Sker Ritual is a big shift from the atmospheric stealth horror Maid of Sker that came out a couple of years ago. Designed to be played either solo or in online co-op, Sker Ritual takes the setting and backstory of the original game and completely reimagines the gameplay and atmosphere by making it a wave based FPS with score bonuses, upgrades and even some roguelike aspects. Having spent some time in the Early Access version and tried out the different maps, here’s what I think so far.
Maid of Sker stood out from the indie horror crowd with its innovative historical setting and wonderful sense of atmosphere, largely achieved by how much you had to rely on stealth and avoiding enemies. It was therefore a huge surprise to me when Wales Interactive first announced that they were working on a wave-based shooter in the same world. The distinctive sack-headed enemies and steampunk aspects do make for an effective setting, but the sheer number of enemies thrown at you does make them seem somewhat over-familiar at times – a far cry from the sense of claustrophobia the original evoked.
Whilst the decision to completely change the genre is surprising it does result in a decently enjoyable time, and one that actually has more substance than many other wave based shooters. Each of the different areas (there are four in the current build) has a set of different tasks to complete as an optional approach. Whilst you can focus purely on killing hundreds of enemies and lasting as many waves as you can, the more interesting approach (at least for a more narrative focused gamer like myself) is to work through the list of tasks and access each area’s end boss and exit. These are generally relatively simple, and take the form of either destroying generators and power supplies or guarding a specific zone from enemies as a timer runs down. Bosses are big and take a lot of firepower to take down – at least when playing solo – and it feels pretty good to finish a stage.
Alongside single stage playthroughs there is also an overarching progression system which can unlock new cosmetics as part of the free season pass, as well as improvements to in-game vending machine style power ups that can increase your health or improve your reload speed etc. In an industry dominated by microtransactions it is refreshing to see this just included at no extra cost, so kudos to Wales Interactive there. I only really had a chance to play solo, but will definitely try and get some friends to pick it up for co-op soon.
You start each stage with a simple but relatively powerful pistol and then can buy extra weapons and upgrades with the points you earn from killing enemies. These points are also needed to unlock barriers and doorways to open up more of the level so balancing level progress with weapon upgrades becomes a kind of metagame all of its own. Each wave becomes progressively more intense so rushing through the game too quickly can leave you under-levelled. On the other hand, staying static for too long brings its own risks.
Sker Ritual is a completely unexpected game in almost all regards and that includes how much fun it is. I was fully expecting to find the shift to wave-based shooting a betrayal of everything that made Maid of Sker distinctive and interesting, but the actual experience of Ritual is just simple shooting fun and I found myself enjoying it a lot. I imagine this fun would only be increased in co-op but even solo this is a nice distraction from the huge open worlds and microtransactions of so many other titles. I will definitely hope to get stuck back in when this hits full release and have already mentioned it to my regular co-op buddies.
