Active Matter is out now on Steam, PS5 and Xbox
Matter Team and Gaijin's time-loop extraction shooter has launched on PC and consoles, with a new Harmonization Cycle, Merits and a renamed Deluxe Edition.
Active Matter has left the hangar. Matter Team and Gaijin Network's time-loop extraction shooter is out now on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, priced at $29.99 on Valve's store. Anyone who bought the early version from the Gaijin Store can claim the Steam edition at no extra cost until 23 November.
What the launch build adds
The release starts the next Harmonization Cycle, and with it a new currency: Merits. These come from daily Priority Raid objectives and from Monolith Access Levels, but only while a Cycle is running, so Merits from Access Levels earned between Cycles do not carry over. Hit the cap and you are allowed one overflow; anything earned past that is lost.
Raid loot has been expanded so that legendary weapons can now be found in raids across the Multiverse, and the Shelter and inventory systems have been streamlined to get you back into a raid faster. The Premium Edition has been upgraded and renamed the Deluxe Edition, and now carries more weapons, in-game currency and a second additional Body Sleeve.
What you are actually signing up for
Active Matter casts you as an operative locked in a time loop, dropped into quantum-unstable zones to harvest active matter — the substance that bends space and time, and is therefore the most valuable and most dangerous resource in the Multiverse. Zones hold rival operatives from other timelines, physics-breaking anomalies, and survivors who have lost their minds and their humanity to exposure. You harvest, you loot, and you extract before the zone and everything still inside it ceases to exist. The other players are still the real threat.
Our opinion
Time loops, extraction runs and warring syndicates is a lot of pitch for one shooter, and the time-loop conceit will only earn its keep if a zone changes enough that a second attempt feels different from the first. The launch handling, on the other hand, is better than most: letting Gaijin Store early buyers claim the Steam edition free until 23 November is exactly how you avoid punishing the people who backed you first, and renaming a "premium" tier into a Deluxe Edition with actual extra contents is a refreshingly literal piece of marketing. The thing to watch is the Merit economy. A reward currency that only accrues during a Cycle, and can be partly thrown away at the cap, is fine on paper and infuriating in practice — and extraction shooters live or die on how their loot loop feels in month two, not week one.