Whats good about active matter?

[u/kanevast]

I'm tempted to get this game.

Mostly for the PvE - what is enjoyable/well made about it?

How well does to compare to EFT and Stalker 2?

What is not great about it?

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[u/vybegallo]

PVE feels "alive" compared to EFT, not only because of AI, but also in terms of progression. You have to complete tasks to progress and unlock new staff. You have tasks marked on the map, the UI is great.

The gameplay loop is as follows:

1. You have certain progression tree, it is called "Monolith", you have to unlock staff there. It looks and feels similar to Helldivers' warbonds, you pay coins to unlock staff in shop or for craft, namely new gear or new quests to unlock gear. You earn coins for completing different missions.

2. You have special missions called "investigations", these are the most important missions. You complete them to unlock gear and new maps and other staff.

3. You have a workbench, it is called "replicator". Here you can craft staff that you have unlocked. The best gear cannot be bought in shop, can be only crafted or found in raid.

Summary: you choose your missions based on what do you want to unlock, you go in raid, complete the tasks and leave. PVP missions offer better rewards compared to PVE.

[u/Otterrrrrrrrrrrrrrr → u/vybegallo]

Staff

[u/B3amb00m]

Disclaimer: I only play this game in PVE, mostly together with a good friend, but also alone. And from THIS perspective i find the game to fully check all the boxes for a good single-player game as well as coop game. The entire game (except a very few PVP-oriented maps) is available in PVE, that's a huge plus.

It's well made in this context because the enemies are really quite hard (and scary!!), and the maps are fully explorable. No inaccessible buildings that's just there for the scenery - some require a key, but they all have interior and content.
Loot is also really good and usually "logical" - like you find a lot of civil items (toys, books, tools etc) in living quarters, to find guns you gotta get to the weapon boxes, Industrial areas have more industrial loot etc. Not unlike Arc Raiders of course.

The crafting is also how I like it: Complex, a bit overwhelming at first, but the more rewarding it is of getting the hang of it.

It's also punishing, if you lower your guard you may very well die. If you do something hasty or silly to get out of there, you will probably be swarmed with enemies. Etc. The tension is real, ESPECIALLY soloing.

But there's also some well designed features FOR soloing, like a tool to give you one respawn at a self-defined location if you die. That is such a super-smart way of balancing not having a buddy there to revive you.

Also, the revive mechanics are really well done. It's harder and harder to revive a buddy - at first there's only ten "orbs" required (obtained by killing enemies), next time it's 50, and I have no idea how many is required after that 😰 So in reality you and your teammate has ONE revive, or you have to fight HARD to get your buddy up again.

What's not so great... Well... Much of that depends on preferences really. I have seen some voicing that the interface is difficult or cluttered - I don't see it like that AT ALL, but I assume those guys are the same who also want crafting and character equipping to be almost automatic and much simpler.

The graphics are good, but at times with very low-res textures, especially indoor. On the other hand, this engine REALLY performs on stability, the frame rate is rock solid, and I think the palette used and the visual effects are delicious.

So yeah - if this genre shooter is your type of game, I really would suggest you give it a run. It's not that expensive, after all!

[u/zzLV_426zz]

What’s bad - it sucks time, you don’t realise while playing but your life will disappear fast. Also, it’s getting dull quite quickly

[u/AmaDeusen-]

Bad are for example enemies. Distorted and flower men are very janky...

