Damage State are a new video game development studio who call Scotland their home, formed by ex-games industry veterans they are dedicated to making ‘killer AAA based games.’ Scathe is the first title off the block for the young studio and is described as an ‘intense, blood-soaked FPS where quick reflexes are the key to surviving the bullet Hell labyrinth that stands between you and your ascension. Rip through the underworld's deadliest demons and collect the Hellstones with drop-in/drop-out online co-op gameplay.’ This sounds like enough to send any FPS fans fun receptors into overdrive mode, will Scathe turn the prospect of eternally wandering through hell into a fun experience or will it feel like endless torture? 

Your task in Scathe is relatively simple, at least on paper, you need to navigate the maze of hell, collecting hellstones and runes along the way in order to unlock new areas and then face off with the boss of hell itself, Sacrilegious , of course you aren’t free to wander around the underworld exploring and collecting artifacts without any opposition, there are hordes of demons standing around ready to hinder your progress by ripping you limb from limb, I mean it just wouldn’t be hell if there wasn’t any opposition right? Scathe is ‘bullet hell’ in the true sense of the word, the action is constant and non-stop, if you stand still even to line up a shot demons are going to turn you into mincemeat rather quickly.

Thankfully you have an array of weapons ready to help you achieve your goals through your journey, you start the game with your trusty Hell Hammer, an assault rifle that features infinite primary fire and a secondary fire mode that will send a barrage of rockets raining down on your foes, as you explore you will gain access to even more devastating hardware such as the Thunderbolt that is capable of shooting lightning out that arcs between multiple enemies or The Ripper which is great for ripping enemies apart in close combat. Firearms aren’t the only weapon in your arsenal though you can also gain access to magic powers that give you the ability to heal yourself, crush enemies or even freeze them in place in order to line up multiple head shot kills, you also have a dodge move at your disposal that can also be used to charge at enemies, however the on graphical effect that happens when you use this can cause you to become quite discoordinated.  

To have any chance at achieving your goal of crushing the Divine Creators brother Sacrilegious you will need explore the labyrinth like halls and corridors of hell to collect runes, collecting enough runes will open doors and areas that were previously inaccessible and even grant access to ultimate demons, which are the games mini bosses, defeating one of these will allow you to gain access to a hellstone, 6 of which are needed to unlock the final exit door.

This game is difficult and I don’t throw that word out there lightly, it is so difficult you could call this the Dark Souls of FPS games, you will die and die often and it will only be through backtracking and exploring to find more powerful weapons or magic that you will be able to progress forward. The game does get a little easier if you matchmake as you can play with up to 4 other people, though I would recommend trying to find 4 friends who want to play rather than randoms as the game requires extreme coordination to even stand half a chance at progressing through the labyrinth, that and your team shares a total life pool so you have to be extremely careful with how many times you die.

Other than the difficulty of the enemies, navigation is probably going to one of your major troubles with the game as the extremely simplistic map only shows which sector of the map you are on and doesn’t give you a detailed display of the area you are currently in, this can prove to become frustrating as it becomes difficult at times to track where you need to go to advance forward to new areas. Thankfully the game controls beautifully which is a very important feature when you constantly have bullets is flying at your face, the gunplay is fast, frantic and most importantly, fun!

Graphically the game suits it’s purpose, the demon models are varied and overall well designed as are the various environments you progress through on your journey through the labyrinth, gore splatters everywhere satisfyingly as you dispatch your enemies, on the sound side of things a techno/industrial/metal soundtrack pumps away in the background here as meaty explosions and weapon sounds perforate the air around you, you can tell the developers have put a lot of love and hard work into this game by the quality of the graphics and soundtrack alone.

It’s time to talk about the elephant in the room, DOOM. There is no getting around the fact that Scathe is going to be compared to DOOM and this is where the biggest problem with the game lies. Scathe is not trying to be DOOM in fact the way the labyrinth works in the game makes Scathe a lot less linear than most of the games that have come before it, but the at the end of the day you just can’t hide the fact that most of the things that Scathe does, DOOM does better. That is not to say Scathe is a bad game by any means, in fact for a first game by a new studio Scathe is technically very impressive, I just found that it didn’t compel me to keep coming back and giving it, another go. Mostly due to the frustrating map system and the insane overall difficulty of the game, extreme difficulty is fine, but I just didn’t feel like the game rewarded me enough for the time I put in playing it.

Is it worth your money? That’s hard to say, the main reason for saying that as of writing this review is that the developers still haven’t released what the price for the game will be. However, if you are a fan of bullet hell style FPS games then there is a lot to enjoy here, especially if you have a few friends to play co-op with, however if you are someone that doesn’t like extreme difficulty in games, then I would probably stay way. All in all Scathe is an extremely competent and fun game especially when it comes to co-op, it just seems that sometimes the difficulty level gets in the way of letting you have a good time.