Scar-Lead Salvation review

With franchises like Hyperdimension Neptunia, Mary Skelter, and Death end, Compile Heart is best known for its turn-based offerings. However, having co-developed spin-offs like Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed and Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online, the publisher has occasionally dabbled with real-time action.

Drawing on his experience at Taito, producer Hiroshi Aoki sought to broaden Compile Heart’s portfolio with some fast-paced gunplay. While Scar-Lead Salvation isn’t refined or unique enough to fully justify the shift, it delivers just enough satisfaction to make a follow-up worth considering. Still, there are numerous concepts here that beg for improvement.

A Different Target

Inevitably, Scar-Lead Salvation will get labeled as an “anime Returnal,” thanks to its third-person perspective, sheer volume of projectiles on-screen, and attractive lead. But that’s a reductive comparison. Housemarque’s title is punishing by design, demanding unflinching skill and honed precision. Salvation, by contrast, is far more lenient. Enemies often won’t react unless you draw near or initiate combat. At times, you can sprint past them entirely, which is an odd oversight that undercuts the sense of tension.

That said, as someone who has enjoyed clunky, cover-based third-person shooters like WinBack and Kill Switch, I found Salvation’s gunplay to have a certain old-school charm. There’s a definite satisfaction in storming into a room, prioritizing targets, and navigating chaotic crossfire. While the repetitive room layouts and limited enemy variety dull the experience, moments where you’re forced to adapt under pressure hint at deeper ambition. In later stages, the game finds its footing, as you dash madly between cover, searching for a moment to unload a magazine into your target.

Not Quite Enough Bang for 60 Bucks

While Scar-Lead Salvation embraces many of the mechanics of tactical shooters, the game never fully commits. Weapon variety is modest at best. While you can acquire new firearms and customize loadouts, most guns feel similar, especially the assault rifles, which blur together in terms of fire rate and feedback. Shotguns, meanwhile, can feel oddly underpowered.

The inclusion of aim-lock is a welcome touch for controller users, but shots rarely carry the impact needed to make combat feel weighty. You can spend in-game currency on upgrades, but these mostly offer basic stat boosts rather than meaningful enhancements that change the way a weapon feels or functions.

Storytelling Isn’t a Bullseye

Visually, Scar-Lead is a mixed bag. The procedurally generated environments can be bland and repetitive, but protagonist Willow is well-designed with form-fitting armor and a perpetually swinging crimson ponytail. One of the game’s selling points was damage-reflective clothing, a unique twist on the traditional health meter. Originally, Willow was meant to lose layers of clothing as she took damage, a spirited concept consistent with Compile Heart’s past. But in today’s prudish climate, this mechanic was watered down. Instead of fighting in her underwear only a few pieces fall off, diminishing the impact. I miss the old Compile Heart, unafraid to lean into its pervy eccentricities.

Occasionally, the banter between the amnesiac Willow and her AI companion transcends cliché. The overarching plot about a fight to reclaim a lost future is intriguing in theory, and the dialogue between the two protagonists has its moments. But the strategically ambiguous AI trope grows stale quickly. Yes, we get it: AI lacks human spontaneity. It’s a fair message, but one that’s hammered home at the expense of actual exposition. Key story beats are revealed at a glacial pace, making the journey feel more drawn out than it needs to be.

Decent, If Imperfect, Performance

When it comes to performance, Scar-Lead Salvation runs decently but doesn’t impress. Built in Unity, the game maintains a mostly stable frame rate but can stutter on Steam Deck when the screen fills with enemy fire. Lengthy hallway transitions mask loading times, but they become monotonous before long. On the upside, the soundtrack fares much better, combining pulse-pounding synths with melancholic piano melodies that underscore the action. When it comes to voice acting, the Japanese audio track delivers more emotional depth than the English dub, which occasionally feels flat.

Scar-Lead Salvation doesn’t quite achieve the redemption it strives for. It’s a bold experiment for Compile Heart, a studio more comfortable with menus than firefights. And yet, there are glimmers of promise, like moments when you’re dashing between bullet storms and lining up a finishing shot. It’s here that you’ll see what Salvation might have been.

Scar-Lead Salvation was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.