Hell is an appealing setting for gaming, isn’t it? And why not, as it’s quite the perfect place to put players in, especially for a First Person Shooter. But after 30 years since the release of DOOM, gaming has been through Hell and back so many times, and keeping things fresh is a difficult task for developers. This brutal FPS is preparing to take on some of the very best of the genre, with bullet-hell elements, gory gameplay featuring explosive weapons, and a massive complex maze to explore and fight through.
Scathe sounds incredibly promising, but does it deliver the Hellish goods?
What is Scathe?
Scathe is a blood-soaked, brutal, Bullet-Hell shooter where players take on the role of an Enforcer of Hell’s Legions simply known as … Scathe. You have been tasked with venturing through the underworld, purging, all undesirables, and ascend to through a complex maze of death, to satisfy the demented wishes of the Devine Creator. There are other forces at work behind your murderous rampage through the underworld, and throughout the venture, Scathe will be bastardised, praised, and mocked for all his various actions and outcomes. In order to escape the underworld, Scathe must collect several Hellstones, obtained from fallen Guardians, and use these to ascend to greatness.
Venturing through the many sections of Hell, Scathe must shoot his way through hordes of nasty beasts and fiends, while finding new weapons and abilities, allowing him to become stronger and take on the mightiest Guardians of the underworld.
With a devastating arsenal and fiendish skills at hand, players will carve their way through a complex labyrinth, choosing their path through multiple sectors, finding the 4 Hellstones, and unlocking their way to Glory. Scathe can arm themselves with machine guns, shotguns, and melee weapons that feature alternative fires, and abilities that can add defensive or offensive advantages in short bursts. But you know what they say, Hell is better shared with friends (I’m sure that’s a well-known phrase) and with a drop-in co-op system, you and up to three friends can band together and take on the legions with murderous glee.
Familiar, yet strange
Now, from the get-go, you will most likely be picking up DOOM Eternal vibes here, and for good reason. Scathe has taken influence from ID Software’s mighty beast of a game, by implementing fast, tactical gunplay and intense difficulty, but with quick reflexes and constant movement, you will surely get the job done.
The gunplay is tight, merciless, and has impact, with a line-up of brutal and fun weapons to use, there is indeed a slice of variety in all combat encounters. Shooting feels responsive and seeing the splatter of enemies, the bloody chunks, and the squishing sounds after unloading a barrage of fiery lead (naughty) was always quite satisfying. Everything from the unlimited Machine with a secondary fire of homing rockets, to the brutal shotgun that lays proximity mines and the devastating Crossbow all feel punchy and have purpose throughout the campaign. You will find a use for all of them wherever you end up in the labyrinth of death, and falling back to the starting weapon was always brought a sigh of relief, due to its effectiveness compared to other shooters, where the starting gun is usually rubbish. And the abilities you collect, were all awesomely fun, with the likes of the standard healing spell, to one which ridiculously tears and blows all standard enemies to bloody bits.
Boss encounters are big, and furious and will require a lot from you, including quick thinking and immense strength. They’re like something from the old Painkiller games, but more modernised and faster, sadistic in nature.
While there are a lot of great elements in Scathe’s shooting, I will sadly state that the fast, frantic gameplay is often held back due to the level design and a few of the enemy types.
DOOM Eternal’s combat arenas, especially for the much grander battles, were usually in beautifully constructed areas, that offered multiple levels, cover, and open spaces where you could jump, dodge, ambush, and lure in enemies for devastating attacks. Scathe’s arenas are mostly confined, tight, and feel more akin to a corridor shooter (which I like), but the frantic gunplay, fast pacing, and Bullet-Hell elements, often mean there is a complete mess of energy on screen, where you can wipe through enemies with no problem, or you’ll die within a manner of a nano-second.
This is absolutely truer when the suicidal enemies and the instant death floors/traps come into play. The number of times I would be locked into a basic, square room and be overwhelmed with massive bullets and suicidal, exploding balls was overwhelming.
