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On a scale of 1-10, 5 should be average, which puts Scrapland just over that boundary, bordering on "good". In fact, Scrapland is a relatively good game, aside from a few undercooked play elements.
The game starts out with your character arriving at this new asteroid world. You are given a job as a reporter and sent straight into a murder-mystery plot that quickly thickens. Unfortunately, at this point the missions start to become somewhat repetitive and tedious. Most of the time you are sent out on errands to get/do/find something for someone who will then advance the storyline to the next reference character, who will send you out to get/do/find something in order to... you get the idea.
This is not to say that the game is a strictly linear progression of of these missions without any deviation. Scrapland offers a very "GTA-ish" feel to the world. You can advance the storyline generally at your own pace, while engaging in side quests and other business on your own time as you choose.
One facet of the gameplay that affects both the main story and the open-ended play is your special ability to essentially morph into other character types, giving you different special abilities. The banker type, for instance, can siphon money from other characters as they walk around, allowing you to pilfer their wallets while walking along behind them. Another character, a politician, can put people to sleep with his powerfully boring speech ability. Of course, using some of these abilities to your own benefit will alert the police, who will commence chasing you around, much like GTA. I personally found the banker ability to be quite amusing, as well as profitable.
Those profits, whether won through missions or mischief, are not just a points mechanism either. Along the way you will find plans to build new vehicles to drive around or new parts to upgrade your vehicles. These range from heavier models that support more engines and weapons, to lighter frames for better racing. You can tailor your upgrades with engines, armor, various weapons, etc... to personalize your ride. This feature adds more of a strategic component to the game as well, since different frames and parts can provide different performance to meet different needs. For instance, you may want a lighter frame with less armor and some specific weapons for racing, but a heavier frame with better acceleration and armor for dog-fighting missions.
Powering these nice open-ended play options is a well-developed and graphically pleasing engine. The game is brightly lit. The world and characters are very shiny and colorful. The graphics move quite nicely, without any noticeable framerate drops for me, even in the fast-paced dog-fighting sequences out in the open city areas. I was quite impressed, especially since I have a less-than-bleeding-edge system and was running the game at 1280x1024.
In addition to the graphics, the storyline is pretty good, though the beginning seemed to be the most interesting part, which got me to keep playing, even when the story got bogged down later on. The voice-acting is generally good as well, and each character and robot type seems to have a fitting personality and voice to accompany his/her behavior and attitude about your character and the world around them.
In the end, this was a good game that just seems to have lost sight of sound gameplay fundamentals like diverse missions and a more energetic story to carry the player along. If those things had come out as well as the other implementation aspects that did succeed, Scrapland would be a true gem. As it stands, the game offers quite a few reasons to enjoy it, but just cannot escape the average category.
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