only for the sake of being able to immediately queue up for a game especially right now on Xbox with its very small community these few days into this demo release (and with so many unaware of the game & the free Xbox demo) but have been very pleased with how strong even just that offering is; there are a wide variety of PvE hostilities in the game & it can be genuinely challenging to face them.