Scars Above

I don't know if the Developers will ever read this but it's important. Guys, sometimes you just want to play a game to get out of your head and lose yourself. I realize that it's unpopular but as an older adult that works long hours, I don't want to come home and play a difficult game and if the game is so difficult that you can't gain any headway in the easiest setting, it's not me, it's you. I've played shooters since they first came out, so you can't blame me. So after I was killed at the same spot from a previously invisible enemy for the third time, I just stopped playing. That's not fun for me and it's not fun for anyone else. DO BETTER!

Its just a good game. Nothing exceptional, but it is not trying to be. A decent 7/10

Oh man, am I a sucker for a good Sci-Fi Game. Anything from Observation to Star Ocean. I am just a much a sucker for Sci-Fi games as I am a Cyberpunk game. So let's get into the review of Scars Above! Story: 6 / 10 The premise starts with strong classic sci-fi intrigue: Dr. Kate Ward and her SCAR (Sentient Contact Assessment and Response) team are sent to investigate the "Metahedron," a colossal alien structure that suddenly appears in Earth's orbit. Things quickly go sideways, and Kate wakes up alone on a hostile, enigmatic alien planet. While the scientific approach of the protagonist is a refreshing angle, the narrative pacing stumbles after the first couple of hours. The plot leans heavily on familiar genre tropes, the supporting characters feel underdeveloped, and promising lore concepts introduced late in the game fail to completely pay off, culminating in an abrupt cliffhanger. Graphics: 6 / 10 Visually, the game is a mixed bag that highlights its AA budget. On the positive side, the art direction and environmental aesthetics—ranging from murky, imposing alien wetlands to frozen mountain peaks—do an excellent job creating a tense atmosphere. The creature designs are genuinely creative and appropriately grotesque. However, the game falls short on human assets. Character models look stiff, and facial animations during dialogue cutscenes are noticeably unpolished, with distracting lip-syncing issues. Some environment assets also feel dropped onto the map rather than organically integrated. Audio: 6 / 10 The sound design performs adequately but rarely elevates the experience. Ambient environmental sounds effectively convey the isolation of the alien world, and the weapon audio profiles give the elemental firing modes a distinct identity. The voice acting for Kate is solid, keeping her grounded despite the chaotic circumstances. That said, the orchestral soundtrack is largely unmemorable, serving as generic background tension rather than adding an impactful auditory identity to major encounters. Controls: 7 / 10 The mechanical loop is heavily inspired by third-person shooters mixed with tactical elements (resembling a "Souls-like with guns"). The control layout is responsive, which is critical since the combat focuses on rapidly switching elemental weapons (electric, fire, ice, and acid) to exploit environmental hazards and enemy weak points. Dodging, aiming, and toggling gadgets (like decoy holograms or gravity shields) function smoothly on standard mouse/keyboard setups, though the dodge-roll and melee execution animations can occasionally feel rigid and mechanical. Value: 7 / 10 Launching originally at a mid-tier $40 price point and frequently seen on deep digital sales, the value proposition depends on what you expect from a sci-fi shooter. The campaign is a strictly linear, focused experience that clocks in at around 8 to 12 hours. It lacks extensive collectibles or a reason to backtrack, meaning replayability is low. However, for players looking for a compact, self-contained sci-fi campaign without modern open-world bloat, it delivers exactly what it promises on a budget. Final Score: 32 / 50 Final Thoughts Scars Above is a textbook definition of a solid, mid-tier AA title. It doesn't have the polished cinematic grandeur or the staggering visual budget of a massive AAA production, but it compensates with smart mechanical choices. The core gameplay hook—using elemental rock-paper-scissors combat to shatter enemy defenses and manipulating the environment to your advantage—is incredibly satisfying and keeps the gameplay engaging from start to finish. Where the game ultimately falters is in its lack of execution on the narrative front and its stiff presentation, particularly regarding human character models and animations. It is a highly focused, linear sci-fi adventure that respects your time by completely avoiding modern open-world padding. If you go into it expecting a polished, bite-sized "Souls-lite" shooter with a distinct science-first protagonist rather than a groundbreaking epic, Scars Above is a thoroughly enjoyable weekend campaign that is well worth picking up, especially on sale.

