Skarab

Great game with fun soundtracks, and an interesting setting. Works well on Steam Deck--I only had to rebind 1 or 2 buttons. The exotic atmosphere is well worth the price.

this was really fun and i had a good time, its very simplistic and only took 2 hrs to finish but i promise youll enjoy yerself, the levels are good, the weapons are fun and all usefull, and the enemies are challenging, oh and the music was good too

First impressions are decent. Light on the quality of life stuff, had to figure the commands by trial and error, but it seems okay. That said, it all seems to work, so one thumb up.

Skarab is a compact, fast-paced action shooter that wears its retro inspirations proudly while injecting them with the energy of a modern indie project. Developed and published by DOSMan Games, it takes place in a stylized, mythic version of ancient Egypt where you awaken as a lone warrior tasked with saving your kingdom, rescuing its captured royalty, and defeating the god Anubis himself. The premise borders on the absurd in the best possible way—embracing pulpy adventure tropes, mystical weapons, and exaggerated villains with a wink. Rather than relying on elaborate storytelling, the game focuses on delivering an energetic, immediately gratifying action experience flavoured with Egyptian mythology and boomer-shooter sensibilities. The gameplay is fast, responsive, and intentionally reminiscent of 90s action classics. You dart through tombs, villages, and pyramids using both melee weapons and ranged tools, switching fluidly between sword strikes and arcane attacks such as conjuring clouds of locusts. The mix of abilities gives each encounter a sense of momentum, and even though the game is small in scope, it offers enough enemy variety and trap-filled environments to keep the pace lively. Levels rely on straightforward progression rather than deep exploration—each stage pushes you forward into new fights, new layouts, and occasional environmental hazards that require quick reactions. The design philosophy is clearly built around maintaining adrenaline rather than complexity; it’s a game that wants you to move fast, strike hard, and enjoy the ride without overthinking its systems. Visually, Skarab leans into a vibrant, intentionally exaggerated aesthetic. The pixel-inspired graphics, bold color palettes, and chunky character designs embrace a retro-modern hybrid style that suits the game’s tone perfectly. Ancient Egypt is reimagined as a playground of traps, glowing glyphs, sprawling pyramids, and rooftop chase sequences. The environments are not large, but they are visually memorable, and their exaggerated proportions amplify the game’s action-first personality. Enemies range from mythic creatures to undead guardians and cultic warriors drawn from both sides of the Duat, giving each level a distinct rhythm. Small touches—like the recurring DOSMan mascot hiding goodies in each stage—add charm and personality to the adventure. Because of its modest scale and low price point, the game inevitably has limitations. The campaign is short, with most players finishing it in a single session, and replayability depends mostly on wanting to revisit the fluid combat rather than uncovering secrets or branching paths. Enemy AI is simple, and encounters rely more on raw reaction than tactical nuance. Narrative elements exist mainly to justify the action rather than to deliver emotional depth or lore. Yet these constraints feel consistent with what the game aims to achieve. Skarab is not pretending to be an open-world epic or a complex RPG—it is a distilled, energetic experience built to entertain quickly and without friction. What makes the game satisfying is how confidently it commits to its identity. The weapons feel punchy, the spell effects are gleefully over-the-top, and the level designs maintain a brisk, satisfying tempo. It evokes the joy of classic shooters while embracing a thematic setting that feels refreshing among the usual sci-fi and fantasy environments. For players nostalgic for fast-paced, no-nonsense action—and especially those who appreciate indie reinterpretations of boomer shooters—Skarab offers a lively, memorable diversion. It is brief, bold, and unashamedly fun, delivering exactly the sort of punchy mythological romp its premise promises. In the end, Skarab succeeds because it knows exactly what it wants to be: a compact, flavorful action adventure that blends ancient Egyptian myth, retro shooter design, and modern indie flair into a satisfying burst of entertainment. If you value tight gameplay loops, stylized visuals, and mythic sand-blasted spectacle, this is an affordable and highly enjoyable experience that punches well above its weight. Rating: 7/10

