Scathe

Scathe has everything you can expect from a DOOM/DOOM Eternal emulator, but it has several structural flaws that make it a hellish FPS in which you shoot well but you don't have much fun.

Scathe falls short on every single count, making it feel more like a chore to play than an actual game.

Scathe is not a total disaster, but it simply has too many flaws to pass enough and become really interesting.

Overall, Scathe is a perfectly adequate shooter. However, it fails in its intended purpose of adequately supporting either a bullet-hell playstyle, or on the flipside, a slow-paced tactically-driven experience. Its current mechanics and balancing make it unclear what demographic the developers are attempting to chase. With a few months of sufficient patching and overhauling, it’s possible that Scathe could transform into one of the best Doom-esque indie FPS games currently on the market. For now, it’s definitely worthy of being added to one's wishlist. Whether it's worth purchasing outright, however, is a question worthy of far more doubt.

Scathe is definitely not flawless. The bosses aren’t great, optimization could use some work, and the music, while good, lacks variety. But traversing the infernal labyrinth and slaughtering dozens of demons is good fun, the guns feel satisfying to use, and the game definitely knows how to keep you on your toes.

Scathe is a serviceable shooter with a few nice touches, but there's little to set it apart from other Doom-likes.

I appreciate what Scathe was clearly aspiring to be, but it doesn’t reach those aspirations. Its sprawling, directionless levels were no substitute for a more tailored experience with a difficulty curve and intended order of obtaining new weapons and spells. Flooding the stages with enemies and hazards that appear out of thin air felt unfair more often than not, and the lives system and scarce health pick-ups only slowed down what is intended to be a fast-paced experience. If you enjoy DOOM and FPS’s inspired by it and want to play it co-op with your friends, there is some enjoyment to be had, but there are better-designed co-op shooters on the market that are more deserving your time.

Scathe is a good first-person shooter for anyone who loves the genre and appreciates a challenge. The story is good enough and the combat feels visceral. Moving through the same rooms can become repetitive but the FPS mechanics are good enough to keep players engaged. I would have liked for the game to offer at least another difficulty level. Frustration can also appear if the re-spawn puts the player in the middle of a big fight, with no way out. But, overall, Scathe understands what makes an FPS tick and adds enough new ideas to keep fans engaged.