I mean absolutely no offense to @BrianRubin as he does some wonderful videos, but if you want to play Scavenger SV-4 I wouldn’t watch any Let’s Plays. I would just play it. Kind of like Soma. As for the anti-virus triggers, I haven’t noticed any problems, other than there are a few more Nigerian bankers recently who have important information for me about my credit card. No, seriously, it seems to work fine.
As for why I like it, this is the first game in probably decades that made me feel like I felt when I was a kid and exploring stuff where I had no idea what was going to happen, or even could happen. The presentation is genius: while the graphics are “indie” for sure, they fit perfectly with the theme which is that you have a probe that is sending back sketchy signals! What a great premise to make your graphics perfectly consistent with your story.
The first time [a certain thing] happened in the game, I literally jumped. Not like a jump-scare, but a jump like, oh wow, that was something I wasn’t expecting! What’s going on? Immersion isn’t the right word – it’s more that the game convinces me to cede to it that mental space that I reserve–while I am playing a game–for all the other things that happened to me during the day or that could happen later, that keeps me grounded in right here. It’s a volitional thing on my part, like Sandra Bullock letting go of George Clooney in Gravity. But instead of saving myself, I become George Clooney, mentally floating away, into Scavenger SV-4.
I also like the way it anchors me to a concrete geographical point (my ship) that actually becomes comforting through repetition. Unlike the stupid “wank pod” in Star Citizen, an obviously artificial construct that feels like the complete opposite of what it represents, the ship environs in Scavenger SV-4 become a familiar place that associated with the relief of getting the probe back. Even when I am not making progress, the ship feels like a haven. I’m not sure I have a good example of a similar phenomenon except maybe for Star Raiders on my old Atari 400. I would jump into a sector, and there would be this moment of complete possibility, when I came out of hyperspace. And then the Cylons or Zylons or Psilons would attack me, because that’s all that ever happened in that game. But for some reason, every sector felt really open and new. And then I would jump to a system with a starbase, and I would feel the sense of safety as I pulled up to dock, and then it was as homey as though I were lying down on my parents’ couch.
That’s all nonsense, as Star Raiders was nothing if not a monotonously repetitive game. But for the, I dunno, 12-year-old me, it was just sophisticated enough to be totally convincing. Scavenger SV-4 pretty much does the same thing for the present-day me, some forty years later, or at least gets as close to it as I can recall for a long time. I don’t want to talk any specifics because I really think that would detract from your experience. Buy it, play it, let me know if it works for you. But it is absolutely my top game of 2018.