Marauders, a space-based Escape from Tarkov competitor that was released into early access in October 2022, has emerged from the shadows after months of radio silence. For years, Small Impact Games, the developer behind this multiplayer extraction shooter, has relied on posting bland, repetitive content across social media, remaining quiet about any further evolution of the game.
As they sat in silence, the game dwindled, and at the time of writing, it had just 60 players on Steam, the only platform that Marauders calls home. But per the team at Small Impact, things are about to change. Marauders is coming back.
Tarkov in Space is Coming Back with an Overhaul
In October 2022, Marauders burst onto the extraction scene with a desire to challenge the status quo held by the likes of Escape from Tarkov. It was an ambitious move, and it generated a lot of attention, at least at first. The game pulled in 14,332 peak players on Steam and drew somewhat positive reviews across the board (but dropped recently).
Marauders had a unique premise. Players would kit up, hop onto a ship, and attempt to beat other players to floating rigs, space stations, and the like, docking and gaining entry through one of a few landing ports. From there, they’d fight AI enemies, other players, and the elements, all while seeking loot, fame, and fortune, before heading back to their ship to zip off into the safety of space.
It was great because you could be gunned down out of the inky blackness of space before you even made it to your destination.
What was better was the game’s theme. Marauders relies on a dieselpunk, dystopian universe that’s rooted in alternate history. It has a stellar aesthetic that was the crowning gem of the game’s make-up, bringing a retro-futuristic theme front and centre.
In a lengthy post on social media, Small Impact Games apologized for the radio silence and promised big things:
We owe you an apology for the silence.
We’ve been fully focused on the game. What started as a round of fixes grew into a much larger, necessary change and we have made the call to commit to it rather than push smaller updates in the meantime.
We’ve been reworking core systems and rebuilding mechanics that needed it. This isn’t a patch. It’s a full overhaul aimed at getting Marauders where it should be.
We don’t have a release date to share yet, and we’re not setting one until we’re confident we can hit it. What we can tell you is that the next update from us will be the Technical Stress Test branch opening for community testing.
To everyone who stuck with us, kept playing, and kept the community going. Thank you. We know it’s been a long wait, and we haven’t forgotten that.
Until now, Small Impact’s social presence had been confined to rinse-and-repeat posts with no meaningful content whatsoever.
On Steam, this was the team’s first official update since August 2024. Back then, the team revealed a major update, dubbed ‘Retribution’, and wiped the platform to ensure a level playing field for those still occupying the title. This is the first sizeable update the community, however small, has received in almost two years.
It’s not like Marauders is about to become the next Escape from Tarkov, but it’s good to see the game hasn’t yet died a full death.
Did you ever play Marauders? Let us know what you think about the game on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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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.
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