It feels like the developers had the idea to make this more like one of the original Quake games, a slower, yet still tactical and brutal beast, but saw DOOM Eternal and decided to implement the elements to make the gameplay/gunplay faster. Yet this results in plenty of unbalanced arenas, which can be either too comfortable or frantically insane. Plus, enemies, such as the suicidal balls of death, make for some of the most tedious moments I’ve played in any recent FPS game.
But is the shooting fun? Yes, indeed it is (for the most part). While there are problems with plenty of the arenas feeling lackluster, the instant death booby-traps, and annoying enemies. Scathe does have impactful gunplay, featuring a lot of fun weapons and some cool boss battles/special arenas/challenges. It's just the general flow offers little variety and excitement in the arena designs, and they resort to just simple layouts that don’t grant tactical advantages or entertaining outcomes.
To Hell and back… and back again
I could easily see Hell itself being a gigantic maze and one which would drive anyone insane who ventured through it. The Scathe developers have indeed thought this through and brought together a version of Hell which is complex, interwoven, and indeed, a nightmare to get through.
Players will navigate through a massive maze of a game world, where you will need to find the location of the boss arena, but also Runes that will unlock it. Traveling through Hell and finding these Runes can be quite enjoyable, depending on the room/level you are in. Levels do vary in quality, with some having great big epic combat arenas, neat platforming, and being visually glorious, while others are littered with tedious arena layouts, plenty of dumb, suicidal enemies, instant death traps, and the less enthusiastic platforming sections which are more a chore than anything else.
I felt the worse moments, where the levels require you to simply kill a set number of demons before the exit is opened. These became massively boring after realizing the enemy AI was very weak and would just B-line towards you no matter what. And often enough, due to the design of the arena, you could easily find exploits, where you could camp, wait for the enemies to come to you, and finish them off without breaking a sweat.
Now interestingly enough, I had thought Scathe was meant to be more of a complex Bullet-Hell rogue-like and there are reasons to think this way. But playing the full game, it’s more like a DOOM clone with extra steps, with some that work and others that hold it back.
The massive labyrinth of a game world is the main selling point for Scathe, as players will need to explore, plot their routes, and discover key items to progress. As players can go back and forth between all areas of the map, there is less of a Rogue-Like here, and rather more of an open world that’s vastly broken up in a maze-like manner.
The concept of venturing through a complex design of Hell is an intriguing one, as exploration feels meaningful, and plotting your routes by remembering various demonic hieroglyphics encourages you more as an adventurer. But after a couple of hours of venturing back and forth does become tedious, as enemies and even some objectives in levels do reset. All the annoying explosive enemies, the challenges, and everything else just come back into play. Even if you find multiple other routes, there is a strong chance you will have to replay a few levels again, and again.
I wouldn’t mind so much if certain aspects changed, and new enemies, weapons, or special events would occur. That’s why I feel Scathe would have benefitted from following a Rogue-Like structure such as Hades, where you push through level by level, and fight through, rather than venturing around the houses, looking for Runes, and having to make long journeys to progress further.
The drop-in co-op is a saving grace, as playing with friends is always fun, but this doesn’t resolve many of the aforementioned issues.
Overall?Scathe had a lot of promise, and with a bit more development time/refinement in design choices, it could have been an absolute winner! I do admit the shooting is generally fun and has a lot of impacts, the general idea, and concept of Hell being a massive maze is also cool, and I like the visual style and great sound design. But the lackluster nature of many of the combat arenas, levels, poor AI, and annoying enemy types, along with the tedious back and forth of the game world just hold Scathe back a lot. It is still fun in small doses and with a couple of friends, it can be a right, rip, roaring bloody good time (but again, in small doses).
I do wish the developers all the best, that maybe they can add updates and new features to Scathe, or maybe they could work on a new game that’s even better! Not bad at all, but slightly disappointing.
++ Intense and fun gunplay/shooting mechanics, with fun boss battles and some neat challenges
+ Interesting game-world concept and some good level designs
+ Looks and sounds nice!
-- Combat is held back by poor enemy AI, lots of bland arenas, and annoying enemies
- The overall world design does become tedious when backtracking
- Those ball enemies are really, super annoying!
A Steam review code for Scathe was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
