Scars on top – review on INDIAN

I like to remember the days when mainframe games were still in their infancy, when they premiered in theaters in the West. intruder and I was 13 years old, until I was born … then life was somehow easier.

However, its harder to consider properly now Scars above. In many ways, the game is reminiscent of popular sci-fi classics, namely the aforementioned Intruder series and, in particular, part Prometheus since 2012. Unfortunately, the game itself would probably be best suited for this year due to its handling. However, many people had high expectations, mainly due to the time travel elements, so enthusiasts were looking forward to the indie version of Returnal, naysayers Return from desire. However, none of the camps knew the truth. Scars Above has its own style, strengths and weaknesses, and I will explain which ones.

Humanity has always wondered if it is lonely in space or not. However, when an alien flying tetrahedron appeared out of nowhere in Earth’s orbit, it became clear to everyone that aliens really exist. A special scientific group was sent to this object SCAR, who was tasked with trying to make first contact, and it was at this point that strange things began to happen. main character Kate With a snap of his finger, he finds himself on a new unknown planet and finds parts of his own ship around him. The journey to decipher what happened is just beginning.

I myself find it difficult to find an answer, what to tell you about the plot of the game, and what not. The story itself is somewhat predictable, but towards the end it picks up a pretty solid pace. However, at first you will wallow too much in ignorance. All you will know is that the world is full of very strange mutants that are evolving at an alarming rate.

And as you can guess, you will have to fight everyone. Scars Above is a strictly linear third-person shooter with a huge focus on your own weapons. You will build it in a small mini-game at the very beginning, and then you will improve on the planet. However, I have a slight feeling that this was originally supposed to be a game mechanic, which was subsequently cut. The first assembly is a full-fledged mini-game, the second at least required finding a special table, and each subsequent upgrade makes a portable 3D printer for you, which came from nowhere.

Criticizing something like this seems a bit overly harsh to me, let’s focus on what the weapon would be useful for.

Various elements will take your side in battles. If only it’s rainingenergy attacks stronger, and fiery ones do almost nothing. Ice weapons can turn enemies into a real ice cube designed for flying monsters. immediate death and on land you can catch well if you freeze them while walking through puddles. The game can very beautifully use individual elements and influences of the environment and spice up, for example, one of the many boss battles. Enemies tend to be sensitive to specific attacks, have damage points on them, and sometimes you have to use the environment creatively to eliminate them. But the problem is, with most of these ideas, you feel like you’re going to use them. maximum once and then you probably won’t need them. In an ice cave, for example, you use an ice stalactite to quickly kill a monster, and you won’t encounter this mechanic again for the rest of the game.

Instead of physical puzzles, you spend most of your time in the game shooting one particular monster that just always appears exactly a meter away from you and thus acts like a weirdo. screamer. While the game itself isn’t really difficult at all, in the beginning I often died because of these stupid things, when it was not so much about skill as about remembering when someone appeared in what place.

This brings us back to the linearity of the game itself, and also why it doesn’t really have a backtrack. nothing in common. The name barely touches on the topic of time travel, and the impression is created only thanks to the mechanics of special obelisks.

If you die, you will end up at the last activated one of them with all the ammo and equipment. So I would rather compare it with the behavior bonfires a series Dark souls. Activating will also bring back all enemies. However, there is no soul mechanic in the game, you don’t gain experience for killing, and it’s also difficult to talk about an open world. The principle of the obelisks is kind of pointless, because there is not much point in returning to them, because you will have to defeat everything that you have already killed once. It’s just a slightly weird game save system. This works pretty well, but it’s incredibly frustrating when you die right before the next savepoint activates.

Luckily, at least you won’t lose skill points. You get them for finding hidden objects data cubes and then you can choose how to buff yourself in the skill tree. During the game, you will most likely find enough of them to open all available abilities. Their subsequent influence on the battle is not the greatest, but probably tenacious. You’ll find things like faster reload times, a chance to not use an item when used, and the like. You will have much more fun with so-called gadgets. They will give you access to completely new abilities, such as luring enemies, a personal shield, or creating a time capsule. Activating these abilities always costs you production materials, so you can use these toys almost unlimitedly, but you definitely can’t do it recklessly.

The technical side is generally special. Until I changed the v-sync settings, the game was already flickering in the menu in a horrible way. I even had to try the introduction twice. I believe I had one investigation mini-game broken and had to replay the first chapter because of it, and overall I felt the game was a little lacking in performance. On RTX 2080 Ti I’m in resolution 2K sometimes he fell below desired 60fps. Some might argue that I should take this into account when setting it to ultra, but the visual quality of the game really doesn’t match that.

Although the monsters are quite cute, the protagonist is not doing very well and seems oddly wooden. The animations can’t react flexibly to the environment, and you’ll soon realize that Kate is floating all over the place in a strange way. In gameplay cutscenes, you’ll notice that her facial features seem strangely lifeless, which is a shame. I almost think the game is paying unfairly for the effort of realism in this regard. More stylized characters probably wouldn’t be a problem as monsters, bosses and some specific environments did the trick.

Also get ready for the must-have thing seen lately with just about every game from Unreal engine. Until you arrange the keyboard, forget about switching weapons. Unlike Hogwarts legacy at least we appreciate the fact that the developers are using a font that handles czech characters.

The game sound remains. Music as such is mediocre, unfortunately, I can’t say that the theme of the game left me with some memories in principle. However, the sounds themselves can be praised. You will be able to distinguish individual monsters from each other, and in many places you will definitely feel a pleasant atmosphere of horror.

Overall the game is simple. very average. He comes up with good ideas that aren’t fully exploited, and in many places he can just frustrate you. But the boss fights were definitely fun, and I can also commend the fact that many of the monsters that give you trouble at first can be outmaneuvered after a certain amount of time, and then the feeling of your own power works well. Although he initially Scars above the pace is rather weak, the second half of the game can often pleasantly surprise you. The developers also spoiled me a little, according to the review guide, I got the feeling that the whole game actually consists of only four chapters. So, when I already had the feeling that it was won, two more came, which I liked much more than the drawn-out introduction, and the result of about twelve hours of play actually pleased me and greatly influenced my opinion about the game itself. So I can recommend the game to fans of Prometheus, and I advise the rest to refrain a little.