Video Game / Marauder

Marauder (given the subtitle "Man of Prey" in the English verison) is a tactical SRPG by Apeiron on the same engine as Brigade E5/7.62 High Calibre.

An adaptation of the book "Marauder" by Berkem al Atomi, the player plays as Akhmetzyanov as he tries to survive in a alternative history Russia that is occupied by US "Peacekeepers" who are more concerned with exploiting any remaining resources than actual peacekeeping.

The game provides examples of:

• Abled in the Adaptation: Novel Akhmet loses some fingers to an explosion while Game Akhmet doesn't have this happen to him.
• Ace Custom: Andrey's Vepr, obtained by doing his own quest, is a heavily customized version of the standard Vepr, rechambered in 7.62x54mmR, feeding from SVD mags, and upgraded for accuracy and rapid fire. All of that makes it a better weapon than the SVD, with significantly higher firing speed.
• Adaptational Heroism: Novel Akhmet abandons Serb and Vitek to be killed by the Americans while Game Akhmet instead has it be a choice that the player can avoid doing and is required for the good ending.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Attempted by various enemies three times during the story, as they try to invade Akhmet's home and rob it. Each time, Akhmet succesfully fights them off.
• Anti-Grinding: Unlike 7.62, there are no Random Encounters, so you can't simply grind for money and equipment. While it's still possible to grind some skills, others (such as the shooting ones) aren't really grindable due to a limited supply of items.
• Anti-Hero: Akhmet is this, as while he disapproves of cannibalism and doesn't kill needlessly, he has no problem with sending in surrendering bandits from a battle that just occurred to go in first into a booby-trapped warehouse or gunning down his neighbors in waves if they try to steal his supplies, and can potentially do some evil things if the player chooses such as not freeing a woman from sex slavery.
• Apocalypse Anarchy: As Russia collapsed, all of its settlements go completely lawless, with Akhmet noting the fact that his town had a lot of violence in the first months. Even after society gets somewhat rebuilt, banditry is still extremely common.
• Apocalypse How: Societal Collapse, Regional Scale. Because Russia was sold out and abandoned by its leaders, and NATO simply wants to rob the country, the entirety of Russia has collapsed into an anarchy, with violence being commonplace, luxuries of civilization becoming rare, and everybody rebuilding into local independent communities.
• Arbitrary Gun Power: Despite having similar barrel length to the AKM, the AEK-973 does slightly more damage, simply because it's a unique gun obtained late into the game.
• Arms Dealer: Alik, who sells weapons, Gun Accessories, and ammo on the Bazaar, and will also buy these items from you.
• The Artifact: Despite the fact that the game removed the penalty to reloading magazines with loose bullets that 7.62 had, thus making it pointless to carry spare magazines, magazines are still modeled as distinct items, even though the only situation where this matters is when you upgrade your guns with higher-capacity magazines.
• Artistic License – Military:
  • The Active Denial System is portrayed as a lethal weapon that can kill through walls. In reality, however, it's a less-lethal weapon that isn't capable of penetrating cover, and wouldn't be used in an operation to kill nearly everyone in the town.
  • The final mission shows that the US military's operation to kill every combatant in the town only involves a Stryker, a few humvees, an ADS vehicle, and a platoon's worth of infantry, with the destruction of the vehicles being enough to stop the attack. In reality, an operation of this size would involve a lot more vehicles and soldiers, to the point that Akhmet wouldn't be able to deal with it on his own.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • The Heavy Weapons skill for Akhmet, as you won't get a machine gun or an explosive weapon until midway into the game, and you can usually substitute for them with assault rifles and hand grenades. If you do need a heavy weapon to be used, you can simply have Serb handle one.
  • Melee weapons. They hit very hard and can easily kill enemies in a few seconds, yes, but they take up valuable space in your inventory, take precious seconds to equip (in a game where miliseconds matter), and are very niche (as guns are nearly always better). You can usually do just fine with using your fists and Pistol-Whipping, since they also stunlock enemies.
