Scathe is an upcoming bullet-hell first-person shooter that has you playing as the titular character, Scathe, an Enforcer of the legions of Hell, created by the Divine Creator himself. As the opening cutscene shows, you must prove your worth by descending into a hell maze full of demons with your trusty Hellhammer locked and loaded. Developed by Damage State and published by Kwalee, Scathe is coming to PC later this month, but for the past few days, we got the chance to run, jump, and shoot around in a preview build.
Let’s get one thing out of the way. It’s easy to look at a screenshot or clip from Scathe and assume it’s just a DOOM clone. And don’t get me wrong, there are similarities, some of which the game wears proudly on its shoulder, but there is a lot that sets Scathe apart from ID Software’s rebooted FPS franchise. I’m not going to spend the rest of the preview comparing and contrasting the games because I find that rather pointless. However, it’s hard to ignore that a surface-level summary of both games can sound pretty interchangeable.
So, what is Scathe exactly? Good question, and it’s one I didn’t know the answer to myself until I started playing. Yes, it is a bullet-hell FPS, but it also has elements of games in the roguelike genre. As you enter and explore Hell, your empty map will slowly start updating, showing you what rooms lead to which other rooms. In the build we played, there were 27 rooms to discover. Some of them were simply full of demons I had to take out on my way to the next one, but others held item pick-ups or even the big bad boss, Oxide. The potential of finding something often fueled me to keep searching even after I had found the exit.
Just like certain other roguelike games, weapons and items you pick up are permanently unlocked, so, once you run out of your allocated lives, you aren’t starting your next run with nothing. When you first start the game, all you have at your disposal is an assault rifle called Hellhammer and the ability to dash. The Hellhammer has primary and secondary fire modes. The latter has a cool down after every use, but the former doesn’t even require reloads, allowing you to just hold down the trigger as you face the demons head-on. To add some diversity to the gunplay, there are other weapons you can find around the maze from the buzz saw launching Bow Blade to the hellfire spewing Hot Hatch. Though the ammo for those weapons is limited and can be found laying around on the map. There are also items you can find and pick up throughout the map that give you cool special abilities. The first one I picked up was a handy ice ring that froze all enemies in the vicinity, which gave me breathing room and some time to think.
That thinking time is important because enemies in Scathe are aggressive, often charging at you in large hordes that can get rather difficult to manage even with your unlimited ammo. This really forces you to be aware of your surroundings. Spraying and praying will only get you so far before you’re surrounded by demons on all sides. Speaking of demons, they come in a few different shapes and sizes, from flying pests that pelt you with a barrage of bullets to average Joe demons that just stand around and grunt. Things can get quite chaotic in some of the more sprawling rooms but getting in the zone as you jump and dash over and around rows of glowing bullets is really fun.
I played Scathe on PC and switched between a few different graphical settings. On Epic the game looks great with the weapon details especially catching my eye, but it takes a lot out of your PC so kicking that down is recommended for most players. The game still looks fine, and your PC won’t turn into a jet engine. And if you’re still worried about performance, the game also has the option to minimize or turn off the level of giblets that are thrown around as you eviscerate demons. Scathe has a fascinating score that I absolutely wouldn’t listen to on its own, but when paired with the setting and design of the game, it’s awesome. The metal-infused Mongolian throat singing is a genre I have never heard before and it’s composed fittingly by Nikola Nikita Jeremic. There is a great interview with Nikola on Sound Magazine that I encourage you to check out if you have interest in finding out more.
Now, I have throat sung a lot of praise for the game, which it does deserve, but there are also some hiccups I encountered that are worth mentioning. For starters, there was one room where I walked into an area that had a sort of mini-boss spawn in which caused the exits to close until the demon is bested. However, perhaps because I was just too good at the game, the barriers did not disappear immediately after the boss was down. The first time this happened I restarted the game thinking it was a bug, but when it happened again, I waited it out and found that the barriers eventually went away. Still not sure why this happened to be honest. The other thing is that sound design is a bit bugged in certain rooms and sound effects of traps or demons that are above or below you can play as if they’re right beside you. When you’re fighting off a conga line of demons, the last thing you want is to be baited into thinking you’re being surrounded.
Keep in mind though that these hiccups are all from the preview build and we were told that the team is working hard to balance and finalize the code ahead of launch. Only some or even none of the bugs I experienced could appear in the final release, but as of now, we will just have to wait and see. The familiarity of the shooting likely won’t be for everyone, and the lack of a distinct campaign is unfortunate, but Scathe is looking and playing great and is shaping up to be a hell of a debut for Scotland-based developer Damage State.
Scathe is coming to PC on August 31, while the console edition is expected to land sometime in early 2023. I did spend some time in the preview build playing with a controller and, despite being a console player at heart, I think the precision that a game like this requires can’t quite be matched on a controller. You can get used to it, but keyboard and mouse is the way to go here. I also want to mention probably the most significant selling point for some players, and that is co-op. Scathe has drop-in drop-out co-op with up to four players and I didn’t really talk about it in the preview because I didn’t play the game in co-op, but the feature is a welcome one that I look forward to checking out soon. If all that sounds good to you, make sure to click here and wishlist the game on Steam.
