Scars Above Review – First Contact Remains at Surface Level

Scars Above is a third-person action sci-fi shooter from developers Mad Head Games and published by Prime Matters. The game takes a lot of cues from the ever-growing soulslike gameplay mechanics and throws you into the middle of a mysterious alien world. However, despite its pretty exterior, there isn’t much past the surface level.

Note – A Steam key was provided for the purpose of this review.

Developer & Publisher // Mad Head Games, Prime Matter
Platforms //  PlayStation 4/5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
MSRP & Release Date // $29.99, Oct 30, 2023
Reviewed On // PC

A Mysterious, Yet Familiar Sci-Fi Tale

Scars Above follows the story of Dr. Kate Evans, a reputable astrophysicist and astronaut. She embarks on a groundbreaking mission to explore a distant planet known as Alpha Centauri. Kate is accompanied by a small crew of specialists and their objective is to investigate an anomalous signal originating from the planet.

However, their spacecraft is struck by a powerful cosmic storm, causing them to crash-land on an uncharted moon. Stranded and separated from the rest of the crew, Kate must navigate treacherous terrain, hostile alien creatures, and dwindling resources in a desperate fight for survival. As Dr. Ward explores the moon’s mysterious landscape, she uncovers remnants of an ancient alien civilization and its advanced technology. Little does Kate know that the ancient aliens are not only a threat to her, but to the entire galaxy.

Doesn’t sound too original, does it? That’s because it’s not. Scars Above feels like a blender of established sci-fi tropes. The stranded in space premise and uncovering a mysterious advanced alien race narrative beats have been overused to death. The game’s overreliance on cliched narrative beats fails to captivate and delivers a predictable story that lacks any originality. Unfortunately, the characters too also have a similar fate.

Generic Characters Make up the Scars Above Crew

Let’s not beat around the bush, Kate Ward is a generic protagonist. She is dull in every sense of the word. From her character design resembling Lara Croft but in a space suit, to her serviceable, but uninspiring, voice work. Dr. Ward lacks any depth and remains stale throughout my 9-hour playthrough.

The same applies to the supporting characters. They are similarly one-dimensional, lacking meaningful arcs or growth throughout the game. The only semblance of character arc the game presents is one of your crew members becoming corrupted and turning on you. Kate expressed regret for killing said crew member, but it lacked any conviction which made the whole situation feel superficial. Other than that, the cast was all forgettable.

Solid Combat Mechanics in Scars Above

The game is a third-person shooter and mechanically works in a unique way. Instead of carrying multiple guns, Kate has one gun called VERA that comes with different ammo types. This includes electric, fire, chemical, and cryo ammo types. Each has its own use and is effective/less effective against certain enemies. It’s a nice strategic consideration that keeps players thinking about how to approach each combat situation. For instance, enemies in water are vulnerable to electric shots, while the weak spots of ice-based creatures are susceptible to fire damage. Overall, the shooting mechanics were satisfying, and changing up ammo type to expose enemy weak points kept combat fresh and highly enjoyable throughout my playthrough.

In addition to VERA, Scars Above also features melee combat via the Electric Cutter. Players can melee by simply pressing the attack button (left mouse button/R2/RT) without aiming down the sight. However, melee attacks are comparably weak and have a long animation, which is a clear hindrance. In fact, I hardly bothered using it for the majority of my playthrough. The one main useful instance of the Electric Cutter was for finishing off frozen enemies. Otherwise, it was a dud most of the time.

Gadgets Make the World Spin

Similar to James Bond, Dr. Ward can employ different gadgets to help her get an edge in battle. These items include a protective barrier, flammable liquid, Gravity Trap, and more. The protective barrier is exactly what it sounds like, it provides a shield, which is incredibly useful during tough boss fights. While the Gravity Trap functions as a grenade that slows down enemies. Each gadget use consumes a battery charge so you have to use them strategically during combat.

The gadgets are immensely important for certain boss fights. For example, in the Construct boss fight, players must use Gravity Traps to trap one of its legs in a frozen lake. Upon doing so, Kate can unleash damage until it exposes its weak point.

It’s a breeze to switch between consumables and gadgets. On PC, you simply hold the Tab key that prompts a dial and you simply switch with your mouse cursor.  It’s intuitive and helps keep the flow, especially during combat. No doubt, combat was highly engaging, especially the shooting mechanics that were satisfying during my time with Scars Above.

Abilities and Upgrades

Scars Above does have an upgrade system. Players must collect knowledge cubes (XP) to unlock abilities points. These knowledge cubes are usually what you are rewarded with when you stray off the game’s linear path. Then, players can spend those points. Higher-tired abilities require more ability points to unlock and demand a minimum of 3 abilities before opening access to the tier above. For instance, if you want to access tier 2 abilities, you need to have at least 3 tier 1 skills unlocked first.

For the most part, the abilities are varied and it does lend itself well to complementing your style of play. However, I felt that unlocking 3 skills to open the higher-tier abilities was too much of a grind. And that the higher-tiered skills weren’t as useful as some of the lower-tiered skills. For instance, the tier 3 skill Xeno Syntrophy, which makes Kate immune to stagger and knockdown effects, isn’t as useful because getting staggered was a rarity during my playthrough. While tier 1 skill Cellular Regeneration is far more essential to survival, which increases the healing efficiency of a heal charge from 50% to 80%.

