Scars Above Review – DESTINED TO BE FORGOTTEN?

Occasionally, a video game will come along that exemplifies the word ‘fine’. It does everything quite decently, but fails to stand out amongst the plethora of other similar titles. In this case, Scars Above is ‘that’ game. Focusing on Dr Kate Ward, a scientist and astronaut, who along with her team, go to investigate a foreign alien structure that appears in the Earth’s orbit. However, instead of investigating its features, the giant alien object seems to have had other ideas. Suddenly transporting Dr Ward and her team to a strange planet, they are now stuck and must find out why they are there and how to escape.

Scars Above Seems To Lack Something…

The narrative in Scars Above is easily one of its biggest strengths. That being said, it does start out quite slow. The intro is worth trudging through though, because the narrative really pulls you in once it gets going! 

There really is not much that I can say about Scars Above’s gameplay. It follows the standard third person shooter formula, and rarely deviates. This is by no means a bad thing. These very familiar mechanics work well here, and due to the shorter length of the title, manages to remain captivating for throughout. The controls are really tight and responsive, and taking down a variety of alien creatures that inhabit this strange planet feels great. Despite playing on PC, I preferred to use a controller, as I was particularly thrilled with the addition of full DualSense support on the PC version, which included the adaptive triggers.

Intriguing Atmosphere

I must commend the developers on their creature designs. The enemies that inhabit this strange planet look equal parts creepy and cool. Each type of creature not only looks completely unique, with some more humanoid and some more animalistic, but also have completely different attacks that will put your skills to the test in different ways. 

However, having said all that, the rest of the visual design in Scars Above is a really mixed bag! The aesthetics of each area look fantastic, with the snowy mountains being a particular highlight. There is a real charm to these environments, managing to create a balance between stunning landscapes and a dark and dangerous atmosphere. The world design really helps to set the tone of Scars Above right from the beginning. Unfortunately, this can’t be said about the design of the characters. Most of the humans look basic and lack a lot of detail. Also, it does not help that the lip-syncing is all over the place as well, making the cutscenes almost look hilarious at times.

Decision

Overall, Scars Above is a decent sci-fi shooter that definitely has a sense of intrigue to it. But unfortunately, it looks destined to be lost in the mass of other story driven, third-person shooters. Don’t get me wrong—it is a fun game—and there are a lot of good elements here. Although, it really does lack that ‘wow’ factor that could truly make it stand out.

By Samuel Incze – Reviewed on PC

Good

Scars above is a fascinating third-person sci-fi adventure. It features an intriguing narrative that starts out a little slow, but it does quickly pick up and becomes one of this title’s biggest strengths. The gameplay is a lot of fun, but doesn’t do anything particularly innovative to stand out from it’s peers. The game features some aesthetically pleasing environments, as well some really unique creature designs, but the characters lack polish, with mouth movements in particular making them look a little like puppets at times.

This game was reviewed using a download code provided by Mad Head Games and PLAION. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.

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