While I think Scarred Stars’ story could be a bit more refined, the intensity of the gameplay and how airtight the world is by design truly helps to make this horror survival from indie developer Tuomo’s Games something to look forward to in the spooky month of October.
Developer Tuomo Laine of Tuomo’s Games is bringing out an interesting action-adventure/horror called Scarred Stars this month. The game is simply broken into two pieces – run for your life and solve puzzles quickly along the way. I have never played a game like this before, at least not on this scale, although the gaming style I use in Demon Souls has prepared me for this, which is running away from danger.
Let’s jump right into things.
Welcome back to 80s/90s horror!
Two kids (Asuka/Momoko) decide to break into an abandoned amusement park that was closed down due to an incident involving the death of a kid. Of course, in true horror style, Asuka (you) and Momoko (her friend) must go and explore the park for some shenanigan reasons. They successfully break in, separate, and something goes terribly wrong quickly. This is a classic horror story structure, where something goes wrong when our heroes are doing something they shouldn’t be doing (see Scream for details). The story is straight from an 80s/90s horror flick, where looking for trouble usually means you’ll find it. While on the surface the story looks straightforward, there is an underlying tone that shows more to the story that one of our characters isn’t necessarily revealing. The twist and turns in the story are commendable, and a callback to what makes horror pure and terrifying. It even comes with a creepy atmosphere to help push the storytelling agenda along. Again, classic 80s/90s horror.
While the first-layer premise of Scarred Stars is predictable in structure, the tone of the game and the limited looks help to drive home the terror. The innocent top-down design of the game helps to hide its sinister and frightful nature. The latter is backed up and magnified by an eerie subtitle soundtrack and limited lighting in most of the locations you explore. It all comes together to remind you that something is out there and it’s hunting you, be it a monster or something worse.
The monsters themselves aren’t visibly frightening, just mainly The Thing type of gross. Their terror comes in audio form, where they scream their presence, which adds a large sense of urgency to the situation and feeds into the gameplay design. The combination of visuals and audio helps to form most of the horror in the game and helps to enhance any terror you might feel while playing it. Getting the uncomfortable atmosphere firmly embedded into the experience is what makes a horror game, especially one that is survival-based, good.
All the above said one thing I think Tuomo could improve upon is giving a bit more of a backstory to the amusement park itself to make it larger than life, or a good distraction from the actual horror. While most of what you find out about the broken-down place is through exposition at the beginning of the game, there should be something truly baffling and terrifying that creates lore about why it is abandoned, even if it’s ultimately a lie (UPDATE: Oh, it’s coming — not going to spoil it). It’s the first act of a narrative that is necessary to set the tone and establish the world. It also provides motivation and curiosity that drives the two rogue teens to go explore this messed-up place. While most horror stories from the 80s/90s don’t exactly spend a lot of time on their first act, there is enough in them to provide context and viewer motivation/curiosity to want to explore the story further. It’s like Friday the 13th, where campers relay an old legend that a kid drowned at Camp Crystal Lake and no one helped him. That kid’s myth forms into Jason, which forms into campers and counselors murdered. It provides that undertone that says, “Don’t ignore this, it’s important, and it’s the driving force for the rest of the story”. It’s the first act of Friday the 13th, be it simple and straightforward, and is what drives the movie and establishes the world and its characters, even if the murderer turns out to be someone you didn’t expect (spoiler alert: the case with Friday the 13th).
While Scarred Stars does establish something at the beginning about the amusement park, detailing that something happened to a kid and is the catalyst for it being closed, it never goes into any thick mythos about it. It doesn’t necessarily create an over-arching story shadow that distracts the player, while the storyteller builds something wholly other. Magicians call this sleight of hand. This is the moment where lore can be established, as well as the moment where the story can throw the player off completely. The opening dialogue of the game doesn’t necessarily match the story established, where our main character Asuka talks about not remembering Momoko (friend) but carries some resentment towards Momoko. After that, the game opens to the lore of the amusement park. The competing dialogue and first-act establishments give some obvious hints at what is to come, while at the same time trying to throw the player off completely. The story needs to simplify what it is and what it wants the player to think it is going to be without giving much away in the process. Creating a distracting deception will make for a more ‘AH-HA!’ moment at the end of the game.
Not giving away the story and slowly throwing down breadcrumbs as it unfolds is the best way for this story to be established and played out. The first act needs to be simplified and provide intentions, even if those intentions turn out to be something else entirely. I feel like there is too much given away at the beginning and nothing left to the imagination of the player. Alfred Hitchcock always said that the most frightening things a viewer can experience are those that they can’t see. Sleight of hand is necessary here.
Now, I still like the story that Tuomo established. I think there is enough intrigue here to catch your attention. It’s definitely a well-thought-out narrative and it merges well with the gameplay. I just wish it was a bit more hidden.
Gameplay
Think Demon Souls without swords and you simply must think on your feet, that’s what Scarred Stars is in a nutshell. It’s a series of traps and monsters that require you to pay attention not only to the baddies, but also to your surroundings. The latter part of the gameplay design is crucial, as you will find yourself running away and hiding from monsters when the time calls for it – hiding from creatures can be incredibly unsettling. This game kicked up a lot of feelings from my Resident Evil 2 days back in the 90s, where the T-00 Tyrant would randomly pop up and your only recourse was to run away from him and hide. It was terrifying and anxiety-inducing (in a fun way?), and most of all effective when it came to terrorizing the player. Scarred Stars does the same, where you will run into beasts randomly in the game but will be forced to retreat and hide until they’re gone out of the area. It’s tough to relax in the game, which is the point, and it’s made worse by sporting headphones while playing (also the point).
To make matters more unsettling, the monsters will be screaming at you while they chase you relentlessly, even across multiple maps, and the screen will go ‘VHS tracking is off’ while you run. Nothing about this process is comfortable, which is part of its brilliance. Tuomo knew exactly how to treat those moments and they are executed methodically well.
While running is the main mechanic in the game, and it should be, exploring and memorizing your environment is the pseudo-secondary mechanic. You are tasked with knowing where you are, what hiding spots are around you, and how to navigate a light-restricted level to find your way to those spots. It’s uncomfortable, which makes the design of this horror game charming, and why this game works well with its intentions. There were moments where I wished the main character would just grab something and fight, but that honestly would have taken all the good design out of what the game was trying to accomplish. You do have the opportunity, depending on HP and stamina to punch the creature to give enough space between you and it. While this part of the game isn’t button-based, it still gives you a fighting chance when there isn’t a lot of fighting to be had. The game does give you some calmer moments to catch your breath and explore areas monster-free, including finding objects to reset your HP/SA, but for the most part, the game just wants you to get through the best way you can – which is running and hiding.
Ultimately, the design of the game is damn good, it fits the narrative, and it is challenging as hell. The amount of laser-pointed focus that Tuomo had when developing this is evident from start to finish. The gameplay design is very on-point with the world and story. I can see a lot of streamers falling in love with this game, as it would certainly make for a good streaming time.
Conclusion
While I think Scarred Stars’ story could be a bit more refined, the intensity of the gameplay and how airtight the world is by design truly helps to make this horror survival from indie developer Tuomo’s Games something to look forward to in the spooky month of October.
