Scars Above is a game with a lot of potential in the ideas it brings to the table– scientific analysis in the field, elemental reactions and weaknesses in combat, and a disempowered protagonist are all things that offer an alternative to the power fantasy that science fiction shooters provide.
But potential does not directly translate to a stellar gameplay experience, as human error results in ideas not being as good as they sound: Dark Souls mixed with Returnal mixed with Mass Effect sounds like the sort of thing that would make a comic-con cosplayer explode in delight, but in practice, there might be a few snags.
10 Give It A Better Difficulty Curve
Scars Above does better than most games in the Soulslike category when it comes to accessibility, thankfully having difficulty settings so that players at different levels of ability can enjoy the gameplay that it offers. This is incredible, but there are a few hiccups in how the overall difficulty progression works.
From the start of the game, Scars Above proves itself to be pretty difficult– that is, until you unlock more of your arsenal. Once you get some of your other weapons, the difficulty starts to ease up, making the game a bit too easy. There needs to be more time put into making sure that the game feels like a progression of challenges rather than a corridor of repeated encounters.
9 Use More Visual Contrast
From a thematic perspective, Scars Above's muted colors bring the dour tone that the game wants to get across rather well, but at the end of the day, the visuals can get muddy even at the best of times. Not only does this make it difficult to parse, but also it hits the memorability of the gameplay– if every place looks the same, how do you pick your favorite location?
But adding variation to the visual design doesn't have to hurt the tone: the game just needs to tweak its colors in small ways so that the important parts of scenes pop out, which would help you appreciate the very clear detail the developers put into the world.
8 Include More Complex Environmental Effects
Environmental effects are one of the coolest things you can have in a shooter because they can take what's normally a mindless point-and-shoot affair and make it require a little more grey matter. Scars Above goes a step beyond and disempowers you, making the environmental effects feel like a necessity rather than a bonus.
There are a decent amount of effects that you can leverage over the course of your playthrough using the different elemental guns at your disposal, but to really take the game to the next level, it would be smart to include even more elements and reactions to further center the gameplay around this mechanic. Why not combine water with fire to create a smoke screen or intensify a fire with a blast of oxygen?
7 Make The Plot More Dynamic
It's appreciable that Scars Above attempts to present its story in a straightforward way, especially given that it takes so much inspiration from Dark Souls, the game known specifically for burying so much of its lore that only those determined enough can find it.
But while Scars Above is by no means bad, it does leave you wanting for more– the use of the word straightforward is a bit of an understatement, as it leans pretty heavily on common science fiction tropes and sets you up for a twist or revelation that just isn't there. Again, not bad, but it could be a bit stronger.
6 Improve The Animations
Being a smaller development studio, you have to commend Mad Head Games for making Scars Above look as good as it does, especially compared to the better-funded Mass Effect Andromeda, which feels like spending a week in a facial paralysis ward.
Even so, the animations for this game leave a bit to be desired, most noticeably with Kate's model– even if she's a weak scientist, the animations leave you looking like you're taking a brisk jog when you're really running for your life during tense combat. Even if the changes are small, they would be worthwhile improvements that'll help nail the tone.
5 Give Voice Actors Stronger Direction
Just like the animation, the voice acting in Scars Above is nothing to scoff at. There's clearly effort being put into each speaking role that the game introduces, and industry professionals fill a decent number of the roles; this isn't by any means a bad set of performances.
But something about the voice acting isn't all there, which can take you out of the experience at times when everything else is working fine. Typically, when voice actors that have proven their skill don't sound as good as they usually do, it reflects weaker direction during the recording process– if remastered or given a sequel, it would do well to give the voice actors a better idea of how they should be trying to act.
4 Use More Complex Level Design
Linear level design is a complicated thing to get right in games, especially when they take place in environments that feel as though you should be able to go anywhere. Dark Souls, despite technically being open-world, takes you through linear levels that manage to do a good job of tricking you into feeling like you have any option other than follow the critical path from boss to boss.
Scars Above doesn't quite achieve this, making a lot of its supposedly open areas feel like small corridors simply painted like the great outdoors. Occasionally there are shortcuts, but they rarely, if ever, lead away from the critical path in significant ways– it's harder to feel the threat of this vast, unknown planet when it ends up feeling so restrictive.
3 Give An Even Greater Focus To Combat Puzzles
While the puzzles that make up the combat of Scars Above are fairly inspired (being the things that make it more memorable than other offerings in the third-person shooter genre), they end up feeling somewhat simple in the long run– even with more complex environmental reactions. The solution would still be to shoot your target with one or two of the guns that have been deemed correct.
Instead of keeping it to one option, it would serve the game well to create something less like a jigsaw puzzle (one strict solution) and more like a puzzle cube (the same end goal but with multiple completion methods). With different costs for each solution, the gameplay would ask you to decide how you fight based on how many resources you want to spend.
2 Add More Enemy And Boss Variety
There is certainly a diverse set of enemies to be seen in Scars Above, but oftentimes you will end up running into the same versions of an alien over and over again. One of the worst examples of this occurs after beating a boss only to run into a weaker version of it only ten minutes later. While introducing bosses back into the game as enemies is a good way of showing your progress, it should only really be used once you have actually grown.
More aliens, even just significant alterations to existing aliens, would go a long way to represent this planet as a living, breathing ecosystem whose environment affects its fauna– something that would be supported well by the scientific aspects of the gameplay.
1 Incorporate More Science Into Gameplay
The science that exists in the current state of Scars Above is really entertaining, making what could have been an extremely dry experience feel fresh and worthwhile– that's why it's a shame that the game took so much from other titles rather than lean even harder into what makes it so interesting.
Sure, having Soulslike mechanics is a much safer bet when it comes to designing gameplay, but adding more elements to the game when the scientific aspects are so compelling feels like a waste. There could even be puzzles like the ones seen in the Condemned series, subbing out forensics for scientific analysis.