• Big Bad: The US troops occupying the country are this though they only start showing up late in the game.
• Big Guy: Serb among the companions, as he has very high shooting skills and is the only one who can handle heavy weapons decently. He also has his perks invested into assault rifles, grenade throwing, and carrying capacity.
• Boom, Headshot!: Getting shot in the head will usually KO the target or kill them instantly, making helmets rather invaluable to avoid instant deaths.
• Boring, but Practical: Assault rifles are good for any situation, even if they don't particulary excel at any, with a good mixture of damage, ready and aiming time, and range. They also have good capacity, the ability to penetrate low-tier vests, a grenade launcher mount, and a full-auto fire mode.
• Boulder Bludgeon: Rocks get used by the hostile neighbours in Mission 3, and you can use them yourself if you collect some. While they're weak and slow to use, they do stun, and hits to the head can easily KO or critically injure the target.
• Breakable Weapons: A carry over from Brigade E5/7.62 High Calibre, thankfully it's pretty slow.
• Bullying a Dragon: The neighbours in Mission 3 form a mob to rob/lynch Akhmet, armed mostly with rocks and melee weapons, even though they do know that he has a shotgun, with one of them warning the others to not get too close. It's justified by them being that desperate to get food, as well as being confident in their numbers, and by some of the neighbours having their own shotguns.
• Combat Medic: Vitek has the highest medical skill among all companions, along with starting with the first perk of the medical tree, and he also has two perks of the rifle and shotgun tree, making him the best candidate for the role of a sniper.
• Cosy Catastrophe: The whole country has collapsed, but Akhmet is having a pretty decent time, all things considered, managing to survive for seasons at a time between some missions. The Bazaar is also functioning pretty well, with traders supplying the town's survivors.
• Crazy-Prepared: Akhmet kicks out his neighbours after Mission 4, and turns the whole city block into a fortification built to funnel attackers, while his house has a machine gun mounted on it, with remotely detonated explosives being planted later in the plot. It all pays off when his house gets inevitably attacked.
• Critical Existence Failure: Averted just like previous games on the same engine, characters who are low on health will start limping. Injuries will also stun or KO characters, and critical injuries can be suffered from particularly strong hits.
• Crowbar Combatant: The crowbar normally gets used to open locks, but it can also be wielded as a decent melee weapon.
• Cycle of Hurting: Getting injured will stun the injured character, and drain stamina, eventually causing them to pass out if they get tired out. Melee weapons can strike before the target recovers, and the same goes for guns firing snap shots. As such, a fight at close range will be usually won by whoever manages to hit first.
• A Day in the Limelight: Mission 7 focuses on Zhirik as Akhmet makes a plan to help him take over the Bazaar. Previously, Zhirik only makes a few brief appearances in Mission 4, not playing much of a role in the plot.
• Disaster Scavengers: Akhmet is one, and he survives the first months of Russia's collapse by breaking into abandoned apartments and taking all the food in there. The game also greatly encourages to pick up everything that isn't nailed down,
• Disc-One Nuke: Mission 2 allows you to obtain a Saiga-12/AKS-74U from a crate if you can unlock it. Both of these guns will serve you greatly in the upcoming Mission 3, and will also remain relevant for the first parts of Mission 4.
• Do You Want to Haggle?: A late-game perk will improve the character's bargaining skills, which makes merchants trade at fair prices.
• Dump Stat: Hand-To-Hand Combat, as everybody primarily fights with guns, and a pistol can do anything that a melee weapon can.
• Early Game Hell: At the start of the game, you have zero armor and companions, only a small sack for a backpack, and your weapons are just handguns and crappy civilian shotguns. As you progress through the game, however, you eventually get armor, some decent weapons, and a companion, making things far easier.
