Scars above It’s a AA proposal for a linear 3rd person shooter with touches of “soulslike” and a bit of “metroidvania”you might say.
Developped by crazy head games and distributed by PLAION there Raw materialin this title we control the kate on a planet with hostile alien life. Your mission is to survive against all dangers.
Without further ado, let’s see if this trip is worth it, if it falls halfway, or if it falls short of expectations.
The story of Scars Above, between yes and no
As katewe belong to an organization of engineers and scientists called SCAR. Suddenly he appears in the Earth a strange structure that does not come from our world, so they send us with a team from the aforementioned organization to investigate what it is and where it comes from, without waiting at any time what would happen.
En route to complete the mission, the ship is absorbed and the group find themselves on an unknown and hostile planet. From this point, our protagonist is alone and we have to search for the rest of the crew investigating said planet and what happened while trying to survive many strange alien creatures.
We discover the story through cutscenes, in addition to conducting research or listening to audio notes. In general, the narration turns out to be one of the weak points of the game, without a doubt. Personally, I have to say that I didn’t find it appealing enough, but there are some interesting twists.
Weapons with their parts and upgrades, and weaknesses
Here, the weapons are not limited to firing bullets. They use various elements such as ice or fire to enable us to deal with the different enemy weaknesses. Likewise, sometimes we will have to use these elements in certain puzzles, or paths previously inaccessible in a normal way.
Yes, as I mentioned each enemy has its own weakness which will be indicated to us at all times, in most of them. In those that don’t, they usually leave it marked, which isn’t the case with bosses. For them it will take a little more thought.
It’s a fun way to force us to consider which weapon works best in which situations, so we don’t always treat all hazards the same. Until each final boss must be defeated using different strategies, using all the mechanics.
Puzzles, investigations and exploration
In order to pursue our mission, sometimes we will need to solve some puzzles (rather quite simple) or investigate it is also very easy to obtain relevant evidence and data.
The puzzles can range from opening doors with codes found in their environment, to moving certain obstacles that can prevent us from moving forward. In principle, they will hardly break your head.
As for the investigations, they simply consist of looking for evidence or key objects to understand something more about the situation of our crew members and the unknown planet. Remember the famous saga batman arkhambut much shorter.
Exploration, speaking of a linear title, it’s not too rude. However, becomes mandatory for our survival by finding objects that give us experience, and with this we can unlock more skills.
Scars Above has touches of soul and metroidvania
Scars above It has some straight out soulslike and metroidvania mechanics. A feature borrowed from soulslike is, for example, the limited use of care which are filled when we rest at checkpoints. or the typical stamina bar and the -hard to tell the truth- to dodge. We see it all here.
The role of checkpoints is that of, obviously, respawn right there if we die, as well as rest and restore all our health, ammo, healing uses, etc. They are usually not hidden, but some are. It is advisable to activate all the possible ones because they are your “save room”.
Of metroidvania, the most important would be the the improvement of our equipment, allowing us to inflict more damage on enemies, receive more healing or solve problems that were previously impossible to face. A kate You also get new abilities. as we go on an adventure. just like him mythical skill tree typical of the RPG genre.
Design and universe influenced by space horror cinema
Looking at the design of enemies and scenarios of Scars above, Classic space/alien horror movie works can quickly come to mind, such as Extraterrestrial oh The thing. It’s not a horror game in any aspect, but the fixation on this type of film is obvious.
However, the level design is sometimes quite confusing and you don’t know at all where to go, which makes you waste a lot of time looking for the right path because the objective is sometimes not even well marked. Since this doesn’t happen all the time, it’s not a big deal.
Regarding the design of the enemies themselves, it should be noted that they come in all sizes, from smallest to huge abominable monsters with destructive force. This is not the case with the final bosses, being a good part of them of a size as colossal as they are imposing.
A great setting, soundtrack and technical section
Although we are not faced with a proposal with an impressive technical section, it would not be fair to ask for that either. We are referring to a double A, so taking that into account, technically it serves its purpose very decently and even with remarkable optimization on Xbox Series S. In this sense, the maximum possible has been done taking into account the budget of the project.
On another side, the soundtrack is of a good standard. He’s there when he needs it most to provoke exactly what he intends to provoke: to add more tension to the (already tense) fights. When we are not in combat, he is also present, eliminating the awkward total silence.
And finally, the decor seeks to disconcert us, to make us feel alone and that we are always in constant danger. Most of the areas visited will be dirt terrain, completely snow covered areas or caves. All with an obvious tendency to darkness. Special mention to the Spanish dubbing, which is always to be welcomed and even more so if a commendable job has been done.
In short, is Scars Above worth it or is it halfway there?
If you like linear adventures that go to the essentials with a more or less short duration and 3rd person shooters, you have to take into account Scars above. The soulslike and metroidvania touches, and its dark setting only enhance the experience. It is even possible to change the difficulty at any time if it is too high for you.
After all that has been said, I can tell you without a doubt that it’s a good basis for a second part that could be really impressive. With its negatives, linearity certainly doesn’t seem to be one of them, personally. At the present time when there are already too many open worlds, this type of “simpler” contribution is starting to be desired again.
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Scars above
Pro.
- Weapons and their different elements
- Adjusted difficulty (allowing us to change it at any time)
- Enemies (including bosses) and their different ways to defeat them
- Dubbing in Spanish
Contra.
- Maybe something repetitive can be done
- sometimes jerky movement
I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember, so you could say I like talking about it.
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