Scrapland

Infobox VG
title = American McGee presents: Scrapland


developer = Mercury Steam Entertainment
publisher = Enlight
designer = American McGee
engine =
version =
released = ^NA November 4, 2004 (WIN)
^NA February 28, 2005 (Xbox)
^EU March 18, 2005 (WIN, Xbox)
genre = Action-adventure
modes = Single player
ratings = ESRB: T (Teen)
PEGI: 12+
platforms = Microsoft Windows, Xbox
media = 2 CD-ROMs (WIN)
1 DVD (Xbox)
requirements = 256 MB RAM, DirectX 8.1, Windows 98 (WIN)
input =

"American McGee presents: Scrapland" is a game developed by Mercury Steam Entertainment, with American McGee as a producer and published by Enlight Software. It stars the robot D-Tritus as the protagonist, and as the game progresses, is involved in investigating a series of bizarre murders targeted at the city's most powerful figures in the areas of law enforcement, politics, finance and religion. With help from an unknown stranger, D-Tritus must uncover the reason and source behind the murders before all of Scrapland comes under control of the perpetrator.

Most of the game takes place within the City of Chimera, a sprawling metropolis that acts as Scrapland's capital. While there are facilities in operation outside the city itself, they are only viewable from space as thin thread-like strips of light extending outwards from the capital onto the rest of the planet; in comparison, the City of Chimera from space appears as a massive circle of city-lights. While the robots have the entire planet to themselves, most of them are based within Chimera on the otherwise lifeless, barren rock.

Because of a dense asteroid field that encircles most of the planet, a large ring-shaped space station that runs around the planet above the asteroid layer was built. It serves two purposes. First, it allows safe movement between Chimera and space via a space elevator. Second, it acts as customs point for all movement to and from Scrapland and space. Newcomers who wish to live in Scrapland have to be employed in the space station, otherwise they cannot gain access to the planet itself.

Characters

With the exception of Betty, all robots that are part of the population in Scrapland are designed to resemble men, either looking and sounding like one, or both. This section covers unique robots that are significant enough to have their own names inside the game, but not holding any positions of power.

D-Tritus

A robot that assembled himself out of spare parts at a distant stellar junkyard, he also constructed a working spacecraft resembling a motorcycle with an array of rocket engines for propulsion. His first stopover on his interplanetary trip of the galaxy is Scrapland itself. In order to gain access to Scrapland he is assigned a job as a reporter.

His special ability allows him to phase shift himself to incredible speed temporarily while moving forward. This acceleration is to such a point where any matter he touches while shifting simply disintegrates. In the case of the game, all robots.

The name D-Tritus is a play on the word detritus meaning debris formed by attrition.

poot-Nick

Spoot-Nick is from a planet that mastered efficient teleportation technology. However, this became his race's undoing when they began using this technology on each other without thought as to destination. He eventually wound up with Rusty, and later joins D-Tritus. As a hallmark of his race's technological achievement, Spoot-Nick can teleport ships to and from the garage, and if need be, remotely construct a replacement ship and have it teleported to its location. He is named after Sputnik, a Russian satellite, the first man-made object to orbit earth in the late 50s.

Betty

Betty is the newscaster for Chimera's media conglomerate, and hence is the best-known and seen face in Scrapland. She sees the Boss as a father figure, and pilots a small, red twin-engine ship called the Moonbeam, which is similar in appearance to a sports car.

Her special ability is to create a shockwave that expands outwards from her in all directions that destroys any robot within range.

As the game progresses, D-Tritus finds out that Deep Throat is in fact Betty.

Berto

Berto works as a journalist for Chimera's media conglomerate, but his aloofness and easy-going nature lends everyone the impression that he can only be trusted with simple tasks. Hence he ends up with more errands to do than stories to cover. He is however experienced in combat, and his triple-engine ship the Crazy Lemon is the absolute fastest vehicle in Scrapland in terms of top speed. Berto is under the impression that Betty is the Boss' fiancee, a claim that Betty denies. In the game, it was revealed that the main reason he took D-Tritus' matrix is that he was ordered by the Crazy Gambler into doing it.

His special ability causes him to spin at extremely-high speed. This, coupled with his specialized internal dynamo, generates an intense light that blinds nearby robots (creating an easy way to lose cops that are on Berto's trail).

Humphrey

Humphrey is a journalist and the right-hand man to The Boss, hardened by years of doing whatever it takes to get the job done. He bears an incredible grudge against seemingly all major figures in Scrapland, except his boss. In spite of his average appearance, Humphrey is considerably stronger than most other robots around him, and quite willing to use threats and excessive violence to achieve a goal. His ship, the Schizo, is a quad-engine vehicle that trades firepower over maneuverability. The front of his ship has a jawlike structure. In the game, it was revealed that he was the one who has murdered the Archbishop, Chief of Police, and the Mayor by using a viscous creature suit. Also, he manages to steal their matrixes so that the victims he killed cannot return to life.

