As I am writing this review, the game is in early access and I have played around about two and a half hours.
Well, SCAR. The artwork is edgy enough, and by god does it play well. The first time I launched the game I got called away shortly after, but logged six minutes just listening to the menu music and enjoying it massively – so certainly off to a good start.
The hub area and the tutorial share a same cave theme, bright blues and purples, dwarfing you with massive crystals – a style I greatly enjoy, making the hub feel safe and welcoming. A small detail, sure, but one I appreciate none the less.
The first level this game does allow you to experience proper is a factory, very industrial, with lots of reds and yellows indicating hazards – and the classic of exploding barrels littered everywhere to give you an upper hand when you first start to be swarmed. The design fits the level perfectly, metal grated walkways, huge steel support structures – there’s no text on the screen, or part of the level which expressly tells you that you’re in a factory of some sort, you just know implicitly.
Movement in this game is intense, remember all the marketing for LawBreakers and how the movement would be all directions all the time? This game actually delivers on that and does it superbly, and enough that it makes perfect sense from the word go: your jump feels long and fast; you can double jump and if you practice get away with the occasional wall jump; there’s dashing in the air which aids you getting out of the corner you accidentally retreated into which I often do; and a grappling hook which moves you fluidly from one point to another ensuring the verticality of level design becomes an equal playing field between yourself and anything hostile. The slide feature I am yet to truly utilise, but that’s mostly because I am simply having too much fun jumping and zip-lining around tight and tall rooms trying to avoid being hit whilst also hitting back.
Weaponry in this game is looking good to start. The default pistol is pretty pathetic, but with infinite ammo and a bit of practice you can spam fire it fast enough that it becomes an extremely efficient last resort. The shotgun sounds very good, I’d describe it as ‘boomy’, don’t be fooled by the sounds in the first video shown on the Steam page, it has been changed since and my word it sounds satisfying. The only other weapon I have encountered so far at this point, although I know there are more thanks to the control options, is the rocket launcher, which I must say I am slightly disappointed by the sound of – it sounds like the rocket has flown past me at a distance, than out of a tube close to my chest. That said, when that thing hits a target, you know – the feedback through gibs and animations on enemies upon being bested are clear as day so you know what is alive and what is not. On that gripe of the RL, I don’t much mind it – it’s not my personal preference, but there is always the defining trait: it’s early access, most things will change from what they are now.
There is also an ‘ability’ mode, made available to you through more kills made and points earned, in which all of your weapons receive a buff when you choose to enable it. The pistol becomes rapid fire enough I’d liken it to the lightning gun of old, the RL will fire multiple shots at once all homing in on targets. But with that, again, unfortunately is one letting down the party a bit, the shotgun doesn’t feel much meaner (not to say it much needs to) than it does before. But again, it’s early access, I am sure there is more to come on that front.
I’ve said all of this, and not mentioned the soundtrack much beyond what I opened with, if soundtrack is your thing which decides a game, the menu music will make you love this game to start with. The hub/tutorial environment has a quiet, almost soothing, welcoming track which befits the safer feeling environment. But oh boy, you enter that factory, the music thumps, your heart rate raises, before you even figure out where you are. Genuinely, if you don’t go through the credits, I’d forgive you for presuming incorrectly this another masterful job by Andrew Hulshult .
If comparing the soundtrack to the man who gave us Bombshell, Dusk, Amid Evil, Rise of the Triad 2013, Brutal Doom, the list continues sounds insulting, you clearly haven’t experienced those games and the standard he produced. If you, the people credited for the music, are reading this – I think many people would agree he is currently the master of music for this genre, be proud that I was almost expecting to see his name amongst the credits.
If none of that gets you to at least wishlist this game awaiting the full release, you’re looking at the wrong genre of game, sorry.
If any or indeed all of this gets you going – simple: buy it now, it can only get better.
Performance wise, to note, I can run this game perfectly fine on my system (AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core, GeForce RTX 2060, on Win10) at maximum settings, with no concern of the framerate dropping enough for me to notice.
Unfortunately, being early access – and I cannot stress it enough BEING EARLY ACCESS – you get a few bugs and issues, which I will list below with a hope of fixes/improvements where needed or warranted, so bear in mind this list may become outdated with future updates.
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[*]The crosshair is alright, but with the ability bar, and grapple indicator surrounding I find it difficult to track what I’m aiming for, although that may well just be me.
[*]Sometimes when grappling I find myself landing on a different platform (typically below) the one I intended to land on, and then able to just simply jump and warp to where I was planning to be – which is almost overpowered if I learn to use it properly to kill things across two floors only needing to tap space to go elsewhere.
[*]The grappling hooks targetting feels off, slightly, I cannot properly explain it. I understand if I aim down it latches to the edge of the platform I’m on, but sometimes it just seems to hit a different place to where I planned – perhaps I am just bad with it, but it is something I find mildly irritating on the odd occasion it happens.
[*]In the tutorial section, I found the game continued to refill my ability bar and keep it active throughout the whole thing – which in proper gameplay would be fine, however the continued loud pulsing sound which plays whilst it is active is a nuisance over what is a gorgeous track. This refilling carried through to the hub area, enough that I opted to close and reopen the game to resolve it – which it did.
[*]Occasionally I was being attacked through walls by hostiles, which I suppose is my fault for standing next to a wall and tabbing out, however may pose a greater issue later in game.
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Also, with it being early access, I’d like to drop a couple of design ideas I have noted which I think would improve/enhance the game. I’m not a game dev, so don’t take this as me demanding features, I just think these would be cool(er). And again, this list may become out of date with updates, so bear that in mind.
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[*]The grappling hook is great for movement, however I feel it could be so much more – somewhat in line with Doom 2016 and Eternal’s glory kills for reference – I would be finding a lot of fun in if I grappled a weaker enemy whilst my ability mode was active that I could stomp them in some manner, and farm some ammunition from their body.
[*]I notice a pattern which worries me ever so slightly (although not enough to dissuade me from the game, make no mistake) in that first proper level of room, kill everything, open door, door closes behind, kill everything, next room. Whilst that can be fun, and indeed was for the first five rooms maybe because they all had such distinctly different characteristics and environments I eventually picked up on this, and it does risk becoming monotonous.
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