Scathe, an FPS review looking at DOOM but with sand in his eyes

The Divine Creator and His Divine Brother are fighting in an unbalanced endless war. However, Divine has a plan: to send her strongest hero, Scathe, to steal a powerful magic wand that will give her an advantage over her brother and give him victory. This is the whole story behind the action, which is, at its core, the least of the problems that arise as we prepare. Scathe’s reviewA classic first-person shooter that just wanted to be DOOM but couldn’t.

it’s fine

Scathe moves us right away. After a few seconds of gameplay, we collect the first weapon – an assault rifle with an endless bullet, which will accompany us throughout the entire game. So we will have to choose which of the three areas of the labyrinth (natural area, industrial area, and temple) we will encounter in which the stick is hidden. At first the action is very satisfying: kill the enemies are fun, blood profuse, speed is fast and despite some ambiguities of the AI, among others with stuck creatures and erratic behavior and the option to entrust the narration to the lines of dialogue that appear from time to time and frankly tiring, also because lily is written, all is well for what the game is aiming at seems to be working.

Basically we are dealing with some kind of Painkiller so it is absolutely important quantity over quality. In fact, if it were for the first few hours of the game, Kwalee’s would have been a great title, thanks to an artistic direction that although not exactly brilliant, was still successful. We’re not at DOOM Eternal levels, but it’s always tempting to turn demons into blood and gut puddles on levels that look like they’ve come from hell. Also, the frame rate is really stable thanks to a well-done graphic design, but certainly not very rich in effects and details.

The difficulty level is really high: the player has a certain number of lives at their disposal and loses every time they are killed. When he finishes them, he is taken to a special room, which forces him to watch some maps again (as we’ll see later, backtracking is a big problem). at the level difficulty The higher the cost of each mistake is paid with life, which can be a great incentive for those looking for a tough shooter, but you can still choose a lower difficulty according to your needs. Or you can play together and share the pain with someone else.

So far, it can be said to be good. Except that …

Problems, problems, problems

Unfortunately, Scathe has a lot going for it. problems It is a structure that cannot be ignored. The most obvious is game balance. The levels are designed as arenas where you will face wave after wave of enemies until you unlock the exits for the next level. The designers’ intent was certainly to make them more approachable in cooperative mode, but some options were not well thought out. For example, in levels with doors already open, killing enemies is just a waste of time, so it’s not appropriate to do anything more than run towards the exit (there’s an incremental score to look at, but it seems). just an end in itself). Instead, in those that require you to kill a certain amount of demons before continuing (classic arenas), it’s convenient to find comfortable spots to place yourself, attract demons (so they continue to spawn without delay). ), kill them and continue until the exits are unlocked.

At this point the demons stop filling the area and you can also collect all the items and explore more easily. collection Runes used to unlock secret, especially guards’ six doors. Playing in co-op mode changes little from that point of view, aside from the number of creatures attacking us at the same time. Often going on an adventure is more the result of boredom than a real need the game requires.

always talk about levelsScathe has an obvious trackback issue. Forty-nine maps are interconnected with different outputs that, in theory, allow you to treat the game in a non-linear way. Unfortunately, we also reach areas that are too difficult for our current situation, or we have to go back to reach an area that has been left out. The solution chosen was to leave it up to the player to keep track of the levels that were already covered. Doing this once may not bother you, but when retracing your steps in advanced stages becomes very regular practice, the weight of repetition is palpable as many maps are not exceptional and the diversity of enemies leaves much to be desired. .

Speaking of the latter, the developers took a very classical approach: they are few in number and only vary in their color and some details between the three available biomes. so no surprises outside of me Manager. The latter, fortunately, is usually well done. Only one is a bit subdued, but the others can be forgiven for presenting an excellent challenge and having well-researched and challenging attack patterns.

Weaponry

Another big problem is balance. weaponry. Removing the crossbow that has bugs that make it not very useful (at least in our gaming experience) for now, others are well done and very satisfying. For example, the shotgun works great thanks to the gory effects that accompany every kill, and when discovered, it makes you want to use it throughout the game. Well, you may be wondering where is the problem. Simple: Except for the starting gun, which is a type of assault rifle with a rocket as a secondary fire, all of the others require you to walk around and look for magazines. Unfortunately there are very few of these around the maps so you have very little use of the best weapons, you always prefer the first one which allows you unlimited shots and however not much less powerful than the others and is fine for most situations.

A similar argument can be made for other offensive tools Scathe can use, namely spells that recharge by collecting the mana left by enemies in the form of small crystals: unfortunately some of them seem to be put in only to make up for the numbers. , others are too strong and disrupt the balance of the already shaky game.

even skill ClickIt seems a bit too strong, allowing you to quickly eliminate weaker enemies and make you temporarily invincible, especially when you figure out how to get the most out of it.

The result is a shooter where the flaws take over the whole experience and eventually overshadow the good points. It’s not a good feeling to come to the end and get angry by playing. The disaster is certainly not total, but we were really hoping for something different.