Puzzling Puzzles

Scars Above did feature some puzzles, but it was an uneven mess. Some of the puzzles lacked any explanation or guidance on how to complete them. One of the puzzles tasked you with rotating a cylinder with different symbols on them. No explanation was provided and after exhaustively searching near the puzzle location, I couldn’t find any hint or tip. Instead, I just tried my luck and eventually solved the puzzle. While another puzzle I encountered was simply moving pods around a track to release one of them. It was simple and a stark contrast to the symbolled cylinder puzzle.

Soulslike Mechanics in Scars Above

Scars Above is clearly influenced by soulslike games. The challenging nature of the game and multi-phased boss battles are clearly driven by games popularized by the Dark Souls series. Even the Alien pillar that you save progress in resets enemies in the vicinity operates exactly like bonfires found in FromSoftware games. This is not a knock, but more of an indication of how popular and mainstream these mechanics have become in the industry.

Mixed Level Design

The level design in Scars Above was a mixed bag. The game is a linear experience, and there are slight diverting paths that usually net you a small amount of experience points. But other than that, the game does not incentivize you to explore as you will always loop back to the main path. This also impacts replayability, as there’s nothing worth going back to when completing the game.

Different biomes decorate the landscape in the game that at times can look spectacular, especially in grand vista shots with sprawling items floating on the distant horizon. That’s not all, though. Ancient alien settings look ripped straight from a recent sci-fi flick. Simultaneously, the familiar settings are also uninspiring for the same reason. Once again, Scars Above regurgitates the familiar and tired sci-fi tropes.

Decent Graphics and Animations in Scars Above

Scars Above sports some impressive graphics. This shouldn’t be a surprise since the game was developed using Unreal Engine. Character models are well-textured and the environments are detailed. There’s little enemy variety and design. Over time, they all seemingly look indistinguishable from each other. The art style borrows heavily from sci-fi staples such as Prometheus, Dead Space, and more. That consistency works well, although it gets a bit unoriginal.

Animations might appear a little stiff, but to my surprise, they were smooth for the most part. Pulling off sudden turns was usually a smooth motion and it wasn’t as janky as I was expecting. Kudos to Mad Head Games for doing a solid job in the body animation department. However, the facial animations, or lack thereof are a whole different story.

Every character has a distinct neutral look on their face. While it’s not a problem at first, expressionless characters you spend the majority of the time with is an issue. It disconnects any attempts of emotional engagement with the cast, all the while giving off a creepy Children of the Corn vibe.

Inconsistent AI

Enemy AI is serviceable for the most part. Most inconsistencies popped up during some boss fights. For example, during the Alpha boss fight’s last phase, the boss would become crazy aggressive and pull no punches. In fact, there was one attack where the Alpha would slam the ground and cause an AOE attack that seemed almost impossible to dodge. But it took tenacity and dedication to avoid that specific attack.

Another instance of dodgy AI involved the Alluvial King boss fight. The fight is straightforward, but I couldn’t help but notice some derpy moments. For example, in between the second and last phase of the fight, Alluvial King would just freeze in place and not retaliate to my attacks at all. This was not a one-off. This exact situation happened 3 times when I tried to fight the boss. Although it made my life easier, this bug was very noticeable and awkward.

Solid Performance

The game performed admirably on PC. Running on a 5700XT with a Ryzen 5 3600, I was getting well above 120 FPS on 1440p. Since the game was developed on Unreal Engine, there was that classic UE stutter. Luckily, it was only momentarily and didn’t occur too often to damper my playthrough. Overall, the game performed well during the review process.

Audio Design Does the Job in Scars Above

The audio department of Scars Above is another mixed bag to contend with. On the one hand, the sound effects are great. Mad Head beautifully recreated sound effects that add to the eerie atmosphere the game is going for. Whether in derelict space crafts or intimidating alien interiors, Scars Above does a great job in the sound effects department.

Another positive is the enemy audio design. The enemies in Scars Above produce menacing sound effects that only add to the threat they pose to Kate. I would even go on to say it adds a sense of reverberation that complements their menace.

The soundtrack featured a mix of orchestral pieces with the use of synths that add that mysterious sci-fi music that we are all accustomed to. It doesn’t stray too far from other notable sci-fi soundtracks such as Aliens and Mass Effect. While the score does enough to add suspense and intensity when needed. Especially during boss fights when the soundtrack adds to the trepidation. Though these instances are few and far between and the soundtrack itself doesn’t particularly stick out. On the other hand, the voice acting dampens the experience.

While the voice acting isn’t horrendous, it just lacks any conviction. The game’s voice acting is decent in the grand scheme of things, but just decent results add to the lackluster characterization that Scars Above suffers from.

Final Thoughts on Scars Above

There is some promise in Scars Above. The game presents solid foundations to build upon, and the fact that this is the maiden title from Mad Head Games is an achievement on its own. On the visual side, the game is a looker and performed admirably on PC. But it is hard to overlook its game design and technical shortcomings. While its use of repeated sci-fi tropes doesn’t do it any favors. Perhaps Scars Above will be the necessary learning experience that will likely enhance the studio’s future projects.

Scars Above retails for $39.99 and is available on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Final Score: 6.8 / 10