Skarab is a another boomer shooter from DOSMan... this DooM ripoff has an ancient Egypt skin slathered badly on it and has you running around small pyramid and Egypt themed raycaster levels clubbing enemies because once more DOSMan failed to understand the basic premise of boomer shooters... which is shooting. The melee focus draws attention to just how bad this era of games was for melee stuff, because they were designed for gunplay. You do eventually get ranged attacks... and they suck. The melee attacks are dissatisfying... if you think you're getting DooM's infamous chainsaw here, you're not. On the upside, the game does feature customisable controls and resolution, so at least some of the basic, minimum requirements have been met. Unfortunately there's a number of other technical defects and shortcomings which contribute to the game being difficult to recommend to gamers. The developers didn't design the game for modern gaming PCs, as such the display resolution caps out at 1080p, a very low resolution that became mainstream back in 2006 and became obsolete when 4K entered the mainstream in 2014. The game simply won't look right on modern gaming displays due to this failure on the part of the developers. The game features lazy low-polygon "retro" assets with crap 2D retro pixel "art" textures on them, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the early 1990s. This very poor quality visual style is a method that lazy devs often use to disguise their lack of talent/interest in doing the graphics properly and trying to disguise it under the name of "art", or "We made it look bad on purpose", which really isn't something gamers should have to put up with. It's unclear why the developers weren't willing to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets and high resolution textures for the game. It looks bad as a result of their decisions, worse, it doesn't authentically recreate the 1990's vibe the developer is hoping people will accept instead of doing their job properly, and that's just another reason to avoid it. While not necessarily a deal breaker, the game does lack polish and a few elements are a little clunky/unsmooth, this is still rough around the edges... again, it's easy to glitch out of the map or just run right around some of the enemies and bypass the entire level. This is incredibly sloppy game design. There's also some reports of other bugs which may result in a negative user experience. Your mileage may vary on this, but if you think your money is buying you a quality product here, then no, it is not. Those technical flaws drag this game well below the minimum quality standards expected of a modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was [b]only 6 players[/b]. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 130 million gamers on Steam and well over 140,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 140,000+ games on Steam? Skarab is relatively cheap at $3 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 14,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product. [quote][b][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/b] Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying this game.[/quote]

Decent egyptian themed old school fps, with a heavy focus on melee combat however.

Ancient Egypt Doom

Decent Egyptian themed old school FPS with a heavy focus on melee combat

I've played other DOSman games including Night Jackal, REVEREND, SATAN, and I enjoyed them, but this one was a letdown. It falls short of the previous games in 2 main ways: tech and game design. I couldn’t get the game to run in full screen. I tried the game option, Alt+Enter, F11 but none worked. I had to play in a half-sized window. Then the melee combat felt awkward, I stabbed at enemies and still missed targets, especially smaller ones like spiders and snakes. Even human sized enemies can be difficult to aim at times. The exploration stopped being fun pretty quickly because of the hidden keys and the constant backtracking through maze just to unlock gates. And by the end of the first area if you hadn’t fully explored the map, you would have missed the sling so no way to deal with ranged enemies. Those don’t work well in a boomer shooter/FPS. I’d still buy more games from DOSman, but this one is below their usual standard.

[h2]Retro FPS Without the Shooting?[/h2] Interesting experience overall. I think this DOSMan title genuinely tries to do something different. The setting is very original, and the heavy focus on melee combat is definitely not something you usually see in a boomer shooter. That said, is this even a boomer shooter if, for the most part, you’re not actually shooting? I’m not sure. What I do know is that I enjoyed playing it. The melee combat works better than you might expect. It feels really smooth and responsive, it's not clunky to use. If you time your strikes carefully, you can get through most of the game without losing much HP. The real challenge begins when melee enemies are combined with ranged attackers, or when you’re swarmed by large groups. Those encounters can be quite demanding, but if you have experience with FPS games, they’re still manageable. As for the level design, it’s mostly solid. I only got seriously lost twice. The first time was on the level that ends after the lava parkour section. I spent about 15 minutes looking for the last keycard. The second time was on the level before the final boss, where I struggled for a few minutes to find the pre-boss area. Aside from those moments, especially in the early levels, navigation felt clear and rarely frustrating. There is some story, but it’s very generic and doesn’t add anything particularly memorable. The real highlight of the game is the atmosphere. The ancient Egyptian-inspired setting creates a strong sense of place, and breezing through the areas in classic retro FPS fashion is genuinely enjoyable. I’d give it a 6/10. It’s not as good as S*TAN, but it’s definitely better than DEAD TRASH and REVEREND, at least from the titles I’ve played by DOSMan. I really liked the Egyptian setting and hope more games explore this era. I remember playing AC: Origins years ago, but I didn’t enjoy it much. It felt like the typical Ubisoft formula - just hunting down question marks on a map. That’s not fun for me. Here, you actually get a sense of discovery while exploring the levels. It took me approximately two hours to finish the game. It’s a bit disappointing that there are no achievements though. They would have made replaying it feel more rewarding. [h2]6/10 - Retro FPS with a unique Egyptian setting and a surprisingly smooth, satisfying melee-focused combat system that sets it apart from typical boomer shooters. While the level design can occasionally be confusing and the story is generic, the atmosphere and classic retro FPS feel make it a solid 6/10 experience.[/h2]