• Equipment-Based Progression: While you can improve your skills and buy perks after leveling up, the former improve slowly, while the latter don't have major effects. Equipment, however, is the main way that your characters improve in combat, as they go from handguns and simple sacks to customized guns of all sorts, heavy armor, large backpacks, and highly advanced tactical vests.
• Evil States of America: The US (along with the rest of NATO) is portrayed as simply wanting to rob Russia and kill the populace, and the final levels of the game involve you fighting against American soldiers.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite being a hardened, selfish looter with zero qualms against murder, Akhmet still gets noticeably disturbed when he does the sidequest to find a little girl and realizes that she was eaten by cannibals. It really puts into perspective as to how awful the situation is.
• Experienced Protagonist: Akhmet served as a machinegunner in the Soviet-Afghan War, and the shared service wins him trust with Serb.
• Failed State: After Russia was effectively sold out to NATO, the country has collapsed, turning into a landscape that wouldn't look out of place in a post-apocalyptic movie.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: With Russia having collapsed, Akhmet has went from a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War to a ruthless looter/mercenary who will do anything to survive.
• Gameplay Ally Immortality: Akhmet's wife is completely immortal, preventing her from being The Load during house defense missions.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Akhmet served as a machinegunner in the Soviet-Afghan War, and also received EOD training, which is what gets him hired in Mission 4. However, the minimum you can set his Heavy Weapons and Engineering skills at is still 10, just like all the other skills, so it's possible for him to end up incompetent as an engineer and a machinegunner.
  • The final part of Mission 1 has Akhmet note that if he checks the van, he'll have his back to one of the windows of a nearby building, allowing any ambusher to easily kill him. Actually trying to check the van before killing all the enemies, however, won't result in any bad consequences.
• Gangsta Style: Occasionally pops up if you have a gun raised and set to fire snap shots, although it's not a full 90-degree tilt. It even applies with longarms, too.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Zhirik joins your party for the duration of the chapter focused on him, and will assist you for the three upcoming fights. After that, however, he'll leave, depositing his gear into your safe.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • If you don't carefully make sure to check every NPC in the Bazaar in every chapter, it's possible to miss sidequests easily.
  • Kicking a damageable object will make it easier to unlock with the crowbar. Nowhere does the game tell you this.
• Hub Level: Akhmet's city block serves as one, as most missions are started by leaving on one of its roads, with another one leading to the Bazaar.
• Hub Under Attack: Three of the game's missions involve Akhmet's home being invaded. Fortunately, past the first one, all further home defense missions have Akhmet reinforce his home to resist attacks, making it a far more suitable environment for fighting from.
• I'm a Humanitarian: The sidequest to find a missing girl brings you face-to-face with a gang of cannibals, who already ate her. Akhmet gets very disturbed by the situation, and wishes nothing but pain for the cannibals.
• Infinity +1 Sword:
  • Andrey's Vepr is the best sniper rifle, as it does a lot of damage, yet fires faster and farther than the SVD. However, it can only be obtained by doing Andrey's sidequest, and is a unique weapon.
  • The AEK-973 is the best assault rifle you can obtain, with access to 75-round drum magazines, a fast firing speed, better controllability in full-auto, great damage, and high accuracy. However, it can only be found towards the end of the game after doing a sidequest, so you don't have many missions to use it in.
• Kick Them While They're Down: Finishing off incapacitated foes is greatly encouraged, as they're liable to wake up and put a bullet into Akhmet's back. The enemies also won't hesitate to attack any party members that get incapacitated by injury.
• Lawman Gone Bad: Konev's cops eventually end up descending into banditry, with one of the missions forcing you to fight against several of these cops as Akhmet refuses to pay for the Protection Racket. This culminates in the corrupt cops deciding to kill Konev's loyalists and go free, with Serb being the Sole Survivor of the assault on the HQ. Later in the story, you also meet Zhirik trying to take over the Bazaar by force, with Akhmet deciding to assist him in this.
