If; you are around my age. Then you probably grew up with a little game called DOOM, and even if you are not around, my age. Then you probably have at least seen or heard of DOOM. Well, Scathe; is just like DOOM, except with a few interesting twists that make it a bit more unique.
Scathe starts out not as some soldier or even an individual released from a stone casket; instead, you are hand-crafted by God and trained for centuries to deliver unto demons and God’s brother the full force of God’s wrath.
You are Scathe wrecker of every demon’s day; and the harbinger of big guns and honestly. No witty one-liners or anything. You are just a guy called Scathe, and you kill demons; that’s it, you are literally nothing special, and your dialog is non-existent.
The only dialog; that you will hear during the game is God or God’s brother basically congratulating you on killing demons. The dialog is the weakest dialog; I have ever encountered in any game, without a doubt.
Now in terms of the actual gameplay. The combat mechanics for Scathe is a different matter entirely, it is very fluid much like DOOM 2016. The developers spared no expense in making the game run as smoothly as possible. That means no screen tearing, no skipped frames, it is perfection itself, and that is needed as you are dodging hundreds of bullets; that come flying at you, much like a bullet hell game! During; the beginning of the first stage, Scathe is given a gun in the same fashion that the DOOM guy discovers his first weapon, except Scathe’s weapon can fire infinite rockets and bullets and never needs reloading.
Then as you play through stages, you are given access to other weapons that Scathe can utilize in his arsenal to butcher demons, which do need reloading.
There is one issue in that Scathe; has a limited stock number of lives, and if you die, that is the end of your journey. Like Super Mario brothers for the Nintendo Entertainment System, it is a game over if you run out. The other issue is that to progress through the game. You will need to find runes. These runes are scattered; about each stage, you play through. These runes give you access to different areas and the possibility of three different endings for the game.
Not to mention that each stage; is timed. However, it does not matter if you go over the allotted time. You can take your time; and play through it and get all the items, such as extra lives and the runes for each stage.
Now in terms of combat, the enemies in each stage are as easy as you would expect. There are a variety of different enemies you will encounter. But, as you progress through these stages.
The enemies become; increasingly more difficult. The most common enemies fly in the air shooting at you, some enemies will swarm you, and others are giant bouncing balls of death that will blow up if they touch you. It is probably a good idea to avoid those. When you progress through the game, you will encounter a variety of other enemies; like a strange shadow demon who likes to hug walls, but like all first-person shooters, there is only one way to dispatch them, that being to shoot them in the face. I found that the harder enemies tend to break, the more fluid combat you might expect because of the DOOM franchise, and it left me feeling a bit disappointed.
Now it is hard to dunk on Scathe, calling it a ripoff of DOOM. But, truthfully. It is a fresh take on a tried and true method many developers are not willing; to risk. It blends the fluid combat of DOOM with its nice touch of demons and gore. Then it adds the speed-running aspects of Sonic the Hedgehog with an influence from bullet hell titles. Like what we have seen in Mothergunship. Scathe is a unique game, and I do; enjoy it even though I am not very good at it.
My only real issue with Scathe, as I stated earlier. The scriptwriting is weak. There is nothing to make me feel immersed in slaughtering all these demons, and it comes across as mundane. It is off-putting, and it feels out of place.
The music could be improved, as well. At least during the stages, it is not loud or engaging; as we have come to expect, but that could be because it drew a heavy influence from DOOM. If; you have never played DOOM and you; purchased, Scathe to play, you might find it pretty nice, but because I grew up on DOOM, I can only view those aspects negatively.
Scathe is not a bad game. In fact, it is just the opposite. I enjoyed its fluid combat and simplistic layout of the stages with the slaughtering of demons. I did like that you can pull up a map and revisit older areas you have been to if you missed something. So you can get all three endings in one run. There is even an online Multiplayer function where you can join a friend’s game or a random game if they have a copy of Scathe, as well! In DOOM, all you would have is a vs mode. In Scathe, you got a multiplayer story-cooperative mode, so you can fight alongside a friend or a stranger!
There are just so many wonderful points that I enjoyed about Scathe and apart from the two weaker points, those were the only grievances I had about the game. I recommend Scathe even if you’ve never played DOOM or even if you have played DOOM. I loved more about the game more than the things I hated about it, and it really is a good game worth sharing with friends.
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!