Dirge of Cthulhu: A Skautfold: Into the Fray Review

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

A while back I reviewed a game called Skautfold: Usurper (A review you can find HERE!) and today we're going to be looking at its sequel, Skautfold: Into the Fray. (Hereafter referred to as simply "Into the Fray") It's out now on all major consoles, and we're going to be taking a look at the game today on the Nintendo Switch. This is retro-inspired shooter that plays quite a bit different than the Metroidvania game I reviewed last year. What's with the genre shift you ask? Well, we'll get to that in due time. There's a lot to cover here, so let's dive right in!

Into The Fray's story takes place in an alternate version of 1899 where eldritch horrors haunt the world, and England has an army of knights who deal with the worst of it. One of those knights is named Hito, and it's him that you take control of throughout the game. Hito is sent to the Island of Portland (Didn't know that was even an actual place until this game!) to investigate some recent events involving another knight sent on a different mission of great importance, as well as to hopefully put an end to the rebel force known as the Sons of Washington. Unfortunately for Hito, he is discovered near immediately, and left for dead. It turns out that previously sent knight is under command by a member of the royal family who is attempting to summon The Fog. What is The Fog? I'm not totally sure, but evil comes with it. Hito's life is saved by a mysterious figure named Marigold, who bestows upon him a cape that will not only keep him alive, but also give him the power to defeat his many enemies. Speaking of which, the enemies Hito has to face have multiplied since The Fog has indeed descended upon the Island of Portland. Cultists, Rebels, and all sorts of Horrors of the Deep now stand in the way of Hito completing his mission.

Where do I begin when it comes to discussing the story? Let me first start with mentioning that Into the Fray is the final (for now?) game in the Skautfold trilogy. Each of the releases are mostly standalone as far as plot goes, and they all feature different gameplay mechanics. Standalone or not, they do all fall into the same world, and involve many of the same characters. The problem with this game's story is that I found it to be impossible to get into without prior knowledge of the games that came before it. You can for sure just go along for the ride, but everything will come off feeling like a series of random events if you haven't played the first two games. This is made all the weirder when you realize that the long opening cutscene, which does an alright job in setting up the world for newbies, isn't mandatory to watch. This scene is available from the title screen, but is easily missed if you're only interested in getting into the game. Why this wasn't just place into the main game itself is beyond me, but it made me also long for something resembling a "The Story Up to Now" type menu. Perhaps it was deemed to be too overwhelming to throw that at the player, but why include a story like this at all if that's what you're worried about? That actually leads me to my other big complaint about the plot, and that's how dense it all is. I gave up trying to understand what was going on by the halfway point, and it started to feel like the developer was just throwing random words and names into an AI generator and going with whatever it spat up. I have a bit more to say about the story towards the end of the review, but let's move on to discussing gameplay next.

At its heart, Into the Fray is a twin-stick shooter, but one with very limited ammo. That might sound like an odd point to make, but it honestly struck me as very strange. Most games in the genre are fast and frenetic, and this one feels like you're always worried about inventory management. Don't get me wrong, the action still comes at you very fast, but you also have to make each shot matter in a way that isn't very exciting. Thankfully the control scheme is simple at the very least. You move Hito with the left analog stick, aim with the right, fire and change weapons with the shoulder buttons, and kick with one of the face buttons. It's a simple to learn, but surprisingly deep. Getting back to that limited ammo thing, keeping an eye on your supply can be a chore when each enemy takes several shots to kill. I also found the simple process of aiming to be quite difficult, and most of my shots went astray. You do have a melee attack to fall back on in case you run out of ammo, but that's a very risky way to go about the game. Hito only can take a few hits before dying, with the amount depending on the difficulty selected. It's back to the start of the level if you die, so that's yet another annoyance. The only way to heal yourself is by kicking an enemy when they're in their near-death state, and using the cape to drain their life. I barely was able to pull this move off with any level of consistency, and since you can still accidentally kill an enemy when they're in this state, I found that I was constantly counting each shot I fired. The game compares itself to Doom, but the combat is slow and methodical. Even if you pull off the healing move, you'll only get enough life back to replace one hit. That means you're screwed if you took two hits bringing down said enemy, but that's just the way the game is made I guess.

There are five difficulty settings in Into the Fray, and I honestly feel that all of them are far too hard for the casual player to enjoy. I couldn't even beat the first stage on the Normal setting, and I barely did much better when I dialed it down to the easiest one. I eventually managed to get a bit further out with the second easiest setting (The lowest makes all the gore into flowers by the way, and that was very annoying.), though I still wasn't able to beat the game. I can't stress enough how challenging everything is, but in ways that just don't feel fair. I'll get into the specifics soon, but this is definitely the biggest problem with the game as a whole. Over the course of my research for this review, I stumbled onto its Steam page. I went through the community posts wondering what I was missing regarding the game's difficulty, and besides finding some hardcore gamers who absolutely loved the game despite its unfairness (HOW?!?!), I also found the developer himself low-key talking trash whenever someone chimed in saying the game was too difficult. Rather than take that sort of criticism to heart, he went with the "git gud!" type of responses that always rub me the wrong way. I get wanting to create a game that fits your goals and ideals, but do you really only want the game to be played by a few dozen hardcore players? Anyway, this made me want to take note of everything I found that didn't work in the game, and that's what we're going to look at next.

