I had seen trailers and promotional images around about Scars Above and really felt like it gave off a Returnal vibe. The aliens looked cool, and the concept seemed interesting. Nowadays I seem to be wanting to play more single-player story-driven games rather than online multiplayer. This could be down to me personally feeling like most of the games I play online are stuck in a rut and just feel lacking but thankfully we have other games that keep me hyped and wanting to play. I thought that Scars Above could be my next compelling story in deep space but sadly it was just a gameplay experience that filled a few hours and will probably go into games-owned limbo.
Scars Above is a Sci-fi third-person action-adventure shooter that values overcoming difficulty with compelling and intricate storytelling and combat. You play as Kate who is an astronaut and scientist who after investigating a huge alien structure above earth finds herself waking up dazed and alone in a hostile environment. All that you remember is your Crew and the alien artefact, Kate must do everything she can to survive this hostile location and uncover the truth behind the alien artefact. Using the various ranged weapons, devices, consumables and melee attacks, you will have to overcome the deadly aliens that inhabit this planet and exploit their weak points and use the environment against them.
Kate isn’t what you would call a normal soldier, she is probably as much of a soldier as Isaac Clarke from Dead Space but he does just fine. You’ll have to craft new gadgets and weapons to be able to counter the threats that our on this exoplanet. The world is vast and looks gorgeous, you’ll get the opportunity to traverse through different biomes and tackle the problems that come with them. For example, while going through the frost biome you will have to make sure you keep warm otherwise you’ll suffer from frostbite which isn’t fun. On top of that, you’ll come across region-specific aliens that change depending on where they live, this can shake up the gameplay as something that would have affected an alien early in the game might need to be rethought.
You will come across various cubes that can be used to level up Kate and unlock new abilities and traits that make combat and your life that little bit easier. the boss fights in Scars Above are quite tricky at first but it’s fun trying to learn the weaknesses of the bosses and being able to take them down. The first boss was really fun but the second one was a nightmare, to say the least. I won’t spoil anything but getting to know the weaknesses of the enemies is how you will blitz through any combat situation.
I love the weapons and gadgets, I like that they use different element ammunitions as this adds to taking down certain enemies, like certain aliens are weak to fire or some are weak to electricity. Figuring this out is so much fun and when you figure it out you feel a sense of achievement. I also like the fact that when in the frost biome if you make an enemy fall in the water they will freeze and this makes them easier to kill as you can shatter them. This is really fun as it allows you to use the environment in combat and not just your gadgets and weapons. I like the hologram gadgets as well as the flame oil grenade that you throw at enemies and can set them on fire. There are a fair few things in your arsenal to use it’s just frustrating that the gadgets are on a wheel as it makes assessing them difficult when intense fights. It would have been easier having it on the d-pad or pressing R1 and L1 to swap between them. When you unlock the ability you can scan enemies and this will allow you to learn their weaknesses quicker, this is fantastic when the going gets tough.
Graphically the game is pleasing and runs smoothly on the PlayStation 5. There are noticeable animation issues when the characters are speaking but it isn’t a problem that gets in the way of gameplay. I like the alien designs and the environments you get to explore. The weapons are cool and I like that they have different ammo types that do more damage to enemies when used in the correct way. Audio wise it’s nice to have voice acting and in Scars Above it is done decently. It was fun trying to figure out the different ways to take down certain enemies even if at first it was tedious to learn the weakness and pull them off. One of the enemies is weak to damage dealt on the chest but it was so difficult at times to land the shoots that It became frustrating but after a while, I managed to get my head around it and find the perfect timings to land that crucial blow.
Scars above is a single-player story-driven game which personally makes it a one-time play-through sort of game unless you are looking at collecting all the trophies and trying for that platinum. As much as I find the gameplay enjoyable the story isn’t overly compelling to make me want to play it through multiple times, unfortunately. There was some interesting mechanic in Scars Above that made overcoming certain enemies and boss fights fun but at times I felt like the UI and weapons mechanics could have been made more fluent and easier to use. I didn’t like the fact that all the items were on a weapon wheel, mid-fight trying to access them can be frustrating and the same goes for the healing animation. It can be annoying if you go to heal but get hit as it stops the healing, and you’d have to go through the whole animation again. It kind of felt like the healing in The Calisto Protocol, when you had to time healing as the animation gets in the way. Though it isn’t a game-breaking mechanic it does mean you have to run away and hide to heal rather than just popping a heal.
Conclusion
Scars Above is an immersive sci-fi adventure but instead of blowing me off my feet it just offers me a gameplay experience that has moments of wow but averages out to be a decent third-person adventure game. I feel like the combat can be sluggish at times but I like the idea of enemies having weaknesses and you have to find them out to kill them quicker. Kate is a good lead character and the aliens on the exoplanet are awesome, to say the least. I love the fact that you can scan the planet and environment as you progress to learn more about the game’s lore. The story again is decent but nothing that I will be raving about sadly, but all in all I enjoyed my time playing Scars Above, it was a nice single-player experience and a break from my usual online multiplayer go twos but I will say that there are more enjoyable games on the market at this time that might have your attention more than this one sadly. For those reasons, I’m giving Scars Above a 6 out of 10.
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows
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