Scathe, a single-player shooter with co-op elements, will be released on Steam at the end of August. We tried out what kind of hell ride awaits you here.
As a celestial enforcer, you”ll use an arsenal of big guns to make your way through hordes of demonic creatures that have been repulsively fused with machines. If this description sounds familiar, you”ve probably played Doom. But in fact it also applies to the first-person shooter Scathe
This one makes extensive use of concepts and elements of the original hell shooter, but also wants to develop its own identity – and will be released on Steam on 31 August. What awaits you in this hell, we have tried out in the (free demo) . If you like gritty shooters and like fighting hordes of monsters, you should also take a look at Ripout:
Table of Contents
Hell is deadly
Scathe is a fast and merciless shooter. Your powerful weapons, from the assault rifle to the classic double-barreled shotgun to the crossbow, will dismember most enemies in seconds. In addition, each weapon has an alternative, even more powerful firing mode. The crossbow shoots explosive bolts, for example. You do not have to reload your guns.
Killing enemies also recharges your arcane energy: In the end, you can even use it to unleash devastating spells. The best way to see what the battle looks like is to watch the trailer:
But at the same time you have to watch out like hell (haha) that the enemy crossfire doesn”t catch you. Scathe describes itself as a bullet-hell shooter: in fights you will be hit by a number of projectiles, which you have to dodge skilfully. If you get into a bottleneck, dodging quickly becomes impossible and you are overrun by the hordes.
In the individual areas of hell, you can always choose between different paths that you want to take. Not only do dangerous demons await you there, you can also discover various secrets and runes. These screenshots give you an impression of the many areas:
You are not alone
If the overwhelming power of the creatures of hell becomes too much for you, you can also ask up to three friends to join the fight at any time. However, this does not only have advantages: Because you share your limited lives with each other. If one warrior dies, this has consequences for all members of the group.
It seems that Scathe is not very forgiving: Mistakes quickly mean death, and that has further consequences. If you die, you lose collected runes that unlock additional rooms. If you lose all your lives, you will have to start the area all over again.
What do we like?
- Looks and Design: Scathe”s weapons, demons, hell areas and effects look pretty cool. The creature design may not be exceptional, but it”s solid and definitely reminiscent of Doom.
- Fighting and movement: We move through the maps at great speed and can dodge to the side. Those who like to play fast-paced shooters might also enjoy Scathe. The first weapons, assault rifle and shotgun are also fun, only the developers could still work on the sparse hit feedback.
What remains unclear?
- Difficulty and balance: With its crunchy difficulty level, Scathe has led us to our doom time and again. Whether this is frustrating in the long run or you can learn quickly enough to avoid unnecessary deaths remains to be seen. Whether it”s also fun to play with friends, and how well balanced the co-op mode is, is still completely unclear.
- Price-performance ratio: We don”t yet know how much Scathe will cost, and how extensive the game will be. The screenshots shown at least already reveal areas with different themes (mines and caves, sacral-looking hell buildings, industrial buildings). How many enemies and boss fights there are, however, remains to be seen.
Editorial conclusion
I”m surprised how steeply the difficulty of Scathe goes up even in the demo. At the beginning there is still mindless cannon fodder, but this is soon replaced by trickier combinations, for example when ranged fighters take me under fire from different directions and at the same time exploding demons jump into my face.
As an experienced, but not outstanding shooter player, I died here quite often. But I still had fun, at least at first the deaths tended to motivate me to try again.
The gameplay and visuals were mostly convincing. Whizzing through hell as a bullet-spitting avenger, dodging dashes and bursting demons just has that certain something. The fact that we only hold our weapons with one hand feels a bit strange, though.
Hell also looks pretty good: We don”t get AAA graphics, but we do get fancy effects and nasty demons. The latter may not win any design prizes, but they usually dissolve quickly into fountains of blood and goo anyway. If you”re interested in the game, take a look at the short demo, too!