• The Load: Akhmet's wife doesn't do anything useful in the plot. Even when the house is attacked, she simply stays in the living room and doesn't assist you in combat, except by trying to punch attackers who come into her room.
• Men Act, Women Are: The male characters are the ones who move the plot and take risks. With the exception of a Rabble Rouser in Mission 3, meanwhile, the women never do anything in the plot, with Akhmet's wife simply being in the background, occasionally saying things that Akhmet disagrees with.
• Moral Myopia: In the aftermath of Mission 3, a woman tries to berate Akhmet for defending himself from the mob. As Akhmet points out, however, the neighbours seemed pretty intent on killing him, and there was no way to tell their real intentions or persuade them to back off.
• More Dakka: Akhmet loves his 12.7mm machine guns, as he asks for one in exchange for doing demining and demolition work for Konev in Mission 4, and then loots another one in Mission 7, dragging it for several hours with Zhirik to his house. Notably, they can only be used by attacking an area, and you can't target individual enemies with them.
• Multiple Endings: If you abandon Serb and Vitek to the Americans then Akhmet will be abruptly ambushed by a US counterattack which doesn't occur in the good ending.
• Mundane Luxury: Since the town has been cut off from supply by NATO forces, some of the most valuable items in the game are food, alcohol, and cigarettes, with them having a great size/cost ratio.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: The neighbours in Mission 3 mostly bring rocks and melee weapons against Akhmet. While they can ambush you indoors and around corners, they mostly serve as human shields for the shotgun-wielding neighbours.
• No Communities Were Harmed: The town the game's place takes in is called Thirty, but it's based on Ozyorsk (as it was called in the book), which was formerly known as Chelyabinsk-65.
• Non-Entity General: Played with:
  • The companions respond to commands and events as if they're talking to Akhmet, even mentioning him by name in some cases, with Akhmet himself occasionally responding to them (such as telling Vitek to get down when he sees multiple enemies).
  • Akhmet, meanwhile, appears to be acknowledging the player when given commands.
• No FEMA Response: Because NATO has put blockades around towns, no humanitarian aid is coming, and the citizens of Thirty have to rely on themselves.
• No Name Given: Akhmet's wife is simply referred to as "Woman".
• Non-Lethal K.O.: Any party member that isn't Akhmet will only be knocked out (and suffer a critical hit status debuffing injury) with their health depleted, only Akhmet dies.
• Non-Standard Game Over: Slaughtering the Bazaar will end your game, as Akhmet realizes that he has angered everyone in the town, and doesn't have long to live before being inevitably killed.
• One Bullet Clips: You can rather rapidly reload your guns with loose ammo. While it's possible to carry spare magazines, there's no point to doing so, as they don't make you reload faster.
• One-Man Army: Akhmet starts the game alone. None of that prevents him from killing squads of bandits and soldiers on his own, however.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Akhmet is a hardened survivalist with a blaze attitude towards violence and the deaths of those who aren't part of his house. So it says a lot when he gets noticeably disturbed after finding out that a little girl has been eaten by cannibals.
• "Open!" Says Me: Doors and containers can be destroyed by kicking them, though doing so with the latter risks destroying items. A crowbar works better, but it requires a high strength stat, though you can make things easier by kicking the lock a few times beforehand.
• Oppressed Minority Veteran: Downplayed, as the oppression isn't the point, but Akhmet, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War, gets some flak from others for being a Tatar Muslim.
• Pistol-Whipping: Characters performing melee attacks with a gun equipped will use their gun when attacking a standing enemy.
• Player Headquarters: Akhmet's home, which has a safe with infinite storage (and eventually a storage hatch), and is where most missions begin from.
• Player Nudge: Since the Rabble Rousers in Mission 3 look like generic civilians, and you can't know an enemy's name until they die, the game helpfully has them yell at Akhmet when they spot him, thus identifying themselves to you.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Several of the bad guys will not hesitate to throw slurs at Akhmet for being a Tatar.
