With an intriguing set-up, likeable lead, and aspirations of grandeur, Scars Above is a sci-fi journey recreation 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 often known as the Metahedron seems in Earth’s ambiance, a crack group of scientists and engineers, often known as SCAR — Sentient Contact Evaluation and Response – is distributed to analyze. You play as Dr. Kate Ward, who, upon investigating the artefact and together with the remainder of the crew, finds herself transported throughout the galaxy to a mysterious and inhospitable alien planet.
At the least initially, the plot is partaking 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 varied 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 worth, 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 totally different biomes you will enterprise to over the course of your travels. Whereas some have mechanics related to exploration (comparable to setting a particular type of foliage on hearth to stave off hypothermia, or freezing worm-infested water with the intention to cross), none are notably inspiring. There isn’t a map, which is not a lot a difficulty the primary time round, however within the again half of the sport, you could return to every biome for narrative MacGuffin causes, and we discovered it extremely annoying to need to retread our steps from a distinct path, typically turning into fully misplaced.
Fight is the subsequent 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 injury, 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 injury.
Nonetheless, it turns into rote moderately rapidly because of the extraordinarily restricted enemy selection, of which there are perhaps seven distinctive variants (outdoors of bosses). Of these, two are launched pretty late within the recreation. Anticipate to spend most of your time combating both swarms of weak spiders or knock-off necromorphs that spit poison and may dive underwater.
There are a number of boss encounters sprinkled all through, and a few had been genuinely partaking. The perfect of them incorporate parts beforehand used throughout exploration into the encounter in a means that made them really feel like a ultimate examination.
Nonetheless, there’s a stage of jank and stiffness that may’t be escaped, and whereas every part 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, nicely, 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 aside from merely being allowed to progress.
On the flip aspect, the voice performing is surprisingly stable, and whereas the supporting solid is paper-thin when it comes to character improvement, Kate herself is likeable sufficient. We couldn’t escape the sensation that, given the possibility for a sequel with extra sources, she might develop into an attractive character.
Scars Above makes numerous hay concerning the truth that Kate is a scientist and never a soldier (regardless of her dealing dying to numerous aliens with the alacrity of a seasoned area marine). That is represented by her means to synthesise objects 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 quite a lot of kinds, from weapons to a therapeutic injectable, a private bubble defend, and an poison antidote, to call a number of. All are powered by a battery that may be replenished utilizing supplies discovered within the atmosphere. We discovered little or no cause to make use of any of them outdoors of the added heal and the defend, with every part else feeling too situational.
Even when incorporating parts of the Soulslike style, Scars Above fails to enact what makes FromSoftware’s components so particular. Enemies are powerful, provides are restricted, and whenever 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 cause 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 ultimate 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 really leaving orbit, not to mention getting off the bottom — and recommending this expertise over another is a bit wealthy, even for the decrease asking worth.
