We tried a game similar to Scars Above: Returnal but with a completely different pace.

Looking at the published articles about the latest Gamescom’s games, it becomes increasingly clear that the average quality is quite high. Although what has been seen and tried is mostly low-budget products, perhaps that is why we have witnessed good ideas and great applications. A bit on the edge but definitely among the most interesting games tried Scars above, do you remember? He was introduced about a year ago as one of the pioneers of Koch Media’s Prime Matter label, which has since evolved into Plaion. Scars Above, its mysterious setting and finally “like spirit“It was shown at the same event. And in Cologne, we made our first real contact with the game in question: 30 minutes, accompanied by a solid and captivating action game.

My name is Kate

In Scars Above, our character is not a warrior but a scientist named Kate who finds herself imprisoned on the same alien planet where she was sent to study its fauna and archaeological finds. No need to mess around: remember Returnal. But the gaming experience has something else entirely rhythm In Scars Above, the furious action game is slower and more strategic than Housemarque, while the environmental analysis part is much more detailed and interesting. Studying alien artifacts and strange and deadly creatures of the planet is absolutely necessary to continue the adventure, it allows us to unlock checkpoint monuments, activate portals that will take us to other parts of the planet, and activate new fire modes that will make life easier. .during the inevitable war.

The system for regulating the strengths and weaknesses of enemies only seems to rely on attacks and basic defenses that we unlock in a strictly linear fashion, or at least that’s how the game showed itself to us in its first sticks. this weaponry they are powerful and precise, damage is guaranteed if you hit them with the right bullet, but you need to know how to position yourself, keep the character moving to be better than Scars Above’s best tank. Initial mistakes can be fixed with standard sets of drugs, but perseverance can only lead to death. This is not an adventure you can play without thinking.

Mysteries and puzzles

It’s not all action: there’s a mysterious planet to explore, a fauna to study, mythological relics to analyze and in many cases even reactivate. After a series of fights, the proven demo is a old fashion riddleTake it as a compliment that we need to find a way to cross a pond full of electric eels. Again, the elements will be opposed, this time not in attack, but in defense. The tech tree to unlock to boost the hero’s performance is inevitable, but it doesn’t seem suitable for extreme maneuvers such as flying or fast-firing. Scars Above seems to want to stay with their feet on the ground, literally and not just.

Solid science fiction

Scars Above also shows solidity in terms of audio-visual. on PC graphics are clean and shows an excellent use of colour, particularly striking with subtle, unexpected chromatic peaks. The alien creature design looks more choppy, but keep in mind that we’ve played very little and the best is likely to come later, at least that’s usually the case. Too bad we don’t have the opportunity to ask the developers a few questions in this case, it would be interesting to understand how Scars Above will evolve throughout the plot. We liked what we saw, but we’re not entirely sure if it will be enough to keep the interest high until the end of the experience. If Scars Above succeeds in its purpose, we’ll have to wait until the first months of 2023, when we finally get closer to the expected release date on PC and across the entire PlayStation and Xbox family of consoles.