• Post-Apocalyptic Dog:
  • Packs of feral dogs appear in some levels, and one of them involves Akhmet having to fight solo through an entire level full of dogs. Some levels also have background noise of dogs barking and somebody shooting at them.
  • Akhmet eventually adopts a dog later in the story, naming him Kabir.
• Practical Currency: 5.45 ammo is the standard currency of the Bazaar, and all of the game's prices are in relation to the cost of a single 5.45 bullet.
• Protect This House: Several of the missions involve Akhmet's house being assaulted by enemies.
• Quick Melee: While you can use dedicated melee weapons to fight, you can simply use your fists or guns to fight if you don't have the time to swap to melee.
• Rabble Rouser: Two of these instigate the attempted mob robbery/lynching of Akhmet in Mission 3, and your primary goal in this mission is to kill them.
• Real Is Brown: In stark contrast to 7.62, even the most outdoorsy environments tend to appear grey-ish, giving the appearance of every mission taking place on an overcast day.
• Recruitment by Rescue: Akhmet manages to recruit Serb this way, helping him get to Akhmet's house to recover from the wounds he suffered in an explosion.
• Returning War Vet: Akhmet has fought in Afghanistan way back when the USSR still existed. Now that Russia has collapsed, he has to use his military skills to survive.
• Sawed-Off Shotgun: Sawed-off double-barreled shotguns are a common sight in early missions, faster to aim than the full-sized one, but also way less accurate and incompatible with scopes.
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: A vendor at the Bazaar sells meat pies during Mission 6, but doesn't say where it comesfrom. Doing the sidequest will reveal that he was secretly selling human flesh, as he eventually comes to the cannibal lair and turns hostile to you.
• Schmuck Bait: Vitek leaves his van unguarded in Mission 1, with a box in the back and no signs of him being forced to abandon it. As Akhmet correctly guesses, it's a trap, as there's a nice view of the van from a nearby window, allowing anybody in the building to easily kill him once he tries to loot the box.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: In the intro to Mission 1, a major of the Russian Army's remnants ends up killing the colonel who ordered him to disperse the crowd trying to escape the city, even if it means shooting them. He then opens the roadblock and tells everyone as to which roads are safe to traverse.
• Shop Fodder: The only use for electronic junk and dog furs is to turn them in to merchants who are interested in them (Prof who sells miscallenous items, and Masha who sells wearable items, respectively). Alcohol and cigarettes are a downplayed example, as they can be used in a single early mission to peacefully obtain a disguise, but you can also obtain that same disguise via violence (which has no bad consequences), and both of these items stop being useful afterwards.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Shotguns are pretty good at close combat against unarmored foes (if loaded with buckshot), and you can even load them with slugs for fighting at medium range. They also share their perks with sniper rifles.
• Sole Survivor: Serb turns out to be the sole survivor of the attack on Konev's HQ by the corrupt elements of his force. This also makes him one of the only surviving loyalists of Konev.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: After you find Vitek's van in Mission 1, you can obtain an unguarded pump-action shotgun from the roof, which has two more rounds of capacity over the starting double-barreled shotgun, and is way better for close combat than the P Ms you can get earlier. The reason you're given one is that you're about to head into an indoor firefight at extremely close ranges, and you need all the help you can get, with the shotgun having just enough durability to last for the fight.
• Too Dumb to Live: Zhirik tries to take over the heavily guarded Bazaar in Mission 7 with no weapons, no armor, and just his bare hands. This results in him getting beaten by civilians, with the guards threatening to kill him if he tries these shenanigans again.
• Torches and Pitchforks: Mission 3 involves an angry mob forming at Akhmet's house due to Malicious Slander about him having lots of food, with the majority arming themselves with rocks and basic melee weapons.
• Twofer Token Minority: Akhmet is Tatar and Muslim, both being minorities in Ozyorsk, on which the game's Thirty is based.
