The last time gamers saw American McGee's name attached to a title, he was turning the classic tale of Alice In Wonderland upside down with his gothic style game American McGee's Alice. This time around, the designer has turned his imagination away from children's literature, and focused his creative drive into the world of science fiction with his latest brainchild, Scrapland.

The game begins with the arrival of a robot named D-Tritus on the world of Scrapland. Scrapland is a haven for robotic lifeforms, built from the junk left behind by humans. The robots here live productive lives in relative peace, far removed from the human race they have come to fear and loathe. There is no fear of death either thanks to the use of the Great Database, which records the schematics of every robot on Scrapland and allows an exact duplicate to be created upon death … for a small fee. Needing work, D-Tritus gets a job as a reporter and begins dealing with Scrapland's quirky inhabitants.

Meanwhile, it seems that someone is killing off key figures in the city and somehow erasing their information from the Great Database, ensuring they can't be brought back to life. Assigned to cover the unusual string of murders, D-Tritus soon finds himself in the middle of a greater conspiracy threatening Scrapland's entire existence.


Scrapland is built on a framework similar in some ways to the Grand Theft Auto series. Like GTA, Scrapland sports open-ended gameplay and the story progresses through a series of mission based objectives. Also, much of the game is spent flying around on various race and combat missions in ships D-Tritus picks up over the course of his adventure, either by earning new ships or by simply stealing someone else's ride. Ships aren't the only thing that D-Tritus can hijack though. D-Tritus has the ability access the programming of most of Scrapland's inhabitants, taking over their identity and using their specific abilities to his advantage. This particular aspect of the game adds an extra level of strategy. Sometimes you can simply sneak into a restricted area while in disguise, and other times it may be better to blast your way in armed to the teeth as a sentry.