With an intriguing set-up, likeable lead, and aspirations of grandeur, Scars Above is a sci-fi journey sport that we actually wished to love. Sadly, the expertise is held again by lacklustre fight, abysmal map design, and a central narrative that in the end fails to launch.
After a mysterious alien artefact referred to as the Metahedron seems in Earth’s environment, a crack group of scientists and engineers, referred to as SCAR — Sentient Contact Evaluation and Response – is distributed to research. You play as Dr. Kate Ward, who, upon investigating the artefact and together with the remainder of the workforce, finds herself transported throughout the galaxy to a mysterious and inhospitable alien planet.
Not less than initially, the plot is participating as Kate units out to find the destiny of her compatriots and involves grips with the hostile world round her. It isn’t lengthy, although, earlier than the shine begins to return off the expertise.
You spend most of Scars Above’s modest runtime (round six or so hours) exploring numerous passageways, battling alien beasts, and fixing puzzles to progress. Given it is a smaller-scale undertaking, it is nonetheless exceptional how rapidly the expertise devolves into repetition and frustration. For readability, Scars Above retails for $39.99, or £34.99. Not factored into that value, nevertheless, is your time, no matter it is price to you, and that is the place the gross sales proposition falls down.
There are a number of completely different biomes you will enterprise to over the course of your travels. Whereas some have mechanics related to exploration (comparable to setting a selected type of foliage on hearth to stave off hypothermia, or freezing worm-infested water with the intention to cross), none are significantly inspiring. There isn’t a map, which is not a lot a problem the primary time round, however within the again half of the sport, you have to return to every biome for narrative MacGuffin causes, and we discovered it extremely annoying to should retread our steps from a distinct route, typically changing into fully misplaced.
Fight is the following pillar of gameplay, and it is first rate sufficient for what it’s. Kate will craft a half dozen or so weapons, every with a distinct elemental affinity and firing mode. So, a charged rifle that imbues a goal with flame harm, for instance, or a shotgun that fires acid rounds.
There’s a fairly valiant try to tie this into a bigger system of mixing results, which we did recognize. For instance, hitting an enemy standing in water with {an electrical} assault will imbue an space of impact, or following up on a burning enemy with acid will combo for large harm.
Nevertheless, it turns into rote fairly rapidly as a result of extraordinarily restricted enemy selection, of which there are possibly seven distinctive variants (exterior of bosses). Of these, two are launched pretty late within the sport. Count on to spend most of your time combating both swarms of weak spiders or knock-off necromorphs that spit poison and might dive underwater.
There are a couple of boss encounters sprinkled all through, and a few had been genuinely participating. The very best of them incorporate parts beforehand used throughout exploration into the encounter in a means that made them really feel like a remaining examination.
Nonetheless, there’s a degree of jank and stiffness that may’t be escaped, and whereas all the things runs easily and appears nice, navigating by means of every playspace and fight encounter turns into a chore lengthy earlier than the credit roll.
Puzzles are the ultimate piece of the, properly, puzzle, and so they aren’t nice shakes both. There have been too many for our style, and what there was felt uninspired. Discovering energy sources with the intention to open doorways, finding passwords within the atmosphere, analysing objects with the intention to discover clues — cookie-cutter online game fare with no reward apart from merely being allowed to progress.
On the flip facet, the voice performing is surprisingly stable, and whereas the supporting forged is paper-thin when it comes to character improvement, Kate herself is likeable sufficient. We couldn’t escape the sensation that, given the prospect for a sequel with extra sources, she may change into an enticing character.
Scars Above makes quite a lot of hay relating to the truth that Kate is a scientist and never a soldier (regardless of her dealing loss of life to numerous aliens with the alacrity of a seasoned area marine). That is represented by her skill to synthesise gadgets after analysing alien natural world, and in some circumstances, reverse-engineering her findings into new gear. It is a cool concept however underdeveloped; you simply scan the factor and are given the merchandise.
This gear takes a wide range of kinds, from weapons to a therapeutic injectable, a private bubble defend, and an poison antidote, to call a couple of. All are powered by a battery that may be replenished utilizing supplies discovered within the atmosphere. We discovered little or no purpose to make use of any of them exterior of the added heal and the defend, with all the things else feeling too situational.
Even when incorporating parts of the Soulslike style, Scars Above fails to enact what makes FromSoftware’s formulation so particular. Enemies are robust, provides are restricted, and once you die, you are returned to an obelisk that features like a checkpoint, respawning the identical aliens in an space. However with none type of soul-equivalent economic system to lose or acquire, there’s little or no purpose to not merely dash previous troublesome foes, and the aforementioned lack of enemy selection solely compounds the problem.
Conclusion
Scars Above is a extra interesting prospect than it’s a remaining product — an fascinating premise that is in the end misplaced amidst repetitive gameplay and mundane design. Some features of it are genuinely intriguing, if underexplored, however merely reaching for the celebs alone is not any assure of ever truly leaving orbit, not to mention getting off the bottom — and recommending this expertise over another is a bit wealthy, even for the decrease asking value.