After more than two decades of gaming, I have never once written a review. Not for a single game. I'm not a content creator, I'm not a streamer - I'm just someone who has quietly loved this genre through every high and every devastating low. But Active Matter has changed that. This game has made me want to break a 20-year silence because I see something genuinely special here, and I'm concerned I'll watch it get buried by the same systemic problems that have killed so many of its peers.


The setting is incredible: a fractured multiverse where realistic military gunplay collides with gravity-defying anomalies, SCP-style objects, and monsters that attack from unexpected angles. The environments - a Soviet restricted island, a Central African quarantine zone, and a ruined American metropolis - feel both familiar and deeply alien. The soundtrack, featuring contributions from legendary composer Akira Yamaoka, is haunting and atmospheric. The risk-versus-reward loop of extraction is intact, and the tension of deciding whether to push deeper or extract early is as addictive as ever.

I've played nearly every extraction shooter on the market. I've watched dozens of them die. And I can say with confidence: Active Matter has the foundation to be one of the greats.


The extraction shooter genre has a fundamental flaw that no one has solved with the only exception being Hunt: Showdown 1896. The high-friction "loss of progression" loop triggers a Population Spiral: casual players quit, only the sweatiest veterans remain, they obliterate any new blood, and the queue dies. It happens over and over again.

Just look at the graveyard:

- The Cycle: Frontier - Sunset September 2023; devs blamed cheaters for "irreparable damage"
- Hyenas - Cancelled by Sega after a $100M+ budget; never released
- Level Zero: Extraction - Development ended two weeks after launch; peak concurrent under 100
- Starsiege: Deadzone - Shut down due to "declining server population"
- Dungeonborne - Dead in under a year
- Shrapnel - Developer burned ~$87M; token down 98%; effectively dead before full launch
- The Day Before - Servers off 45 days after launch; studio closed in 4 days
- Marauders - Silent for 2 years; publisher implied abandonment; now attempting a relaunch
- Project L33t - Still in Early Access; mixed reviews; dev team changed and redesigned
- Expedition Agartha - No updates in 2 years; community assumes dead
- Deceive Inc. - Developer closed 2024; backend being rebuilt for community servers
- Battlefield Hazard Zone - Support ended May 2022
- CoD DMZ - Support ended December 2023
- A Twisted Path to Renown - Support ended August 2025; removed from Steam the following month;
- SAND: Raiders of Sophie - Peak of 41K players in its first week or so before rapid decline

Not every game on that list died solely because of PvPvE - some had mismanagement, crypto ties, or other fatal flaws. But the pattern is unmistakable. Even Arc Raiders, which sold 16 million copies and peaked at 960K concurrent players in January, is now holding around 35 - 50K. That's not a retention problem. That's a genre problem wearing a retention problem's clothes.


Active Matter already has a dedicated PvE mode, and it's available to everyone. I've been playing it extensively. It's excellent. The cooperative raids are intense, strategic, and genuinely fun. The developers have built something that works, and I applaud them for it.

But here's my concern. The PvE mode still requires connection to their servers. It still requires kernel-level anti-cheat. It's still always online. And that means when the servers eventually shut down - and they will, because every extraction shooter's servers eventually shut down - we lose access to this game entirely. All that work, all those memories, all that potential, gone.


I'm not asking for a standalone version to fix the live game's population. It won't. The Population Spiral is a live-service problem, and a separate offline mode won't retain PvP players or solve queue health. What I'm asking for is different: a standalone, end-of-life version of Active Matter that preserves the game after the live service eventually sunsets.

Think of it as a legacy plan. A version that doesn't require a live service, doesn't require always-online connectivity, and doesn't require an anti-cheat system that can never be perfect. A version that can be played cooperatively with friends via self-hosted servers, modded by the community, and preserved for years to come.

Think of what Minecraft became. Think of what Skyrim became. Think of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. modding community that has kept that game alive for nearly two decades, culminating in massive projects like STALKER G.A.M.M.A. that transform the experience entirely. A standalone PvE edition with mod support would be a lifeline. It would be a statement that Gaijin and Matter Team believe in their product enough to let it live beyond the inevitable server shutdown that claims every extraction shooter eventually.

I understand the business concerns - server code leaks, cheat vectors, IP control, monetization (oh god the monetization lol). That's why I'm framing this as an end-of-life option, not a replacement for the live game. When the time comes to move on, let the community keep it alive. Give us the tools to preserve what you built.


Active Matter is a game I want to see succeed. I want to see it grow, I want to see it evolve, and I want to see it avoid the graveyard that has claimed so many of its peers. The developers have built something genuinely special here - a shooter that feels fresh, challenging, and atmospheric in a way that few games in this genre manage to achieve.

But I've seen too many games in this genre die. I've watched too many communities get abandoned. I'm writing this review because I care, and because I believe Active Matter deserves a future that isn't just a slow decline into empty servers and forgotten potential.

So please, Gaijin. When the live service eventually ends, give us a standalone PvE edition with self-hosted servers and mod support. Let this game live. Let this community thrive.

I have been loving this game but CANNOT recommend it anymore. 54 hours in and now I am forced to play PvP raids to complete case investigations and continue progress!!! This is absolutely ridiculous, make every raid available for PvE!!!

Solo PvE exclusively, i cannot recommend this for 2 reasons for others looking for a PvE experience. The loot is worse and the monolith progression is significantly slower compared to Open Raids, you'll miss out on a decent chunk of monolith tokens every day if staying out from PvP.

Change one of the reasons or preferably both, this would be a great game for purely PvE but as it stands, the penalties are too severe for my liking.

EDIT: A response to the CM who is trying to downplay this review to make the game look better.

In my 100 PvE raids or so, i haven't gotten a single "rare" weapon or any "uncommon" magazine attachment not to mention a single "epic" civil item where as these items seem to be much more common in PvP.

Also regarding Monolith Tokens, you get 1900 tokens from doing all the objectives in a map where PvE is available, but you would get up to 4650 in PvP instead. That is more than double.

I am sorry but this review will absolutely stay negative. The worse loot alone is enough to make it negative, but progression being this much better in PvP, puts the final nail in the coffin. Oh and the game keeps reminding me whenever i level up that "you would've gotten more stuff if you bought a more expensive edition instead". Borderline disgusting.

I actually regret giving money to Gaijin.