Another DOSman Games EFPSE game. Basically self-explanatory
Skarab is a Egyptian themed Retro FPS developed and published by DOSman Games. Running in the EFPSE engine, It follow a warrior tasked with saving the princess, who has been kidnapped by that pesky Anubis and his cult. If it wasn't quite obvious with the tone, if you've played previous DOSman titles like Flash of the Blade X and REAPER. You know exactly how it's going to go here, just with a new coat of paint and some innovations in level design, though not by much. Which again, not a bad thing just more of the same.
Gameplay of Skarab, is no surprise, another Retro FPS formula basis. Level by level, with lots of enemies, keys for progression, and secrets to find. As with the previous DOSman Games with this format, you have a big focus on various melee weapons with ranged weapons on the side. Of which, the former is pretty basic, with each new melee weapon being stronger, faster, or both. While the latter actually has some diversity with the very first ranged weapon being a sling with a very long delay but powerful payoff. But it does get overshadowed by a pretty basic bow & arrow and.... locusts. Yes you can shoot locusts as a weapon, it's kinda cool as a idea. Enemies are also the same archetypes of: Melee that beelines to you, and Ranged that hangs back. but with a lot of visual variation so you'll absolutely have a lot of these kinds of enemies to fight. This also goes for boss fights where they kinda just require you to weave in and out with whatever weapons you can, sans the last two bosses which do shake these up a bit even if they basically just need smart circle strafing.
Stylewise, it's another DOSman game with a really good DOS-like artstyle. With going through all their games it's really impressive how much new art assets the DOSman team make to fit with whatever theme they're going with. Very rarely are art assets reused outside the titular DOSman and the general design philosophy and that alone is pretty commendable. There's also a decent variety of level themes, ranging from desert villages, the actual desert, ancient tombs, etc. It's kinda surprising that a full on Oasis level ala Serious Sam wasn't considered but what here is pretty swell. The theming is honestly at it's worst when it's just a tomb or maze since by default there really isn't much you can do with that level theme without going out of your way to add more detail to it.
Overall, Skarab is practically just another DOSman Games FPS game at the end of the day. While it does have some innovations with how some of the weapons work and attempts at more involved enemy combat with some of the boss. If you're like me and have been going through their catalog in order it's going to be a pretty familiar feeling. At least, as per usual, the visual are pretty nice and for what is basically a budget game in both price and length, like before it's still pretty excusable but leaves a lot missed potential.
