Scars Above Review

When playing Scars Above it is difficult not to have thoughts of other games bouncing around in your head.

The most common of these is painfully obvious. Scientist lady stranded on desolate and hostile alien planet shooting guns. But the Returnal resemblance only encapsulates thematic similarities, despite Scars Above featuring exotic guns shooting exotic creatures from a third-person perspective.

Shifting to Remnant: From the Ashes is more digestible–a shooter aimed at being slow-paced and somewhat “hardcore” due to its terrifying foes. After all, Scars Above is predestined for Soulslike comparisons because it features spawn points the players reappear at after death, resetting all enemies. Exhaustingly stapling this moniker to a game practically feels like a genre itself.

Perhaps its that inability to entirely differentiate itself from kindred spirits that proves to be Scars Above‘s handicap. The brief exposure I had to the game before playing hinted at a somewhat budget title that emphasized eerie atmosphere and a heady narrative. Upon playing Scars Above, I spent most of the 8 hours of the campaign pleasantly surprised at a game which was, above all else, trying.

A foreign megastructure called the Metahedron has appeared in Earth’s orbit. The Sentient Contact Assessment and Response team goes to investigate and finds themselves stranded far from home on a hostile alien planet. Scientist Kate Ward is seemingly contacted by a sentient civilization that is foretelling or reflecting on a catastrophic force that poses a danger to at least Kate.

Throughout Kate’s journey through this dangerous alien world, players will put the pieces of the mystery together, including finding out where her crew went to and the purpose of the Metahedron. And while the narrative doesn’t break new ground, it is an incredible excuse to pepper Scars Above with some genuinely creepy and fascinating visual moments. Strange monoliths hold questions. Massive, long-dead monsters paint a dire picture of the food chain. And prophetic visions drive the player towards answers. Just enough visual and discoverable lore gives the game a sense of history that is much needed.

However, it was Kate’s personality and drive as a scientist that provides Scars Above with the angle I didn’t know I would need. Much of the game is spent with Kate openly speaking and commenting on her scientific breakthroughs and discoveries, including piecing together new inventions and story beats. That small human element frequently saves the game’s narrative from feeling too bland and endears the player towards Kate’s survival.

But I won’t deny that Scars Above has some fairly wooden visuals at times, especially when it comes to character and enemy animations. There is an obvious budget that developer Mad Head Games was working with but it can be somewhat distracting for a game’s protagonist to not look well defined, whether that be poor hair physics, expressionless facial features, or a mouth that doesn’t move great. Additionally, the game capitalizes on the eerie crawl of dread by plopping players into a murky, dark swamp-like environment first. One of the few primary colors the players encounter at first are greys–greyish browns and greens. Let’s just say you don’t want to do your Blighttown first.

Scars Above is thankfully a competent third-person shooter at its core. Had it not made the act of shooting a gun feel good, most of the game’s other mechanics would have fallen apart. I wouldn’t say that Scars Above is exceptional in that regard but because it is supported by multiple interesting factors, it doesn’t leave the memory so easily.

There is an ever-so-slight lean towards a kind of Metroidvania progression system in Scars Above. Over the course of the game, Kate puts her scientific knowledge to use, analyzing things to build up her arsenal. In one moment of the game, she investigated the corpse of an alien to help fabricate a weapon that could lob freezing puddles to navigate waters that were swarming with deadly fauna.

Various elemental effects and attacks are unlocked that not only open up new pathways and secrets but have significant effect on enemies. Kate analyzes downed enemies for the first time to discover new weaknesses. She traces the steps of her crew and pieces together a scene. Much of this is done with a Detective Mode-style feature that highlights points of interest that stick out from the environment.

Enemies and bosses will have weaknesses that can be exploited either through glowing weakpoints that may be a certain color to indicate what hurts them the most or simple status ailments. Players will also learn that they can begin to chain together elemental effects on the environment, other objects, and other enemies to create chain reactions. Electrify water with enemies in it and they take damage. Freeze an enemy to stun or poison them to do damage over time.

It may feel like players are exploiting this aspect of Scars Above but I think it makes the game easier for those who prefer not struggling with their third-person shooters, or allows the teeth of a Hard mode to be filed down slightly. And the tools Kate creates over time look pretty cool and make encounters interesting. A gravity grenade that slows down enemies who pass through it can help with mobs and a shield that absorbs damage is great for bosses.

Scars Above makes multiple attempts to throw a variety of things to do and discover at players. It never felt like a mere action game where shooting was tantamount to progression. Though the puzzles present in the game never stumped me for more than a few seconds. Mad Head Games seemed intent on providing players with consistent action and never relenting.

So what’s the ultimate issue here? Well, that’s hard to place a finger on. In its variety of things to do, Scars Above manages to frequently entertain or at least surprise. But the trouble is that when it all comes together as a whole package, it lacks a definitive punch. Scars Above for one is simply too short for this onslaught of activities to have their own moment to capitalize.

The game opens with Kate analyzing the gun she uses over the course of the game. Players hover over parts of the gun and are treated to her dialog and text about what makes it tick. It feels grounded in the science of the world and intrinsic to the character we are playing as. But there are moments where it almost feels like extraneous fluff; stuff that sounds cool and interesting but then you’re back to shooting at monsters that can sometimes look a bit janky and weird.

There needed to be a richer story or a more exotic feature that expanded the toolset of Scars Above. Those elemental attacks and exploration tools are awesome but are granted at such a pace that they never have too long to shine. Eventually our beloved scientist practically becomes an RPG Red Mage with a gun… which is actually kind of cool now that I say it. But the playground to explore those eventually begins to plateau in the game’s later acts.

Scars Above is ripe with many clever and interesting ideas that allow it to become more than just a dark science fiction shooter. Players may be able to draw parallels to many other similar titles and the game may not do enough to absolutely differentiate itself from other peers. Given more polish and breathing room, Scars Above may have has risen above the ordinary.