New FPS Game Scathe Announced

gamerant.com:

As the gap between indie games and AAA releases gets smaller, plenty of small development teams are seeing their work being backed by large publishers and released on official platforms. The latest example of this is Scathe, a first-person shooter with an emphasis on difficulty, speed, and bullet hell mechanics.

Scathe is developed in the UK by Damage State, a team made up of only three ex-AAA game developers. However, it manages to showcase impressive graphics and tight gameplay in a recent trailer, with a playable demo soon to be released for PC users.

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A spooky and dimly lit backdrop is the setting for Scathe, complimenting the demonic horrors that await brave players. The developers explain that players will take control of Scathe, «Enforcer of the legions of Hell… and [they] must prove your worth by navigating a deviously crafted maze, entangled with demonic evil at every twist and turn.» A combination of platforming, quick thinking, and memorization will be required to dodge the seamless patterns of bullets being fired towards players while using their weaponry to eliminate waves of demons. Thanks to the trailer's reveal of «big guns and even bigger demons,» it offers slick gameplay mechanics for levelling up weaponry like in Deep Rock Galactic.

Bullet hell games are rarely combined with other genres, but Scathe manages to combine the two in a complimentary manner that suits an alternative playstyle similar to on-rail arcade shooters. The adaptive gameplay style is balanced out with heavy artillery that encourages players to explore further, with a range of shotguns, assault rifles, blades, and crossbows that all come with secondary fire attachments.