This review contains spoilers
It's a game for you if you want your Gordon Freeman like "scientist turned into a soldier due to circumstances" thing.
It's and ambitious AA game with an interesting setting. Starts with a great prologue then, when the game starts production quality is not matching the cutscene. Even with the highest settings, textures are quite disappointing after watching that movie-like cutscene. Game has a mysterious setting and the scenario starts really intriguing. I felt like game had so much Control (Remedy) inspirations both for it's setting and gameplay. It felt similar for it's collectibles, crafting, gun types, superpowers etc. On top of that Scars Above had environmental puzzles. One thing about gameplay, Scars Above emphasizes boss weak points too heavily like it's not balanced at all. I also felt like it had inspirations from Death Stranding for both environments and mysterious atmosphere. It even had a very similar colossal Humanoid entity all the way up to the skies. Game's scenario has a "mixed" message I will explain later in spoilers.
Now the disappointing parts, like you don't directly battle the boss, you battle the minions he sent. Game has a mixed message like "trust the science" but also villain of the story, Custodian is a master scientist pursuing the unpursued, his hunger for knowledge ruins literally everything. In the near end, our mentor is saying "Do not repeat our mistakes. But never stop searching for answers. Never stop being hungry for knowledge." Like it's kinda contradicting but is she suggesting trying to find a balance?
You can see on their socials that game is made to "inspire the next generation of female STEM graduates!" and "about the gender gap in STEM and how video games can encourage more girls to pursue science and engineering". So they are clearly "trust the science" side of the things but maybe they are trying to say "Science without morality will end in catastrophe" or maybe it's just my thoughts.
Also it's kinda feels like a "revenge of the feminism" scenario when all the female characters in the game are either "Hero, Mentor and strong helpful ally" and male characters are "Villain, victim, and weak helpless ally" like kinda felt a pattern there. It's not a problem but they felt obsessive about it.
It's and ambitious AA game with an interesting setting. Starts with a great prologue then, when the game starts production quality is not matching the cutscene. Even with the highest settings, textures are quite disappointing after watching that movie-like cutscene. Game has a mysterious setting and the scenario starts really intriguing. I felt like game had so much Control (Remedy) inspirations both for it's setting and gameplay. It felt similar for it's collectibles, crafting, gun types, superpowers etc. On top of that Scars Above had environmental puzzles. One thing about gameplay, Scars Above emphasizes boss weak points too heavily like it's not balanced at all. I also felt like it had inspirations from Death Stranding for both environments and mysterious atmosphere. It even had a very similar colossal Humanoid entity all the way up to the skies. Game's scenario has a "mixed" message I will explain later in spoilers.
Now the disappointing parts, like you don't directly battle the boss, you battle the minions he sent. Game has a mixed message like "trust the science" but also villain of the story, Custodian is a master scientist pursuing the unpursued, his hunger for knowledge ruins literally everything. In the near end, our mentor is saying "Do not repeat our mistakes. But never stop searching for answers. Never stop being hungry for knowledge." Like it's kinda contradicting but is she suggesting trying to find a balance?
You can see on their socials that game is made to "inspire the next generation of female STEM graduates!" and "about the gender gap in STEM and how video games can encourage more girls to pursue science and engineering". So they are clearly "trust the science" side of the things but maybe they are trying to say "Science without morality will end in catastrophe" or maybe it's just my thoughts.
Also it's kinda feels like a "revenge of the feminism" scenario when all the female characters in the game are either "Hero, Mentor and strong helpful ally" and male characters are "Villain, victim, and weak helpless ally" like kinda felt a pattern there. It's not a problem but they felt obsessive about it.