It is then revealed that Humphrey, along with the Crazy Gambler and Berto were being controlled by the Boss from his "Library"

He has no special ability.

Rusty

Rusty is a retired Mercenary that has given up his days of carefree looting and plundering in favour of running a honest enterprise in the construction and maintenance of custom vehicles (his garage will scrap stolen vessels immediately upon entry to avoid trouble with law enforcement).

He behaves in the stereotypical manner expected of an old man; complaining about how things were better in the past and complimenting when people are nice.

He has no special ability.

ebastian

An old camera robot that is well past its prime, Sebastian laments how everyone treats him indifferently just because he's outdated. When D-Tritus compliments that he can be likened to a valuable antique, Sebastian reciprocates the gesture by offering him two programs, one of them unique unto him. The first one allows him to take pictures, which was his purpose in the first place. The second one is a program that is capable of hacking the Great Database, allowing D-Tritus to illegally overwrite another robot's existence.

Crazy Gambler

The Crazy Gambler came out into the limelight suddenly and without warning. The mystery of his origins still stands, specially since there is no registry of him on the great database, no one knows where he came from or why he came to Scrapland, but his reputation is well-known. He operates a gambling parlour (constantly visited by Chimera's head figures) from where he maintains and acquiries the necessary areas and rights needed to have them function as arenas for the purpose of racing and combat matches, expending millions in funds on his passion, but yet showing no signs of his wealth diminishing.

Later in the game, D-Tritus finds out that The Crazy Gambler and The Chief of Bankers are the same robot.

He has no special ability.

Deep Throat

Deep Throat is a robot who helps D-Tritus figure out who has murdered the Archbishop, Chief of Police, and the Mayor. He helps him in lots of situations by providing invaluable information at almost every step of the story. He also provides most of the mission objectives to move the story along. Near the end of the game, his real identity is revealed. Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to Deputy Director of the FBI William Mark Felt, Sr., who was the secret source who leaked information about the involvement of U.S. President Richard Nixon's administration during the first Watergate break-in and subsequent events that came to be known as the Watergate scandal.

Bill

A human that arrived to sell products in Scrapland when his spaceship went to the Orbital Station. What he didn't know is that humans are feared in Scrapland and are accused of the murders. He got arrested shortly after and got taken to a maximum security cell. D-Tritus got him out and hid him in a desk in the Press Building where he was later found by the Crazy Gambler who took him to his joint. There, he befriends the Mercenaries, the Gambler, and D-Tritus. He installs his program in the Electronic Library to make it malfunction and stop working. At the end, everyone realizes that humans are nothing to be afraid of and Bill is treated as a friend to the robots now.

Organizations

This section covers the various factions that run within Chimera, as well as important figures and extended information. Each one seems to represent a negative aspect of society, including Corrupt law enforcement, embezzling bankers, corrupt politicians, oppressive government, etc.

The Bank

Based in the Industrial District, the monolithic central bank of Chimera handles all major and minor financial transactions that occur. Manned mostly by the devious-looking Bankers in their Greedy ships, which have wings arching forward, the building itself uses grand, sweeping architecture. Tall arches and hallways, massive entry halls and doors, shining well-maintained floors and walls; everything about it suggests nothing short of the best that money can buy.

The Chief of Bankers

An incredibly-old robot, the Chief of Bankers is by far the wealthiest single individual in Scrapland, his massive fortune acquired over centuries of heading the Bank. His office houses a massive table in the shape of a dollar sign, a huge chair, and provides him with a sweeping view of the area directly outside the Bank via massive vertically-sprawling windows. His ship, the Predator, is a quad-engine vessel with forward arching wings that is reasonably fast and maneuverable for a ship of its combat ability and size. It is revealed that he and the Crazy Gambler are the same robot, and the Gambler is actually the Chief of Bankers in a disguise.

His special ability allows him to steal money from multiple sources at once.

The Temple

The Temple, based in the Commercial District, may sound like a religious organization, and indeed it is, in a sense. While there is nothing divine or spiritual in nature to worship, there is a machine that they maintain which is the object of everyone's reverence, the Great Database. The Temple building itself maintains a high level of technological standing, utilizing floors and stairs that dissasemble when not in use. Manned by the Bishops, in their quad-engine Wrath ships, the Temple is by far the wealthiest organization in Scrapland.

The Great Database

The Great Database was a machine the Mercenaries found within the bowels of an abandoned Skelk ship, after fighting through hordes of automated defences. When they emerged with their prize, the Archbishop and his army seized it by force from them and claimed it as theirs.

The huge machine, which resembles a massive spiked ball, is capable of regenerating anything from scratch, as long as its atomic make-up has already been analyzed and the data stored within its massive memory banks, housed inside of a pocket universe created by the machine itself and guarded by Bishops. In the game, they use it solely on robots, and as such, all citizens of Scrapland are effectively immortal.

It is possible to remove the data for a robot's atomic matrix from its memory, thus preventing a robot from being regenerated. Permanent death in this manner is a thought feared by Chimerans.