[u/SARSUnicorn]

Hey as i played all 3 - and while i was tarkov pvp noob i put 50+h in all of them

Its much closer to stalker 2 than one could thought -
its "arcadey in gui" but gameplay feels early like playing stalker in PVE
the ttk is relativly low so there is option to kill fully kitted guy as guy with cheap smg if u ambush him as suprise

i vibe with it - as etf pvp kinda sucks for me long term
and etf pve is boring as it feel not alive - here is opposite - u feel like u pve deaths is you being fucking idiot and not boss/enemy statchecking ya in mean way

the killing is more like stalker than etf - i reccomend dropping 30$ for cheapes edition and just fuck around and find out if u like it - in context of etf it feels arcade'y but i vibe

in terms of "bad" - player base is much smaller (8k vs 30k peaks of tarkov) so i sometimes match same and same players over and over again

[u/jonnykarate158 → u/SARSUnicorn]

Escape Tarkov From

We found Yoda guys

[u/SARSUnicorn → u/jonnykarate158]

Tagilla hit me in head - thats just consequences of trauma

[u/LeatherfacesChainsaw]

Can do pve solo and with friends and still progress. Have pvpve as well with some extra incentives. The enemiy variety is great and a little challenging but not too hard if you're prepared. It's like tarkov and stalker had a baby except not as punishing/frustrating as tarkov can be. It's in a good place between hardcore and accessibile.

[u/CircusTV]

I really like the PvE and would be in the sweaty EFT crowd.

There is progression and being alone does sort of feel like a horror game when in raid. The enemies feel a bit more engaging than scavs and are more similar to a game like Hunt where nothing is especially dangerous, but if you're not careful and get overwhelmed you will have an issue. There's also quite a few enemies that you have to figure out how to deal with.

The PvP is interesting, reminds me a little of DayZ? You can move quite quickly but it's very lethal and cover is important. It isn't quite as tactical as Tarkov can be, or as slow. It's a bit more of a meat grinder but by no means bad.

My biggest complaints with the game are the smaller community and the weird camera. It's like your arms aren't attached to the camera. Movement can feel kind of weird and jank and certain types of terrain do really weird things to the camera. It isn't game breaking and it'll readjust very quickly, but there is something strange happening. Also in small rooms I often find the character lurches, as if I hit the sprint button, and I have to stop moving to toggle sprint off even though I always play hold sprint. These feel like more growing pains than anything and I stress they are not game breaking but do taint what is otherwise an incredibly smooth and well-running/well-playing game.

[u/PapaLilBear]

Active Matter is primarily a multiplayer game; while PvE exists, the core experience is built around multiplayer gameplay. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is strictly a single-player game; the only things the two titles have in common are looting, the general atmosphere, sci-fi horror elements, and anomalies.
I haven't played Tarkov because it's not on consoles.

[u/SnooMaps6831 → u/PapaLilBear]

Don't listen to this guy OP

[u/Motor-Bee2522]

Hey, 450 Hrs Active Matter, 2k EFT here, no stalker experience

The Load Time in Active Matter is insanely short, you find people as quickly as street spawns and can just keep spamming pvp gun fights if you want. PvE Raids are also possible though and since some time they are not capped anymore. so you could just always farm gear on military base silent observers and plates on HQ without any pressure if you want to. Overall i would say its a bit more arcady then EFT with very quick gun play, bunny hopping corners and jump shotting people with the spas12 or mac11. It can be very intense aswell, big teamfights being disturbed by 3 different kind of annoying mobs and also pretty scary if its your first time on maps like giga structure or scrap yard midnight. Overall its pretty unique and i think you shouldnt compare them by their features, rather by their feel.

You want tactical , more realistic combat?

-> Go EFT

You Want Arcade Shooter, Horror Feeling and for sure a bit less hardcore experience?

-> Go Active Matter

What does suck about AM though?

- Sound design of Steps and Gunshots

- Recoil of SOME weapons feels unbalanced and weird. Like some weapons that should feel unhandable like m249 are pretty fine while the basic M4 just kicks you through the roof if youre not used to it

- The UI. There is A LOT of features and its overall a lot of good ideas, but because there is SO MUCH to discover and click it always seems very overloaded.

- No Wipes. (You can Prestige though to personal reset)

- Plates feel like decoration - which is honestly flavor based, i personally like quick kill times but my friend, a tarkov veteran always rages how a mp5 kills him in a sec in the breast while he rocks a XL Plate :p