Game Review: Scarred

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: PC (Steam)

I've been very lucky this year as several horror-themed games with unique settings have come my way. I previously reviewed Paper Ghost Stories: Third Eye Open that takes place in Malaysia, and I also reviewed The DreadOut Collection which takes place in Indonesia. The game we're going to be looking at comes to us by way of a one-man development team known as KOEX Studio, and it's called Scarred. Going along with the theme of unique settings, Scarred takes place in Singapore. It's currently only available on PC via Steam, and we're going to see if this game is worth this long-winded intro. There's a lot to go over here, so let's dive right in!

Scarred places you into the role of Alan, a Singaporean student who is haunted by the recent disappearance of his friend Olivia. Olivia and Alan have known each other since they were very young, and recently reconnected when they began attending the same high school. Needless to say that her disappearance weighs heavily on him, and the consequences of that disappearance are what make up the core plot of the game. Since things start post disappearance, it makes sense that it takes a while to really know what's going on. Much of the past is told through flashbacks, but we come to learn that Olivia's life wasn't too pleasant, either at school or at home. Not only that, but she may even have been caught in comprising situations by a friend of both her and Alan's, named Calvin. Calvin completes the main character trio, and the game actually opens with you playing as him. I don't want to give away too much more of the plot, but the game mostly takes place in a dream world where Alan must unravel the mystery of what happened to Olivia in locales that are twisted versions of the real world. There are a lot of questions to be answered regarding what brought about the current situation, and it just might be that you and your friends might even have had a hand in what happened to Olivia. At the very least, the implication is that you may not have done enough to stop it. I'll circle back around to the story later on in the review, as I want to take a break to discuss gameplay for a bit.

At its core Scarred is a first-person walking simulator that also features some light survival horror gameplay elements. The game is separated into three chapters, and you'll mostly be following a set path to the end of each of them. There is some amount of exploration here and there, as well as plenty of hidden items and secrets to find, but this is a very straightforward game that doesn't have too many alternate paths to the end. This may seem like a negative, but it means that the story can take a more central role since you’ll usually be guided to the next relevant plot point. I'm of the mind that Scarred operates best when exploration is the only task at hand. Unfortunately for us, that's not always the case.

I mentioned survival horror elements just a bit ago, and this comes in the form of inventory puzzles and combat. Puzzles work as you'd expect, though there are some math-based ones that can be a bit tricky. Other than those, most puzzles only require the use of a particular item, with finding said item being the main part of the actual "puzzle". Puzzles are all fine and good, but the issues arise in Scarred's approach to combat. Combat works by tossing around a basketball, and it's most definitely the weakest aspect of the game. The aiming of the ball never feels very precise, and the ball constantly seems to be glitching. I'm actually not sure if the glitchy basketball is meant to be an effect, but it was constantly bouncing in Alan's hand in a weird way. If the ball were just used for the occasional puzzle solutions that would be fine, but Scarred decides to throw in enemies and bosses about a third of the way in. I can only imagine that these were added in an attempt to keep the game interesting, but they made an already buggy game feel broken.

That's another thing that I haven't mentioned yet: Scarred is also a buggy mess. I don't want to be too harsh since it is the work of a sole developer, but there were several moments where I found it to be unplayable. I got this game pre-launch, and I was only able to review it weeks later since I had to wait for patches to fix the issues I had. Most of these issues had to do with some insanely hard boss battles, but the game also crashed on me several times too. Considering the game can be beaten in well under five hours, the fact that I even experienced one crash is rather noteworthy, let along the five or so that I counted. I even managed to fall through the floor more than once, with quitting out of the game being the only way to fix that error. Combat basically takes everything wrong with the game and ramps it up to eleven. It's not even complicated or anything like that, it just doesn't work very well. I'd have loved the game far more if it was simply a walking simulator with adventure game elements, but I guess the combat is just something you're going to have to deal with if you want to play the game.

