A variety of video games these days appear to be becoming a member of the Souls-like bandwagon, letting them mix right into a sea of Souls clones regardless of not being outright replicas. Scars Above seeks to interrupt this norm by borrowing a couple of parts which might be prevalent. It is a troublesome enterprise for any sport, however the query is, can Scars Above nonetheless stand out?
All Alone in an Alien Zone
![Scars Above Review Scars-Above-Alien-World](https://attackofthefanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Scars-Above-Alien-World.jpg)
After a mysterious alien object, referred to as the Metahedron, seems above the earth, the Sentient Contact Evaluation and Response Group, or SCAR are dispatched to look at the article up shut and work out its objective. That is the place you choose up the story as Kate, the crew’s scientist. Upon scanning the Metahedron, your ship (together with the opposite crew members) is sucked contained in the alien construction as Kate passes out. When Kate involves, she is alone in an alien world.
As you trudge alongside to find the destiny of your store and crew, Kate begins to have numerous visions of a bizarre entity and a holographic alien. The hologram appears to be a remnant from the aliens that was in charge of this space, and for some purpose, it now needs to assist Kate out.
The plot of this mysterious determine within the sky that sled to this high-tech alien race’s erasure shortly turns into Kate’s most important curiosity in addition to the main focus of the sport. The crew then turns into relegated as a driving issue for working your manner by means of this alien world and fixing all the issues that these aliens left behind.
Nevertheless, it in a short time devolves right into a “your princess is in one other citadel” take care of every occasion of you lastly managing to catch as much as your crew leaving you empty-handed with the hologram or another proof telling you that they’re simply forward and you could preserve going. Every time you arrive at a location the place your crewmates needs to be, you both discover a lifeless physique or an deserted camp with indicators that the remainder of the crew has moved on from that location.
Combine and Match
![Scars Above Review Scars-Above-Mix-and-Match](https://attackofthefanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Scars-Above-Mix-and-Match.jpg)
A giant a part of the fight in Scars Above is combating with ranged fight in numerous methods. Whilst you can at all times simply shoot enemies till they’re lifeless, you’ll be able to shorten the battle by attempting to mix numerous parts that your gun makes use of to create reactions or through the use of the setting to create the response.
Because you solely have the electrical energy model of your gun to start with, you’re somewhat restricted on obtainable choices. For essentially the most half, you’ll be able to bait enemies into the water after which shoot it together with your weapon to create an AOE electrical assault that fortunately gained’t harm you. In a while, you’ll have entry to fireplace, ice, and corrosive elemental weapons attachments that may work together with the setting in several methods.
Nevertheless, this can be a level that Scars Above falls flat on. The setting interactions are solely helpful for one stage that you just journey by means of after which by no means appear to return again as typically as they might. You begin out in a jungle the place you’ll be able to electrify and freeze the water to both harm enemies or create platforms for your self. You then transfer onto an ice space the place you should use the hearth to soften ice lakes and immediately kill enemies by freezing them.
However the entire time you’re within the ice space, you aren’t ready to make use of any of the combos that you just discovered about within the jungle. Then as soon as you permit the ice space, you’re by no means going to wish to soften ice lakes once more. In the event you might return to those areas for some purpose it could nonetheless be helpful however you by no means actually backtrack within the sport; you’re always transferring ahead into new areas.
Varied One-Offs Don’t Make A Good Sport
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There’s a operating development in Scars Above, the place it would introduce mechanics which might be attention-grabbing however by no means appears to return again to them. It has plenty of one-and-done moments that might have very effectively been repurposed later.
The weapon crafting system the place it’s important to drag all of the items collectively by no means comes again when it might have simply been used once more — like while you get your different three elemental attachments to your gun. Lots of the elemental interactions are linked to a single space and don’t see a lot use exterior of that space. They only get changed by a brand new interplay.
The one system that appears to return is the investigation occasions as a result of in case you forgot, Kate is a scientist, not a fighter. These occasions can are available two totally different kinds which might be irritating. One investigation kind is the place you’re offered with an space and should piece collectively what occurred by interacting with numerous factors round a marked zone. These usually are not too difficult because the factors you could examine are usually apparent.
The opposite investigation occasion includes performing a deep scan of a machine or lifeform which is irritating since you don’t have any actual path on what factors you could hover over and work together with. This may result in simply slowly scanning your cursor over the whole scene till it occurs to vary colour while you go over the relevant gadgets.
A Melting Pot of Mechanics
![Scars Above Review Scars-Above-Leveling-System](https://attackofthefanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Scars-Above-Leveling-System.jpg)
The ultimate nail within the coffin for Scars Above is simply how poorly all the pieces appears to mesh collectively. The sport borrows so many concepts from Souls-like video games that work effectively on their very own, however when mixed with the unique mechanics, they only fall flat.
Scars Above has a bonfire-esque system by means of using pillars. By interacting with a pillar, you set it as a respawn level, heal your self, and restore some ammo. You can even come again to a beforehand used pillar at any level to heal and restock at the price of respawning all of the enemies you might have killed. However the challenge is that Scars Above is a linear sport; you gained’t end up ever backtracking to a pillar to heal. The one time you come back to a pillar is while you open a shortcut again to a pillar you might have already visited.
Scars Above additionally expects you to keep away from utilizing these pillars as respawn factors contemplating that story progress is misplaced on loss of life. So any cutscenes will have to be rewatched, nevertheless, upgrades that you just seize will keep in your stock. This may depart you in a loop of watching the identical story cutscene again and again till you handle to lastly attain the following pillar. Which makes using pillars as an alternative of simply common checkpoints all of the extra complicated.
The leveling system in Scars Above can be one thing that’s usually fantastic by itself however when mixed with the opposite mechanics, it falls flat. It’s much less of a leveling system and extra of a development tracker. You’ll be able to’t farm XP to extend your degree earlier than a battle. You solely get XP by scanning a brand new enemy sort for the primary time or by grabbing little cubes within the open world. These cubes don’t respawn, although, so when you get all of the XP out of an space you would possibly as effectively transfer on. The concept of a leveling system simply doesn’t profit from a linear expertise like this.
The Verdict
![Scars Above Review Scars-Above-Death-Screen](https://attackofthefanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Scars-Above-Death-Screen.jpg)
Tragically, these mechanics don’t mix effectively collectively, thus ruining the entire expertise of Scars Above. Whereas it has a stable basis and the unique thought works effectively, all the opposite mechanics grinding in opposition to each other make the expertise unenjoyable.
That is what is going to sadly make Scars Above fall into the ocean of varied Souls-like video games regardless of having plenty of stand-out options for itself. The core could also be stable and enjoyable, however nobody needs to waste their time having to dig by means of all the issues that this sport suffers.
This sport was reviewed utilizing a duplicate of the sport offered by the sport’s writer,public relations firm, developer or different for the categorical objective of a evaluate.
– This text was up to date on March 2nd, 2023