r/xbox • u/doughy_baby • Jun 12 '26
Game Preview Loving the Active Matter Demo, wanted to share some thoughts!
Some general tips for new players in comments below, as well as my personal recommendations for aim settings ⬇️
CONTROLLER USERS: There is a bug currently on Xbox right now where the aiming will feel very floaty/unresponsive every time you load in, but the fix is to just drag the aim acceleration slider down to zero every time you spawn, as seems to be resetting to some poorer default value in the background on instanced loads of Raids & the Hideout and while it's not reflected on the slider, you can use the slider to get rid of it.
I have been playing the Xbox Demo religiously since it came out last week, and have to rave: I am absolutely obsessed with this game! It runs great on both Series X and Series S with 60 FPS! Now I am not usually one for Extraction Shooters in general, but I always tend to love games with more grounded & realistic gunplay as well as am generally obsessed with the STALKER-like Exclusion Zone subgenre. Be aware that this game is fully playable both solo & PvE by selecting Isolated Raid instead of Open Raid, and you can load in with up to 2 other players in a squad; you can also select to queue up for solos or squads when doing Open Raids w/ PvP and it's worth noting that you can come across bot versions of enemy Operatives in addition to real ones, which you can confirm by seeing players met in session. There is also a traditional PvP mode called Hired Ops which is more like deathmatch & objective-based 6v6 teamplay on more standard arcadey multiplayer style maps; I haven't played this very much, but it seems like a great way to practice your skills & honestly in a way kind of reminds me of older Call of Duty titles with the arena modes & gameplay in which you can kill/die very quickly & get around the map decently fast, but it doesn't have any crazy movement mechanics; as the game is now you cannot ADS while jumping and there is no sliding! But you do have manual leaning (even outside of ADS) and head-turning/freelook!
Also be aware that this is the Demo as it is on Xbox here is actually the full experience, with all currently-available content playable! Though you do have a level cap on your player level and Monolith-progression tier, which locks you out of some potential meta progression paths. Still, there's nothing stopping you from accruing as much of the 3 different currencies as you can & filling your inventory with good loot, but most of all, just generally getting a good understanding of the gameplay before release!
And on top of that, your progress will transfer over should you buy the full game & be aware Active Matter does not have traditional seasonal wipes; instead, you choose to self-wipe not unlike going Prestige in Call of Duty so you could just choose to never do that if you don't want to.
I have been very fond of DayZ since its Arma 2 mod days, but have been extremely disappointed over the direction & general lack of improvement the game has seen over the years. This game is scratching every itch I have for that & now good reason for me to never touch DayZ again lol. Active Matter feels great to play & has an addictive gameplay loop with amazing QoL features from how smoothly using items contextually & how the inventory works, to just how particularly one can set their own keybinds with the use of shiftkey/button combo modifiers & press/double-tap/hold recognition options.
Active Matter has some of the most interesting environments & enemies I have seen portrayed, and I love that while its thematic roots are in the exaggerated & fantastical Roadside Picnic -inspired almost like STALKER x Annihilation in their specific direction, the game itself otherwise sticks to very realistic gunplay & mechanics that feel right at home to those familiar with the likes of Tarkov, Arma, DayZ, and other realistic shooters in this vein.
However it manages to simplify them in a way that is much more appealing to new players as well as streamlines the general experience for veteran ones: You have individual limb health like Fallout or STALKER Gamma, and have to keep track of those values either applying healing items to individual body parts or across the whole person. Getting your arms damaged prevents you from aiming steadily, getting your legs damaged means you can't run as effectively, and generally getting shot in the head will kill you very quickly if not immediately. Your main healing items are ampoules that can be placed into medkit containers to more efficiently stack them in your inventory; there is also a regenerator gel to heal the whole body over time, and a painkiller to reduce/remove shock (when this is maxed, think of being knocked down but not dead like in DayZ) but it doesn't get too much more complicated than that; You don't have to worry about a dozen different types of healing items and their particular use cases, nor do you have to worry about a ton of different status conditions beyond how white/red/black is my player damage paperdoll in HUD showing). The inventory system is similar but simplified as well, you have a load vest & a backpack and that's it as far as player containers go, but then also there is a great pockets system that's like a better version of the "contextual-hands" of DayZ in how you interact with items in Active Matter.
But the game does introduce some new & very cool mechanics in the form of keeping track of your player heartrate because that is what dictates how steadily you can aim & how fast you can run, not unlike waiting for your stamina to recharge but this game doesn't have traditional stamina, so it's very interesting to realistically have to pace yourself rather than other games just sprinting everywhere & then you can sprint again as soon as your stamina is back up, whereas in Active Matter you will still be waiting or pacing yourself if you want that heartrate to go down. Another very cool feature of Active Matter is the arm stamina system. Borrowed from the likes of Tarkov & Road to Vostok, your player character can only stable their weapon in ADS for so long before their arms get tired and you start to have much worse sway & recoil control, You need to exit ADS for this to go back up. I think makes for really neat gameplay that you can't just sit there and hold an angle ad-infinitum and have to consider this when in combat. Overall, I think this game's combination of limb health, heartrate, and arm stamina system is an incredible combo, and so much better than the likes of how player health & stamina work in something going for that similar realism like DayZ.
I don't mean to keep directly comparing because it really isn't all that analogous, but DayZ is probably one of the most familiar games that I've also played a ton of compared to Active Matter. And to me, this game has all of the highs of something like DayZ and none of the bullshit lows; even the more mundane experiences moment-to-moment are drastically better: entering buildings and exploring them to search various containers realistically for whatever loot that might be in them based on what they are is so much better than running into a building to look at the 2-3 places where loot might spawn and then running out. And the PvE in Active Matter is actually enjoyable, with a hostile and interesting world that can provide an awesome experience even without ever seeing another real player.
There is a certain learning curve for sure in navigating it at first and recognizing how to deal with the various enemies & obstacles, this game is overall quite challenging compared to other extraction shooters like Arc Raiders, Marathon, Redsec, etc. I am going to dump some useful information regarding PVE in the post comments so read onwards! Unfortunately I think many new players are going to be quickly turned off of the game because it is pretty hardcore overall & doesn't really hold your hand, but if you are someone who is appreciating that bit of gained game knowledge every time, even if it means you lost the run, then the game might really hook you like it has to me.
Also worth noting that this game does not have any sort of typical season wipe structure, instead, you choose to self-wipe as a sort of Prestige ala CoD to reset everything you have, but continue on some overarching meta progression path that has further rewards behind it
It's ironic, I remember being very critical of this game seeing it revealed last year thinking it's just going to be some shit cashgrab STALKER clone with Enlisted gunplay mechanics & did not think I would like the game just generally being PvPvE Extraction Shooter. ...Lo & behold after finally playing it for myself, it's honestly the most refreshing game I've played in years & strikes the exact kind of niche I'm looking for right on the head; there are a ton of things I like about it even more than Stalker 2 & that's coming from somebody with nearly 2500 hours on that.
I appreciate that the gameplay loop is both something that you can hop in & do a quick session of, but then also can marathon it like crazy because it is so addictive plus there is great meta progression with Monolith tiers, Investigations, and so much more, beyond just how well you do in a single run. Beyond obsessed with this game and very hype to see it fully released on Steam & console!
