I always find it interesting when I don’t hear anything about a game, get it for review, then suddenly social media and every webpage is bombarded with ads for the thing. That’s the case with Mad Head Games and Prime Matter’s Scars Above, a sci-fi action title about a woman doing her best modern Lara Croft impression while odd or horrific things happen around her. That’s the short way of describing the latest title from the developer of Adam Wolfe and several other hidden object releases. Yes, I also find that to be quite the jump in scale and genre.

Where Scars Above stands (and will stand) in a lot of people’s minds is as a medium-budget PS2 game/early PS3 game. From the design down to the story, every aspect has that sense of not really needing to explain every detail and ground it all. For example, you play as Kate, a member of the Sentient Contact Assessment and Response Team (or SCAR for short). Kate and the team are studying an anomaly hovering over Earth 2016’s Arrival-style, but within about 10 minutes that’s all gone and we’re sent into a mix of Scorn and Agony, minus the genitals coating the walls.

There is no long drawn-out scene showing Kate as a kid, no way for me to connect with the team, and no real explanation of how the triangle in the sky got there in the first place. The only reason I know Kate’s name is because it comes up a lot. If I could honestly remember the names of the Asian one, the Black one, and the captain one, I would call them by their names. The trouble is, I don’t know who is who and who did what. I can assume Kate is a doctor of some kind, but I don’t know exactly.

Once you’ve bumbled around your ship for a second before the Earth is Saints Row 4‘d, you enter this alien world that is too generic to describe as anything notable. Yet you are expected at several points to loop yourself back around Dark Souls-style without a map. Scars Above is described as “challenging” by its own description, and one only assumes that the challenge comes from the health and save point system snatched from Dark Souls. To save and get your initial health injection back you have to activate pillars (bonfires) dotted along a linear path.

That difficulty is accentuated by the fact you’ll have an onslaught of mostly fleshy creatures jump-scaring the bejesus out of you between each pillar. Not that the Arachnid types or larger and similarly boring creatures are difficult to fight, they are just in the way. Where the influences of Scars Above would either have gameplay or a story that makes me push through the less pleasant portions, none of that works in Mad Head Games’ favor. The to-the-point story that doesn’t overstay its welcome also doesn’t sink its teeth into you. The gameplay focuses on fighting standard sci-fi monsters with decent gunplay.

The Lara Croft comparison was mentioned for a reason, as Kate mutters to herself on every detail and arguably does it better because she’s someone that’s knowledgeable. I’m too stupid to understand xenobiology but she certainly sounds like she’s able to say: “I am so smart, S.M.R.T! S.M.A.R.T!” The trouble is there were a few lines such as “technology indistinguishable from magic,” that made me question that. Technology only looks indistinguishable from magic to lesser beings. Otherwise, she’s shouting about Jonah or the other ones.

As a modern PC release, Scars Above looks fine as long as you don’t get too close. When you start looking at those water/liquid textures with any hint of suspicion it begins to look excessively downgraded. The animations are often rigid, particularly when looking at Kate trying to emote, it is like the uncanny valley unleashed on you all at once. Performance wise I can’t say I saw any significant drops in frame rate, though on hardware older than the GeForce 20 series I think there may be issues.

Where Scars Above excels is the character of Kate being neither annoying nor entirely stupid, but that alone can’t sustain a whole game. With the lightest possible version of the Souls-like genre implemented on a map that is genuinely forgettable the moment it is out of sight, finding your way around can sometimes be more hassle than it is worth. Matched with mediocre combat that doesn’t live up to its obvious melee-focused influence and controls that are often more of a nuisance than assistance, it isn’t always a fun adventure into the world of Kate and the metahedron.

Ultimately, Scars Above doesn’t overstay its welcome. Sadly, it also never explicitly tries to make itself welcome in the first place, acting more as a mid-range release drought action title that no one remembers from two console generations ago. If one thing had to stand out for Scars Above to remain in the memory, it was not the one person I compare to easily the best female character gaming has ever had. There certainly were interesting concepts throughout Scars Above for a lengthier sci-fi action title, but all in all, nothing felt like it was being fully utilized.

A PC review copy of Scars Above was provided by Prime Matter for the purposes of this review.

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Scars Above

$39.99 USD

5.5

Score

5.5/10

Pros

• Kate is interesting/smart enough to lead.
• A few interesting ideas, but sadly not explored enough.

Cons

• So-so combat.
• An attempt to do Souls-like gameplay with generic gunplay.
• Nothing really satisfies quite like quiting to play something else.