The Archbishop

The Archbishop is a lazy oaf that spends hours in hot baths while enjoying massages. He rarely makes public appearances, if ever, and has a habit of raising the price of resurrections from the Great Database for no reason. His quad-engine ship, the Inquisitor, is an imposing upgrade from the Wrath, in terms of sheer ability to deal and take damage.

In the game, he was the first to be killed by the viscous creature when he boils up his oil bath and broke his neck by forcefully spinning his head around.

He has no special ability.

The Government

The government of Chimera is a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked morass of an organization that is not above breaking the law itself. Based in the Town Hall building, which is itself based in the Downtown area, the government here does whatever its supposed to be doing, which no one really seems to be exactly sure of. Endless hordes of Functionaries in their fast single-engine Piranha ships, which resemble jet fighters, bureaucrats and robots serving in menial tasks keep it running at a barely-acceptable level of efficiency.

Tubular Transport

A public transport system recently finished by the government and linking all the districts and major buildings, it gets its names from the fact that the travel paths are tubes, and the carriages themselves cling onto all sides of the tubes for movement. The government insists it was paid for legitimately, but most Chimerans suspect that at least a good portion of the funds came from illegal sources.

The Mayor

The Mayor maintains his grip on power by lying, stealing, cheating, backstabbing, and any other atrocious acts considered mainstream in politics. He secretly amasses large sums of money for his own use, often illegally, and is a lazy oaf. His ship, the Privateer, is a twin-engine vessel with a huge engine in it.

His special ability is to tell speeches that are so boring that robots actually shut down/sleep when they try to listen to them any longer than a few seconds.

His sole friend is the Chief of Police.

In the game, he was killed by the creature with the viscous suit when the creature put the Mayor in his shredder when he was shredding some documents and thus, was brutally destroyed into pieces all over his office and all that's left is his head, which the creature then tossed into the shredder and after an eye popped out, the shredder opened up and shredded the crushed head of the Mayor inside. In the middle of the shredding, the Mayor's "chair" (his legs are similar to that of a chair with wheels) crashed onto the ceiling and crawled along it and then crashed through the window down all the way to the ground outside and sounded the alarm for the police to come.

The Police

The Police are a brutish lot, treating most as potential criminals, and are not particularly concerned about collateral damage in combat situations, often escalating simple one-on-one fights into massive firefights that involve bystanders who had nothing to do with the fight in the first place. Considering the fact that the Great Database maintains immortality for everyone, they don't mind doing this one bit. Their building is located in the Industrial District.

They have the largest range of ships per organization by far, from the humble single-engine Flea to the lumbering quad-engine Dragonfly.

Chief of Police

The Chief of Police is a strong robot that doesn't seem to actually do any work, preferring instead to simply fly around seemingly without aim, and play poker. His body itself is comically constructed; an otherwise normally-proportioned torso with stubby legs (regular cop legs), a bit similar to a gorilla. His ship, the Goliath, is a massive quad-engine lumbering hulk that is best described as a fortress.

His special ability is to cough/burp out spare nuts and bolts, which usually leaves Cops nearby in stitches from laughter.

His sole friend is the Mayor.

In the game, he is the second victim killed by the viscous creature when the Chief was lifting weights in his room and the creature used the very heavy weights to detach his arms by pressing the weights down onto him (his hands are still holding on the weights), and then violently beheaded the Chief by slamming the weights on his head.

The Mercenaries

The ones who originally found the Great Database, the Mercenaries have since been denied the right to easily acquire the right to immortality as other robots. Instead of simply purchasing additional "lives", they must trade for them from other robots, often using "lives" as currency in exchange for their armed-escort services. They pilot powerful ships; the Stupid Mercenary drives a double-engine ship called the BadGuy, the Brutal and Smart Mercenaries pilot the triple-engine Armageddon ship, and later the Lone Mercenary(really a Smart Mercenary with a cowboy hat and a pipe) with the quad-engine ship Apocalypse. The Armageddon and Apocalypse ships resemble monsters and they really are with those strange, asymmetrical, and grosteque appearances and high fire power.

The Press

The Press is the sole media conglomerate that controls all propagation of news in Scrapland. The building itself is nothing of note, save for a massive electronic library that the Boss is having built. What's particularly suspicious is that the Library is a restricted area, and is guarded by the police vigilantly.

The Boss

A workaholic multi-armed robot, the Boss is rarely seen outside his office, and prefers relying on telecommunications to run things. His quad-engine ship, the Doom, is on an overall basis the best in Scrapland; considering weapon loadout, carrying capacity, as well as speed and acceleration for a vessel of its size and class. It is however, rarely seen. In the game, he was revealed to be the main antagonist of the game as his plans were revealed into making the entire population of Scrapland turn on D-Tritus using his electronic library (which he turned into a replica of the Great Database) to control all the robots. He also used the machine to control Humphrey into murdering the Mayor, Chief of Police, and the Archbishop in the vicious creature suit. In the end of the game, he was destroyed by D-Tritus when trying to leave Scrapland.

He has no special ability.

External links

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