Scorpion: Disfigured (PC) - Reviews

(4.2)

6 reviews

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For Scorpion: Disfigured (PC), 6 customer reviews collected from 1 e-commerce sites, and the average score is 4.2.

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9.1.2011

The short version:Excellent game engine provides interesting environments, atmospheric graphics and good sound effects. Upgradable weapons and special abilities provide a wide variety of approaches to any given situation. There are also some very novel RPG-esque features such as gaining experience which can be spent on many different upgrades. Enemy AI is also worthy of praise. However, the game is let down by barely any story, a complete and utter lack of any background information whatsoever and very slow pacing compared to some other shooters. All in all this game is worth persevering with if you are able to force yourself past some frustrating design concepts. WARNING - This game has no multiplayer modes at all.None. Strictly single player only.The longer version:I'd never heard of this game until I saw it advertised for a very cheap price on Impulse & decided to give it a go. I've no idea what engine the game runs on but the graphics and environments remind me a lot of Unreal Tournament 3 so it's quite possible that it runs on Unreal tech. In any case, the graphics and special effects look very nice on even a moderate system such as mine (Athlon 5200+ XP-64 dual core, 2gb PC667 RAM, Nvidia FX8600 with 256MB of video RAM running at 1440x900 with all settings at maximum). The frame rate remains rock solid even during heavy combat so qudos to the design team for a well developed game. I've also not noticed any bugs at all which is somewhat unusual for a game these days.The in-game environments tend to be of a somewhat simmilar nature though they're all well textured with plenty of design detail. Water, gas, smoke and fog are all very nicely rendered. I should mention that the sound effects and music are also quite atmospheric and add to the immersive experience.Enemy AI is some of the best I've seen in a recent FPS game. I like that different sorts of enemies have completely different behaviour - a typical zombie / muntant worker type enemy will shamble or run towards you bent on nothing more sophisticated than beating you to death. In sharp contrast highly trained enemy soldiers will work together, try to flank you, use grenades intelligently and are really quite smart. Enemy soldiers will also communicate verbally with each other in a simmilar way to Half-Life, which not only gives you some idea of what tactics they're employing but also adds nicely to the immersion.So why only 3 stars? Well, though the game is very well presented and offers good quality graphics, sound and enemy AI, the developers made some highly questionable design decissions. In a simmilar way to an RPG, you earn experience for killing enemies. When you level-up you get the opportunity to enhance a weapon or ability of your choice. Though a novel idea for a shooter, this system actually works for the most part, and allows you to specialise in your favourite weapons and abilities. However, the developers obviously fell in to the same trap that just about every RPG game suffers from: at the start of the game you are meaningless. You are abysmal with each and every weapon. Your abilities are pitiful at best. Hitting a target 5 feet away from you is a serious challenge with any weapon. Yes, you do get better quite quickly, but being totally unable to hit an enemy more than 5 feert away from you really doesn't conform to the idea of you being some sort of super soldier with an all-singing, all-dancing wonder-suit.Additionally, ammunition tends to be in extremely short supply. The meaningless innaccuracy of many of the weapons really doesn't help. The only saving grace here is that the wide range of suit and psyonic abilities available to you do offer a wide range of solutions to any given situation. This genuinely does add variety to the game and provides a whole extra dimension of play over and above mindlessly shooting everything that moves.Furthermore, I found that the environmental design to be highly questionable in some cases. Apparently all water in the game is massively corrosive. Stand in a puddle or run through some steam and watch your health disappear rapidly. There's no explanation for any of this either.I was also left massively confused by the complete and utter lack of any background information about who you are, what the state of the world is, why you're doing what you're doing or who anyone else is. You have a commerade somewhere who provides some helpful hints via a radio link, but I had no idea at all about who they were, where I was, why I was there or any detail whatsoever regarding the basic story of the game. Even an intro movie would have gone a long way to explaining things.Finally, I was frustrated by the slow pacing of the game. Your character walks slowly. You run slowly. You have very little idea about who you are, what you're supposed to be doing or why. Combat is fairly frequent but especially in the early stages of the game provides only temporary diversion from frustratingly wandering around some nameless facility doing... Something. The pacing of the game felt really quite slow, particularly at the start.I should also mention that Scorpion - Disfigured is strictly single player only. There are no multiplayer features at all. This didn't bother me much but I suspect it may turn away many buyers.From what I've written you may get the impression that this game's an utter disaster. In all fairness it isn't. If you can adjust your expectations down from the frantic action of Unreal Tournament or Call of Duty to a more tactical and thoughtful take on an FPS game, and if you can force yourself past the frustrating weapon accuracy idea and total lack of any background story, then the game does become genuinely compelling and provides a very worthwhile experience. If i'd bought this at full retail price I would have been disgusted, but it's available so cheaply now either here on Amazon or via Impulse that I do recommend it as providing a fairly decent experience and good value for money.