Although firmly on the soft end of the sci-fi scale, there's still plenty of imagination here. To find it, you may need to beat your forehead bloody on the 'Dark Souls: IN SPACE!' design philosophy that apparently infested this game like a neuro-parasite in the second half of it's development... but it is there. The game clearly went through multiple rewrites and reevaluations of scope, and honestly it's kind of a mess, but there's a certain indie charm to the sheer ballsy ambition of it.

It is certainly worth playing, if you can look past its many faults. Note that I said it's worth playing, not worth buying. You should put as much money into buying this game as the devs put into the characters' facial animations: that is to say, get it on sale.

If you are into high-level sci-fi story-telling, you'll enjoy Scars Above. Is it perfect when it comes to game mechanics, development, cinematics, and controls, no. But it's on par for what's out there coming from smaller studios that have a lot of young talent with plenty of room for growth.

Sure, the controls aren't super smooth, and the speech during cut scenes is out of whack with the characters lips from time to time, or you might get stuck in a location resulting in you needing to revert back to your last save point to continue on, but it's nothing that is game breaking. You'll still enjoy the experience and the story if space odysseys is your thing.

Would I recommend it, yes! The story keeps you engaged, the visuals are stunning, and the world-building is on point for an alien planet with creepy creatures. The dialog isn't too shabby either. There wasn't any overt cliche lines that are over used, the information is easy to follow, and they're smart with their science.

One thing I could say about Scars Above is that if it was developed by a really big studio this would be a top-tier game. But with the studio that developed it, it certainly stands on its own as a good overall sci-fi game with a few kinks that could be ironed out, so it being on par is good enough for me.

The whole team should be proud of their work too! Everyone involved put a lot of care into making this and I wouldn't mind checking out more from them in the future. With eyes wide open, much can be enjoyed in the universe we live in.

looked and sounded promising at first but fell very flat. in the very first minute of "gameplay" you get a oneliner about women being sexualized/opressed/weak...totally unnecessary and unfitting in a game where you play as a woman. im so sick of this political ♥♥♥♥ being forced in every game. just let the game speak for itself, but i guess thats not enough.

when the game actually begins every mystery get sucked out of the story as soon as you get this vision from this alien woman which guides you through the linear level...

the gameplay is very copy paste from the last 15-20 years ago.
mostly you press e to go again through this narrow path/rock crevice like you have seen in thousand other games
press e to duck under this tree, press e to scan this object
collect things with e
dont forget to climb this 1 meter wall for the thousand time with space

crafting looked fun in the tutorial but quickly became pressing 3 2-3 times aswell.

puzzles work like this:
there is an area with 3-4 clues you go to them and press e to scan, then you go to the point shown on the map and press e again, now you are a real detective and get shown what happened in some sort of holograph images. very lame and uncreative.

to open a door or unblock a path you either cut the vines with 2 clicks or shoot the glowing dots on the door or wall.

the combat is very clunky and outdated. games from 2005 have better gameplay but i guess every "soulslike" game needs to be clunky in order to be soulslike. you have to shoot the glowing weakpoints of the enemies. this in general should be a red flag because its an indicator of repetitive combat. you shoot them run around in circles and press space to do your dodge roll. thats it. its boring and frustrating too, because some enemies only show their weakspot for half a second. there is no block mechanic, no variety in weapons. you shoot either electricy on blue weakspots, acid on green weakspots or fire on red weakspots. sometimes you can use ice to slow the advance and provide the enemy with wetness to make the electricy stronger but that is so barebones that you barely do that.

also every weapon looks basicly the same

everything is barebones and outdated. the graphics and animation aswell. if only the story wouldn be told so blatandly and boring i wouldnt have refunded.