There are things I liked about Scarred, graphics and visuals being chief amongst them. Not only is the game sharp and detailed, but there are several small touches that make the world feel real. Speaking of which, the setting itself is enough to make this game worth playing on its own. It's rare that you see games set in Singapore, and I loved seeing the small cultural touches that came along with that. Part of me wishes I wasn't seeing the cultural bits in a horror game, but they worked well enough that I came to forgive many of the game's other issues. Going back to the graphics, these might've actually been the reason why the game crashed so much. I have a pretty decent PC setup, but the game would take literal minutes to load, and didn't seem very optimized. Things worked fairly well once they were loaded in though (excusing the crashes of course), so I found that I couldn't complain all that much. Similarly, there's some really good lighting effects too, which is important in a game as dark as this one is. The visuals may not be AAA quality, but they do make this a surprisingly impressive game to look at.

Sadly sound is a far more mixed bag than graphics, as all aspects of it seem to fall into the "just okay" category. I'm not totally convinced that Scarred even has a lot of music, at the very least nothing that ever caused me to notice it. There were some creepy atmospheric bits here and there, and the occasional jump scare sting, but nothing that made me think that the sound was adding to the overall experience. Surprisingly the game is fully voiced in English, though it's not of the best quality. I can only assume that the cast is made up of non-native English speakers, since the line delivery seems all over the place. There's also mixing issues that occasionally make it hard to even hear what is going on half the time, though you can of course mess around with settings to try to fix those at the very least. I guess I should applaud a game this small going for full voice acting, but it really did take me out of the game more than once. At the very least it brought about some unintentionally funny moments, and I came to appreciate it by the end of the game.

I actually don't know what else to say about Scarred. It's a short game that felt unfinished at launch, and seems to be only be in a truly playable state now. Having said that I did find it to be a good game despite its flaws, and it has a price point that can't be beat. Short or now, $7.99 is an absolute steal. I also liked the places the game went with its plot and story, even though I did find some of the writing and plot twists to be a bit on the predictable side. Once you get a grasp on who is who, and what their relationships are to each other, you'll probably have everything figured out without the game having to tell you. I like to compare playing shorter games to watching a movie, and I think that comparison works perfectly here. If you take out the wonky combat (which very nearly ruins an otherwise good game), you have a story that works better as an atmospheric horror tale, than a survival horror game. It may need a bit of work in the writing department too, but Scarred ultimately proved to be a very entertaining experience. I don't know if I should use the word "entertaining" to describe a game that involves dark topics like bullying, and all sorts of violence, but I think you get what I'm trying to say.

If I had written this review as soon as I got my hands on the game, I probably would've told everyone to stay far away from Scarred. Now that I've had time to sit with it, and to wait for those game-fixing updates to drop, I can now say that it's worth checking out for fans of horror-themed walking simulators. I wouldn't go so far to recommend it to survival horror purists, but it might be entertaining to that crowd too. It's still far from perfect, and sadly marred by bugs and crashes, but I think it's worth checking out now that many of the bigger issues have been addressed. I do hope that more updates come though, as I'd love to see it in an even more playable state than it is now. I'm also interested in what the developer has up their sleeve next, but I guess we'll have to wait to find out. Until then, see you in the next one!

Check Out Scarred on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2447100/Scarred/

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

Overall: B

Pros:
+ A horror-themed game that not only has a unique setting (Singapore), but also a story that's interesting and dark.
+ The core concept, and the entire first chapter of the game, is decently written and paced, to the point where it almost feels like a movie.
+ Some of the puzzles are actual head-scratchers, and there's even an in-game gacha mechanic for those who dig that sort of thing.
+ Though admittedly not up to AAA standards, the graphics are quite impressive, and the level of detail is truly amazing.
+ Fully voiced in English, and is also pretty replayable thanks to plenty of hidden secrets scattered throughout.
+ Feels like a steal at just $7.99

+/- I can't find it in myself to be too hard on this game since it's the work of a single developer.

Cons:
- Combat is easily the worst aspect of the game. It's buggy and broken, and it makes me wish that the game went the pure walking simulator route.
- While effort has been made to fix the bigger bugs and gameplay issues, the game is still quite buggy. I experienced several game-ending bugs, and more than a few crashes.
- Most inventory puzzles are extremely simple, and the game is also quite linear.
- Pretty short overall, and can easily be fully completed in five hours or less.

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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The game literally says that this is Olivia's favorite gesture. I love it.

#Scarred