Video Games
Survive Bullet Hell in Hellish FPS ‘Scathe’ for PC, Consoles [Trailer]
If you’re looking to blow through Hell itself in a bullet hell shooter, then Kwalee’s upcoming FPS Scathe is just the thing. With an impending release later this year on consoles and PC via Steam, Kwalee will also have a time-limited demo of Scathe available later this week during Steam Next Fest.
Scathe casts you as the eponymous protagonist, the Enforcer of the Legions of Hell. You’ve got to prove your worth by navigating the maze of Hell, collect the Hellstones to escape, and handing out punishment to the demonic evils within.
It’s not as straightforward as you might expect, as you’ll be having to constantly dodge and weave past barrages of enemy fire while dishing out your own. Luckily, you’ll have quite the arsenal to be doing that, with each weapon having its own secondary fire.
And in case you need backup, Scathe also supports drop-in/drop-out multiplayer with crossplay. You can have up to three friends join you in the fight, though to make things a little more interesting, everyone shares the same pool of lives.
Steam Next Fest runs from February 21 to the 28.
Overshadowing the announcement of Ninja Theory’s third entry in the Hellblade series earlier this month were reports that the developer was facing possible closure by Microsoft, alongside South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games and Double Fine. Now according to a new story by GamesBeat, another developer under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella is potentially facing closure in Undead Labs, who are currently working on State of Decay 3.
Earlier this month, new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had announced that Microsoft was in the process of ‘resetting’ Xbox. That resulted in a report by Bloomberg during Summer Game Fest that revealed that multiple developers were negotiating with Microsoft to spin off of Xbox to avoid closing down. Now, according to the GamesBeat report, Undead Labs is now part of that group of developers negotiating to be bought to avoid layoffs.
The article states that Undead Labs could lose 110 jobs if it were shut down, while Compulsion could lose 90 jobs, Ninja Theory could lose 135 jobs, and Double Fine Productions could lose 100 jobs.
Other developers and publishers at Microsoft also reportedly face cuts, including Blizzard, id Software and Bethesda.
Undead Labs was acquired by Microsoft back in 2018, with State of Decay 3 being announced in 2020. News on the development of the game was quiet until 2024, when a new trailer was released. Updates on the game again were hard to come by until last January when then-Xbox Game Studios lead Craig Duncan revealed that development was still very much alive. That was followed up this month with an official announcement that State of Decay 3 would be coming next year to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store.