Disclaimer 1: This review is spoiler-free. Disclaimer 2: Got the key for the game from one of the bundles on Humble, so it costed me literally as couple of bucks. Disclaimer 3: 12.9 hours to beat and get all the achievements on a slow roll and with 3-ish hours of AFK. So, you know there are some games people would leave a neutral review rather than a positive or a negative? This game is such a case for me. In its core Scars Above is a 3rd Person shooter with a souls-like tag on the steam page slapped onto it as a cruel joke. It has some neat "elemental combo" mechanics that allow you to increase the damage dealt or exploit your enemies' weaknesses and an upgrade system that is limited but at least the choices you make feel somehow significant. It doesn't have any of the defining features of a souls-like, nor should it. It plays fine the way it does: no stamina management whatsoever, deaths have no lasting aftereffects, overall difficulty is quite low even on the hardest setting. Enemy variety is ok for the length of the game, bosses are fine, even with some original mechanics. Though the gameplay loop itself is quite monotonous: do A to reveal B, shoot B until BOOM, rinse, repeat until the baddie's dead. It's a B-tier game that does not pretend to be a masterpiece or a hidden gem. It is in a solid technical state, no crashes or fps issues for me, couple of times got stuck in level geometry, which was solved by teleporting back to the nearest respawn point, no harm done. Entertaining for a couple of evenings, if slightly overstays its welcome. Graphics are fine. Nothing special here. OST is pretty solid, blending into the overall atmosphere, it also has some good tracks with a nice sci-fi-ish feel to it. So why the claim about the neutral review? The plot. Again, I'm not going into spoilers, but if you're here less for the gameplay and simple fun and more for the story, I'd probably go elsewhere in your stead. It starts off great, hooks you with a feel of mystery and some remote sensation of a narration created by a mind with a deeper philosophical understanding of lovecraftian cosmic horror, but ultimately resolves as something more shallow and grounded. So being ultimately a disappointment, this story is nevertheless a stereotypical sci-fi "thriller". All in all, if you're here for a fully B-tier game, linear, predicable, reasonably short, give it a go on a discount. Chances are, you will have a good time with it.

Surprisingly good for what it's worth. Given the lack of sci-fi games nowadays, definitely a must play if you like settings like this one. Combat mechanics might seem a bit janky and too basic at first, but once you unlock more weapons and abilities, the gameplay actually becomes fun. More importantly, the game doesn't overstate its welcome: 6-8 hours it takes to beat it feels exactly right. And also reminds of good old days when a game didn't throw tons of boring repetitive activities at you just to make the walkthrough longer.

For this game I wish Steam had a button for mix ratting, that is where it hinges. So, the core combat mechanic is the shooting, in my opinion this is also its biggest strength but weakness too. To keep it brief, you get to use 4 weapons each with a different element, from electric to fire to ice and finally to toxic. Throughout the game you will meet enemies which has one of those weaknesses (imagine bosses with weakpoints, with the added factor that you need the right weapon for those weakpoints). In order to reach those weaknesses you also have a variety of gadgets to help, such as a barrier to soak up some hits, a bubble to slow time, a gas bomb which you can use to ignite an area, etc… You can also combo these elements for even more damage, like toxic + fire = a chemical reaction, frost + electric = more damage (I think it counts as wet which means +electric dmg). To give you even more options there is also 2 skill trees to improve your stats. Environment can also be used to help you out with things like icicles dropping on enemies, cracking ice under them, electric pustules which act as explosive barrels for usual FPS games. Some might like this kind of combat, but for me what was let down about it is that it gets tedious. First of all, the game uses a checkpoints type saving, aka you need to interact with pillars to save your game or wait until an autosave triggers. Choosing to save your game respawns the enemies. This might not be an issue, but some of those enemies are just a pain to deal with, especially at the start to mid game, because late game you unlock some nice gadgets, have more hp and bigger stamina for dodges, so it is kinda of an inverted difficulty curve to this game, in a matter of fact the last boss was easier compared to the first one. Secondly are the enemies themselves, some are just a pain to deal with, as an ex. there are some big brute type ones which can shield themselves with their arms. Their weakpoints are on their chest and you gotta wait for them to attack or pound their chest. As mentioned, they are easier to deal with late game cuz you have more stuff to use, but early they are such a pain, it also does not help when you return to a pillar in order to heal, that means they will end up respawning. The game is a constant matching elements, hit weakpoints, dodge, reload and repeat. This makes it feel less of an FPS (or 3r person) and more of a QTE or puzzle gameplay. It is a constant loop of: look for ways to hit weakpoints with the right gun, if enemy not dead then run or dodge, repeat the first step, if still not dead then reload and dodge again (btw weapons have very little ammo, so get ready to reload a lot and use a gadget to replenish ammo), repeat steps until dead. It also does not help that this system is janky, I lost count on how many times I hit a weakpoint with the right gun and didn’t register. And speaking of bugs, dodging is also janky, eventually I found out it’s best to just dodge backwards cuz for some reason enemies can still hit you sometimes if you do a side dodge, and since you can make like 2-3 dodges b4 stamina runs out, you cannot just spam them. A final point is the characters, dialogues are fully voice acted, but the issue is facial animations, let me just say, this game should shake hands with ME: Andromeda on this aspect. The ending also leaves the story opened for a sequel, so, if the combat can be properly polished with less weapon switches involved, more freedom in the gameplay and have better narrative design along side character art and animations, then sure, I welcome a sequel, but as for this one, no way it is worth the full 30 bucks price!

It's decent if it's on sale. It's a generic, linear AA game that doesn't compete with Dead Space or Alien: Isolation. However, for $2 you get 10 hours of straightforward action, simple puzzles, and a basic story. A 3/5 star game, fine for passing the time.

