Reaper Actual is an upcoming open-world first-person shooter with persistence. It will one day accommodate hundreds of players on a single server, boast a breathing ecosystem featuring the evolution of time, weather, and factions, and it’s going to be free to play. If that doesn’t sound good enough, consider that it’s designed to be accessible, no matter your skill level.
Well, the first impressions of Reaper Actual are often derailed slightly when prospective fans learn that the game has blockchain and NFT elements built into it. This was a huge concern for me, but since talking to the team at Distinct Possibility Studios at Gamescom, I caught up with them once again to dispel any worries about the NFT mechanics in Reaper Actual.
I’m happy to say that, once I learned how it all works, I’m satisfied it’s not going to be a problem.
Here’s the full video interview, if you’d rather see it that way:
Getting Into the Blockchain with Reaper Actual
Reaper Actual takes elements from open-world shooters, arcade games like Call of Duty, and extraction shooters like Escape from Tarkov. It’s from developers that formerly worked on the likes of PlanetSide and H1Z1, and it’s being designed as an open-ended and ever-evolving game with a rolling meta and customization features out the wazoo.
It’s surprising to some to learn that Reaper Actual also has elements that place the game on the blockchain. I don’t fully understand that world, but I know enough to appreciate that, for some gamers, that’s a huge red flag.
I sat down with Distinct Possibility Studios co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Matthew Higby, to learn how these NFT mechanics work in Reaper Actual.
The things that you’ll be able to buy, sell… Bases are a good example. You’ll be able to buy a base which will be a unique unit at an address in the game world. You can think of that like an elevator in a high-rise building or the entrance to a bunker facility — multiple people can have bases within that same location, but each one is like a unique fingerprint.
Not only is it unique in terms of what the base by default is, but it also contains all of the upgrades that you do to it as a player over time.
If you levelled up your base to be able to make really good sniper rifles and that represents some number of hours and some number of credits and investments to level your base up, if you decided to sell that base, you could just rip out all those upgrades if you wanted to and get your credits back, but you could just package up the base with the upgrades you’ve installed.
In Higby’s words, it’s ‘an increase to ownership’ in Reaper Actual, giving players a kind of financial control over their bases that they invest time and effort in to build up. While we discussed bases, I also learned that Reapers, the game’s character models, will be available to list as NFTs after being upgraded and evolved by players.
Another thing you’ll be able to mint and sell are Reapers. As I mentioned, they’re permutationally unique characters that exist within the game. They have a combination of things that can make them situationally attractive for different roles and missions.
Between all of this and their biography, their name, their look, they have a pretty unique combination of things, and it’s just a very easy way to convey that, to allow people to trade those things. It’s with the functionality that you get with an NFT, where it’s just all contained in one cryptographic asset.
But Are NFTs Optional in Reaper Actual?
As I dove down the rabbit hole with Matt, I learned how practical the blockchain mechanics are in Reaper Actual. Players can spend hours building up a base to then sell it to someone who would rather purchase one ready-made than grind themselves to get it. It’s a real estate market in that respect.
Matt explained further:
It makes it feel like it’s something that’s yours, and that’s how we’re trying to lean into NFTs. One of the things that they get maligned on, and people have opinions on all sides of the map about this stuff, is that they tend to be viewed only as this speculative vehicle and the reason they’re in the game is because people want to be doing money stuff with them, or whatever.
In reality, a lot of these mechanics can be utility-granting and utility-oriented, right?
Practical is one thing, but what about optional? Not everyone enjoys the concept of NFTs, and in the gaming world, the term has long been seen as the boogeyman. I asked Matt if you could play Reaper Actual just fine without investing in the blockchain side of things.
Totally, yeah. We’re going to be running the game on Steam, we’re going to be running on Epic, and those environments, it’s going to be completely devoid of the Web3 mechanics. All of the functionality is going to be exactly the same.
There will still be permutationally unique Reapers, you’ll still be able to upgrade and sell your house, you’ll just be using it with a different kind of currency.
What I hope that we can do is show that these blockchain mechanics can be a force for good and not just for greed, and that there’s actually a sort of value that gets unlocked by using them. One thing that is guaranteed to be true about this game is that it’s unlike any other game you’ve played before.
If people really like the feeling of playing one of these peristent world games, then maybe they’ll decide to take the extra step and go try it on the Web3 service if they feel like it.
The team at Distinct Possibility Studios wants to offer the NFT mechanics to those who want them, but it’s not at all critical to the overarching game experience.
Everything else that I learned in my deep dive with Matt Higby was more than enough to fill me with serious interest in Reaper Actual, and with an intended release window of Q1 2026, it’s only a matter of time before we can all dive in.
Do you think Reaper Actual is your kind of game? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that a huge Battlefield 6 map has been leaked
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
