Sker Ritual, the tried and true of a horror-toned wave shooter
Sker Ritual
In your opinion, what is the perfect sequel to an Amnesia-style survival horror? Bravi, a cooperative wave shooter. Were you thinking of something different? Be that as it may, this is what happened to the horror Maid of Sker, which has as its spiritual heir a classic shooter that cannot be more classic. At least this is what can be deduced from the Sker Ritual trial, in which the blood is a lot, but the horror is very little.Little to do
You shoot a lot but you frighten little The demo is quite limited in terms of content, since it allows you to play a single map, on which you have to limit yourself to resist as much as possible the waves of growing strength of Quiet Men, the enemies of the game already seen in Maid of Sker (but there are new entries). At the beginning you will have to face only the slower and weaker ones, capable of hitting only at close range and not very dangerous, but wave after wave will be introduced stronger and more threatening, such as beasts particularly resistant to blows, or others that will launch fireballs and explode when killed or others with diving helmets that will fire bursts of energy. There are also the classic bosses, bigger and more resistant enemies.It should be specified that the amount of enemies is modulated according to the number of players deployed in battle (maximum four). Speaking of weapons, at first you will only have a gun and a knife, but by accumulating money, which is obtained by killing enemies, you will be able to buy extra weapons from a stall in the play area.
After a few waves you will also begin to obtain miracles, that is special powers, such as poisonous bombs or fire bullets, more or less powerful depending on the rarity level of the miracle. Most of these are passive effects related to weapons. In addition, other momentary bonuses, such as shields or power-ups, can drop from the corpses of enemies, which can be collected during the action. Around the map there are also other distributors, which give health bonuses or which allow you to reload ammunition and Molotov cocktails.
From fear to adrenaline
In the final version we there will be more environments The map we tested is very small. We practically fought in a large room full of entrances along its entire perimeter, from which enemies enter. The latter have not particularly impressed us, since they seem equipped with a truly elementary artificial intelligence. In fact, they just attack the players by shooting straight, which can also be justified by the limited space available. Too bad even opponents with ranged attacks do the same, often ending up hitting their friends.In the end it all becomes a kind of catch-up challenge, but with the shootings, the real focus of the game, which give little satisfaction given the poor feedback of the enemies to the hits suffered. In practice they are simple sponges that absorb more or less bullets and that fall dead when they have run out of energy. They have localized damage, but that's it.
Sker Ritual Little remains to say about the Sker Ritual demo, which we found to be quite limited as a whole. Probably with access to other content and some trusted friends to play with it can also make sense, but in general it seemed an overflying experience. Of course a demo is not enough to give an overall judgment, so we are waiting for the final version because seeing a horror like Maid of Sker have as a sequel, albeit spiritual, a wave shooter makes a certain impression. Much more than Quiet Man.
Sker Ritual is a dubious attempt to break into the genre of cooperative shooters by a development team specializing in horror. As written in the article, perhaps with a greater amount of content it will make a different impression, but on the demo we must be honest and therefore report that it did not surprise us in any aspect. It is the classic game for which it is difficult to find something that justifies it, since it has no original elements and elsewhere it has been seen much better. We'll see when it hits the market.
