With its ominous musical score and chunky weapons, Scathe, the upcoming FPS from pioneering dev studio Damage State Ltd can feel like a title ripped and torn from Bethesda’s Doom franchise.
However, once you get shooting, strafing and splash damaging everything in sight, Strafe becomes very much its own beast.
The hook to Strafe is that it is a first-person bullet hell game. How the hell does that work? Well, think Returnal with less story and more balls-to-the-wall action.
The bullet hell aspect in Scathe comes in the form of higher quantity and lower speed bullets and more environmental hazards than you could possibly ask for. Fire spews out of walls and bouncing mines try to ensure your demise at every turn.
The demo shows off solid gunplay and challenging enemies, with many different types of creature to fight with a plethora of different attack styles. But there is one thing they all have in common: shit tons of glowing bullets and the desire you see you in a flaming pile on the ground.
Scathe features a perfect blend of old-school tight environments and high damage to the player with the bullet hell mechanic innovation. Even in the demo this title flaunts a lot of spit and polish visually without sacrificing tough, but rewarding gameplay.
Having attempted and failed the demo more times than I would like to admit, there is a lot to be excited about here. Scathe will soon become a mecca for time-trial purists and just about anyone who loves FPS games, old or new, when it is released at the end of next month. Don’t miss it, or the devs will scathe you!
Scathe is due for release on August 31st on Steam for Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox series S/X, Playstation 4 and Playstation 5.