[h1] [i] Scars Above [/i] посредственности и кривых рук [/h1] Скажу сразу, эту игру я получил бесплатно в виде ключа. До этого я даже не знал о существовании Scars Above в принципе. [i] Посредственность [/i] этому проекту должно быть имя и не более. Почему именно [i] проект [/i] а не игра ? Потому что разработчики пытались сделать [b] что-то [/b] а вышло как современные игры выходят в игрострое, начиная с 2018го - полным говном на лопате или жуткой посредственностью на один-два вечера..... [h2] Сюжет и якобы [b] умные [/b] посылы [/h2] Если вас не пугают спойлеры, то вперёд. Если видели фильм [i] "Обливион" [/i] с Крузом и Куриленко, то посыл и сеттинг сюжета чем-то напоминает мне этот фильм. Неопознанный объект в воздухе планеты Земля, направляется корабль с учёными чтобы разобраться, [i] ВСПЫШКА СПРАВА [/i], и вот вы уже пытаетесь понять, как вы оказались в новом мире, и что за [i] тайны [/i] он в себе скрывает. Очень и очень притянутый за уши sci-fi сюжет, в котором идёт повествование от лица женщины-учёного, которая пытается разобраться, почему на планете происходит тот п*здец, и кто за этим стоит. Для тех, кому интересно, всё [b] ОЧЕНЬ [/b] просто - [spoiler] Планета экспериментальная, на которой безумный ИИ, построенный инопланетянами до вас, пытается раскрыть [b] секрет жизни [/b], мутируя всё, что ему попадётся под руку и даже своих создателей. Но магическим образом вы получаете способности перерождаться от уже другого ИИ одной из инопланетных учёных, и вам нужно остановить безумный ИИ и свалить. [/spoiler] Но проходя этот проект, я понял, что сюжет и историю будто в нейронке на коленке с бесплатной подпиской сделали, потому что после окончания игры у меня осталась куча вопросов на [i] дыры [/i] в сюжете. Тайны все притянуты за уши, и из 6 глав я уже к окончанию 2й понял, в чём суть, и как всё пошло по п*зде изначально. Как так убого можно было писать сюжет к своему проекту, я хз..... [h2] Геймплей, графика и тех. составляющая [/h2] И вот тут-то я понял, что все положительные отзывы бургеров на эту игру - полная [b] [i] Ш Л Я П А. [/i] [/b] О каком потенциале может идти речь, если уже начиная с первых секунд "игры" за, [b] на минуточку, 30 евробачей [/b], меня встречает абсолютно кукольная физика у всех персонажей, проходная графика с графическими артефактами и механиками, которые либо работают, либо смело идут нах*й в рандомные моменты ? Багованная физика движения персонажа и отсутствие отзывчивости на твой инпут в [b] якобы [/b] souls-like sci-fi шутере, где каждая анимация персонажа может прерваться, если вы непрерывно нажмёте на кнопку. Абсолютно убогие анимации персонажей, в особенности это было видно в катсценах, от которых лично я кринжевал каждый мать его раз. Отсутсвие воображения очень сильно присутствовало во время боёвки - [i] ыыыы, вот тебе 4 элемента, ведь ты Аанг теперь. ыыыы, а вот тебе гаджеты да побольше, тебе будет проще [spoiler](спамь 3мя в [b] КАЖДОМ [/b] бою, и победа)[/spoiler]. ыыыыы, гоняй по полу-открытому миру, ища кубики для прокачки тотально убогих перков. [/i] Непонятный скейл сложности - в какой-то момент тебя обычный моб и положит на средней сложности, но в боссфайтах ты разбираешься на раз-два. Разрабы как тестили свою игру ? Видимо, никак. Окружающая среда выглядит одинаково, только погодный цикл меняется, но мобы что в ледяном месте те же что в болоте кекв. [h2] Очередной пример быстрого cashgrab'а в современном игрострое [/h2] Как я уже писал сверху, все положительные отзывы бургерами написаны либо полными дебилами, что в игры перестали играть после 2018го года, либо ИИ. Как этот позор можно было с прямым лицом создать и высрать за [b] 30 евробачей [/b] в 2023м мне совершенно непонятно. Игра на среднем ходе и сбором всех ачивок прошлась мне за 7 часов...... Это не AAA проект конечно же, но такой ценник брать за такое убожество с дырявым сюжетом, скучным геймплеем, ужасными анимациями и [i] сомнительно но окЭй [/i] графикой у меня приравнивается к [b] скаму для гоев. [/b] Ещё раз спасибо, что я получил её бесплатно, потому что я бы в жизни за это не отдал бы денег. Такая "игра" была бы [i] "хорошей" [/i] лет так 15-20 назад, когда стандарты были низкие, и все развивались как могли. Но после 2018го мы получаем опять же либо говно на лопате, либо вот такую посредственность, в которую ты сыграешь раз и забудешь навсегда.

F... this game, what a piece of ♥♥♥♥. Soulslike wannabe that gives you extremely slow combat with limited ammo,(you have basically around 30 ammo rounds and need constantly pick up "ammo flowers"), boring bosses with absurd amount of life and fire weapon that needs to charge up which makes it completely useless against afressive enemies. It literally lies to you about weak points on enemies(or they're bugged). It has ♥♥♥♥♥♥ level up system where your kills doesn't matter( you need to find exp cubes, which give you laughable amount of exp). It gives you less healing items than DS games and using items require currency so you need to look and pick up even more things.