Since combat is the focus here, it makes sense to start there when looking at what doesn't work. Each level of the game is usually set in a series of rooms/areas you can go to in any order. This in and of itself can be annoying, as it is surprisingly easy to get lost when all the areas look mostly the same. You can sometimes sneak around groups of enemies, but more often than not they will get the jump on you first. I'm not sure if the game has AI that is just meant to be unfair, or if the camera should be pulled way further back, but most enemies have the ability to shoot you from way off screen. Most standard guns in the game also have thin bullets (I don't know how else to describe that, but those who've played the game will know what I mean.) that never seem to work as well for you as they do for the enemy. There is no lock on system for attacks, so you'll just fire wildly in all sorts of directions for the most part. Honestly, half of the complaints I have about the game would be fixed if there was some sort of lock-on system. It's not like it would be impossible to implement either, as the enemies seem to be able to lock onto you very easily. They'll always go after you relentlessly, and I once again have to remind you that it only takes 3-5 hits to get a game over screen. As I said earlier, the entire healing mechanic is broken, ammo is annoyingly scarce, and don't even get me started on the bosses. Every boss in the game is a damage sponge, and most have multiple forms and huge attacks to contend with as well. Everything is an endurance run in the worst way imaginable. There just isn't anything fun here. The story is dark, confusing, and borderline boring at times, and Hito feels like a glass cannon, but without any of the actual CANNON. He's simply glass waiting to be broken. I understand this isn't an arcade-style shooter, but why do random rebels sometimes take more shots to kill than I do? That just makes no sense to me, and I'm going to be glad to finish this review and wash my hands of the game soon.

If there's one place where I can say Into the Fray actually shines, it has to be its graphics. They're not the best representation of the retro pixel aesthetic, but they're implemented very well nevertheless. The game is gory, full of small details that are easy to miss, and it ran perfectly fine on the Nintendo Switch. Even though I have plenty of complaints about the enemies and the bosses, I have to admit that they look great for the most part. It's not all perfect though, as there's just as many complaints I can bring up. The font looks like it was dug up from the cheapest of mobile game engines, the levels often have a bland look and feel to them, and Hito himself seems like legally distinct Vincent Valentine. Actually, this entire game falls into the "Dirge of Cerberus we have at home" category just by its looks alone. If only Square Enix learned about this game and put a stop to it, maybe I wouldn't be here having to review it.

I have a bit less to say about the music, beyond that it mostly does well for the game. There most likely aren't going to be any tracks that stand out to you, but that includes both the good and the bad. This might not be anywhere near the Castlevania-level of music I was hoping for, but I have no distinct complaints beyond the music simply existing to exist. Elsewhere the sound effects are great, with all of them thankfully breaking the game's near silence at times. That's the odd thing actually, most of the game plays with very little notable sound to it, as the pages and pages of dialogue are conveyed without even the hint of voice acting. I understand that not every game can be fully voiced, but there is so much here plot-wise that felt like it would've been best to dig deep and find a way to get some actors into the studio. It all makes for some odd presentation, but it's not the worst I've seen by far.

I gave Into the Fray several hours of my life and just had to throw in the towel before I was able to reach the end. There was just nothing here to hold my interest. The story droned on and on, I couldn’t care less what happened to Hito, and everything about the gameplay fought me every inch of the way. I want to remind everyone that I played on an easier difficulty setting, and faced nothing but frustration and boredom. I'm by no means the best action gamer out there, but I'm no slouch either. This is a game meant only for the hardcore of the hardcore, so unless you're someone who thought Elden Ring was too easy, this game isn't for you. I guess it is replayable though, as there are two game modes to choose from, and several difficulties for each. That's right, I didn't mention it earlier, but there is a way to play the game solely as a shooter, and also a way to play it with light RPG elements. I personally found the RPG style gameplay to feel much tacked on, and that makes sense when I eventually saw a post in those Steam community forums that mentioned that the developer added in the RPG Mode in as an afterthought. At least they were upfront and honest, since it really shows in the final product. I guess if I was digging for another positive, I'd have to say that the $14.99 price tag doesn't feel all that bad, but that's honestly neither here nor there.

Unless you're a gamer who likes your action games to be tough-as-nails, I suggest skipping Skautfold: Into the Fray entirely. It was an overall frustrating experience, and it ended the entire Skautfold trilogy on a sour note. There are some great twin-stick shooter games out there, but this isn't one of them. It's not for the causal gamer, and it's arguably not even for those who played the first two games in the series. I don't like being that tenth dentist who doesn't back the toothpaste, but I have to reiterate that I'm of the opinion that only the most hardcore of the hardcore will find any of this to be even remotely fun. My advice is to check out Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity or Skautfold: Usurper instead. Those two are at least fun to play. That said, I do hope there are more Skautfold games released in the future, if for no other reason than to replace the bad taste this one left in my mouth. One can only hope... See you in the next one!

Check Out Skautfold: Into the Fray on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/skautfold-into-the-fray-switch/

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Story: B
Gameplay: C-
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: C
Value: B

Overall: C

Pros:
+ An extremely challenging game for those looking for one.
+ There are some compelling story elements to be had here, as well as promises of a bigger world full of lore just beyond.
+ The graphics look great for the most part, especially the character and monster designs.
+ Can be played in many different configurations, with one hopefully fitting your play style.
+ Priced well at just $14.99.

+/- The game informed me of the existence of the Island of Portland. That's something I guess!

Cons:
- The extreme difficulty makes the game feel completely uninviting to the casual player.
- Combat feels mostly broken throughout. Enemies being able to shoot you from off-screen, and generally being able to kill you in just 3-5 hits, is the very definition of unfair.
- Not only does the healing mechanic need an overhaul, but the game would be much improved by a lock-on system.
- Death comes quickly, and it means you have to restart the entire level.
- The game plays mostly in silence, with long walls of text having no voice acting at all.
- This is a horrible way to close out the otherwise amazing Skautfold trilogy.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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WHAT did the game just say?!?!?!

#SkautfoldIntoTheFray