Scrapland

Xbox console exclusive

In this game by American McGee you play as D-Tritus, a robot new to Scrapland, an asteroid inhabited entirely by robots inside a giant debris field, who has to stop someone from killing several important robots and taking over Scrapland.

Released: 4 November 2004
Platforms: Windows Xbox
Genres: Action-adventure Adventure Platformer Post-apocalyptic Racing Science
Developers: —
Publishers: Enlight Software
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Themes: Action Science fiction Sandbox Open world
Country: Spain
Age ratings: PEGI 12 ESRB T

About

American McGee Presents: Scrapland is a 2004 action-adventure video game developed by MercurySteam, with American McGee as an executive producer and published by Enlight Software. A remastered version was released for Windows on December 13, 2021.

›Story

"Set inside a debris field thousands of miles wide is the tiny asteroid called Scrapland. Centuries of destructive exploitation by a race long gone, reduced what was once a paradise into a world inhabited only by machines. Those machines, robots of all shapes and sizes, rebuilt Scrapland into an awe-inspiring metropolis of glittering greatness.

As the robots rebuilt the world they also created a new class of citizens: policemen, bankers, priests, and civil servants. This fledgling society was transformed dramatically by the discovery of a device dubbed “The Great Database”. With it the robots could easily revive any expired or nonfunctional automaton. Death became a thing of the past.

Against this backdrop you join the story of an outsider named D-Tritus who arrives at Scrapland amid a string of bizarre murders. D-Tritus lands a job investigating the killings and eventually becomes entangled in a web of conspiracy that only his quick wits and a little help from his friends will save him from."

Keywords

cyberpunk
robots
action-adventure
achievements
based on - book
dark humor
robot protagonist
developer cameo
xbox 360 backwards compatibility

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Story

Scrapland's story is set in the robot-populated world of the same name, also known by the inhabitants as Chimera, which seems like a giant asteroid vastly industrialized as a metropolis and surrounded by a world-scaled energy field and an orbital ring, both used to control entrance and exit of the planet.

Development

According to American McGee, the game was designed and produced by Enrique Alvarez, the studio head at MercurySteam. McGee does not take credit for the game's development, referring to himself as "just the marketing tool". Alvarez pitched the idea for Scrapland to McGee while McGee was working as an executive producer at Enlight. The game was in development for 2 years.

The game was initially released for Windows in North America on November 4, 2004. A port for Xbox shipped on March 4, 2005, and arrived on store shelves three days later on March 7. Both versions were released in Europe on March 18, 2005. The Xbox port was released in Australia on April 7, 2005.

Reception

Scrapland received "average" reviews on both platforms according to video game review aggregator website Metacritic. Game Informer criticized the Xbox version's on-foot sections, "which would appear to be in the game for the sole purpose of annoying people. Scrap indeed." IGN gave the same console version a more positive review, saying "I would have liked to have seen more variety and lateral flexibility in the single-player... Overall, the game's refreshing sense of personality wins out over everything else."

The editors of Computer Gaming World nominated Scrapland for their 2004 "Action Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.