🌀 Active Matter Review: Is Gaijin's New Extraction Shooter Worth Playing in Early Access?
Active Matter is a hardcore tactical extraction shooter developed by Matter Team and published by Gaijin Entertainment — the studio behind War Thunder. Currently in Early Access exclusively through the Gaijin Store, the game blends STALKER-style dread with Escape from Tarkov-style loot-and-extract gameplay, wrapped in an SCP-inspired multiverse setting. This review covers the story, gameplay loop, pros and cons, and my honest personal take on whether it's worth buying into now or waiting for the Steam launch in 2026.
📺 Official Early Access Launch Trailer
🎬 Active Matter — Key Details
- Developer: Matter Team
- Publisher: Gaijin Entertainment
- Genre: Tactical FPS / Extraction Shooter (PvPvE, PvE, PvP)
- Status: Early Access, live on the Gaijin Store since September 2025 — full Steam and console release planned for 2026
- Platforms: Windows PC now; PS5 and Xbox Series X|S planned
- Squad Size: Solo or squads of up to 3 players
- Editions: Standard, Advanced, Premium, Elite Squad
🧬 Story & Setting
Active Matter takes place across a fractured multiverse torn apart by a quantum catastrophe. You play as an operative trapped in a time loop, endlessly revived at the same point after every death. Raids send you into quantum-unstable zones saturated with "active matter" — the most valuable and most dangerous resource in the multiverse, capable of bending gravity and space itself. Prolonged exposure warps other operatives and survivors into hostile, SCP-inspired anomalies. The core loop is simple but tense: harvest active matter, grab loot, and extract before the entire zone collapses and erases everything inside it.
🎮 Gameplay
- Maps: Raids take place across locations like Dalniy Island, home to decaying Soviet-era industrial complexes, plus lush African environments.
- Modes: PvPvE raids (fighting mutated creatures and rival operatives simultaneously), pure PvE missions, and direct PvP battles between syndicates over active matter sources.
- Loot system: Active matter can be harvested from corrupted creatures, looted from other players, or gathered directly from active matter clusters scattered across each zone.
- Signature mechanic: Active matter randomly pulls in items from parallel timelines, letting you replicate a specific weapon or piece of gear back at your safe base.
- Base building: Expand your syndicate's base and upgrade your arsenal between raids to prepare for larger fights over active matter sources.
- Weapons and gear: Despite the sci-fi premise, loadouts stay grounded in real-world military hardware and tactics.
⚖️ How It Compares
Several early previews describe Active Matter as a hybrid of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s oppressive, anomaly-filled atmosphere and Escape from Tarkov's raid-and-extract loop with heavy inventory management. The multiverse premise is what sets it apart — the parallel-timeline loot mechanic gives crafting and gearing up a twist you don't see in other extraction shooters.
✅ Pros
- A genuinely unsettling, SCP-inspired atmosphere backed by decaying, unnerving environment design.
- The parallel-timeline loot and replication system gives the extraction-shooter formula a fresh spin.
- Flexible ways to play — solo, cooperative squads, or full PvP — inside the same zones.
- Gaijin's long track record with its in-house Dagor Engine suggests decent long-term technical stability.
⚠️ Cons
- The UI has been repeatedly criticized as cluttered and unintuitive, especially when navigating inventory menus.
- Still Early Access, and currently sold only through Gaijin's own launcher — not yet on Steam.
- Developers have flagged possible progression wipes during development, standard for the genre but still worth knowing before you buy in.
- No official aggregated critic score (Metascore) exists yet since the full Steam/console release hasn't shipped.
💬 My Take
Personally, I think Active Matter is one of the more interesting extraction shooters to watch right now — not because it reinvents the genre mechanically, but because the multiverse framing actually justifies its loot system instead of feeling tacked on. Pulling a weapon in from "another timeline" is a smarter excuse for random loot variety than most Tarkov-likes bother with. That said, I wouldn't recommend buying into Early Access purely for the current state of the UI — it's rough enough to hurt the moment-to-moment experience, and the wipes mean your progress isn't safe yet. My honest advice: wishlist it on Steam now, watch a couple of raid videos closer to the 2026 launch, and jump in once the interface and netcode get a proper pass. The bones of a great extraction shooter are here — it just isn't fully assembled yet.
⭐ My Rating: 7/10 — Promising, but not ready for a full-price early buy-in yet.
❓ Active Matter FAQ
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Is Active Matter available on Steam?
Not as a full release yet. The game is currently in Early Access exclusively through the Gaijin Store, though it has a Steam page you can wishlist ahead of its full 2026 launch.
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How many players are in a squad?
You can play solo or in squads of up to 3 players in the same raid.
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Is Active Matter free to play?
No, Early Access requires buying one of the paid editions — Standard, Advanced, Premium, or Elite Squad — through the Gaijin Store.
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Is Active Matter worth buying in Early Access?
The core loop and atmosphere are strong, but the current UI and the risk of progression wipes make it a better fit for genre enthusiasts than casual buyers right now. Wishlisting and waiting for the full release is a reasonable alternative.
About This Review
This Active Matter review covers the Gaijin Entertainment and Matter Team extraction shooter in its current Early Access state, including its multiverse-driven loot system, PvPvE raid structure, Dalniy Island and African map settings, and a personal verdict on whether it's worth playing before the full Steam and console launch in 2026.
💡 Join the Discussion
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