• Undying Loyalty: Serb remains loyal to Konev to the very end, even as many other lawmen start dabbling in banditry. Once the faction of corrupt cops decides to kill Konev, he ends up defending the HQ until he gets thrown out by the explosion, and he still thought about fighting to the bitter end even after Konev's faction is defeated, until he realized that he could still crawl away. This loyalty leads to Akhmet deciding to recruit him, as the two already knew each other on friendly terms, and a trustwothy man like that would be very useful for Akhmet.
• Urban Ruins: Parts of Thirty have been turned into ruins due to the combination of banditry and NATO shelling the town.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • Mission 2 involves you obtaining a disguise from a hobo. While you can pay him with alcohol and cigarettes, the more expedient one is to simply beat him to death and steal his clothes.
  • Mission 5 allows you to attack peaceful looters unprovoked, allowing you to steal their stuff.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Destroying the Bazaar will result in a Non-Standard Game Over, as Akhmet becomes hunted by the entire town, thus making it impossible for the game to continue.
• Vigilante Execution: Implied to have been attempted in Mission 3, as while the mob's members claim just to want his food, they also call him slurs, and won't hesitate to kill him if you don't do anything. In fact, after taking out the instigators, Akhmet defends himself by saying that he's not a mind reader, and their behavior seemed to be intent on lynching him.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: While Mission 1 is relatively easy by the game's standards, the two subsequent missions afterwards are rather nasty:
  • Mission 2 has you infiltrate a bandit lair to blow it up. If you haven't mastered the hang of how vision works (or haven't made sure the bandits don't look at you) in order to stealthily plant the bombs, you'll be facing a difficult gunfight with 10+ bandits pouring at you, many of them wielding shotguns that can instantly kill you, while the leader owns an APS, which can easily stunlock you with burst fire.
  • Mission 3 forces you to fight off a riot consisting of at least a dozen people. If you don't have a good handle of positioning and how to deal with melee enemies, you'll be forced to learn the hard way.
• We Buy Anything: Downplayed with the Bazaar merchants, as they only buy items of the type that they themselves sell. However, everybody accepts food, and Prof accepts a very wide variety of items.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: Akhmet getting taken out is an instant game over.
• Wet Blanket Wife: Akhmet's wife constantly tries to discourage him from going onto whatever the current mission is, and from engaging in violence. Akhmet, meanwhile, just dismisses her concerns.
• With This Herring: All you have at the start of a game is a double-barreled shotgun, a knife, and a few shotgun slugs, with a very basic backpack being scavengable from the warehouse you rob. This is justified by Akhmet having been a civilian before the game's start, so he's lucky just to have a gun in the first place.
• Working-Class Hero: Although the game doesn't delve into character backstories, the book states that Akhmet worked in the oil industry before the country collapsed, and he generally gives off the impression of a blue-collar worker. While he did serve in the military, he was a simple conscript.
• Would Hurt a Child: The sidequest to find a missing girl leads to you finding out that she was already eaten by cannibals.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Vitek tries to pull this on Akhmet in Mission 1 so that he doesn't have to share supplies. Fortunately, Akhmet realizes the trap that has been set (especially since he was already doubting his loyalty), allowing him to deal with him and his gang.
  • Mission 4 has the Spetsnaz members try to pull it on Akhmet after he's done with the demining work. Once again, he realizes the trick and kills them all.
• Zerg Rush:
  • Mission 3 involves your neighbours (at least a dozen) assaulting you in an attempt to rob you. The majority of them are only armed with rocks and melee weapons, with a few having access to shotguns, but being rather innacurate with them. The Rabble Rousers can also summon additional waves of enemies with their yelling, so it's necessary to take them out as soon as possible.
  • Feral dogs are individually weak, and are slower than a running human. However, they always attack in packs, so it's possible for them to maul your party if you can't kill them fast enough.