Developer: Wales Interactive
Publisher: Wales Interactive
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PC
Sker Ritual – Review
With the constant barrage of new Call of Duty updates and game releases, we always wondered when a standalone CoD: Zombies title would be released. Sadly, up until this day, that has never happened. The Zombies mode was the highlight in some CoD releases, and it was always a blast to play with friends. Even so, it feels like the Zombies mode is now an afterthought in many of the new releases, which is simply a shame. Wales Interactive, however, seemingly saw an opportunity to make their own Zombies-like shooter game by developing Sker Ritual. Wales Interactive was already known for Maid of Sker, which was a more traditional horror experience. Sker Ritual, however, trades in Maid of Sker’s atmospheric horror gameplay for dark and gritty fast-paced shooter gameplay. We were curious to see how well this worked.
Story
Sker Ritual is in essence a wave-based shooter with objectives to clear different levels. The game does have a bit of story value that can be uncovered by collecting letters and other documents, but there isn’t really a big overarching narrative in the foreground. We can imagine most players will gloss over the documents and just focus on the gameplay instead. It would have perhaps been nice to have a more cohesive story, but the gameplay makes up for the lack of an interesting narrative.
Graphics
Sker Ritual looks quite good. The game’s different environments look polished and interesting to explore, even if the assets used are fairly simplistic, and the enemies only come in several different types. The effects look decent as well, and it’s rather satisfying shooting the ghastly creatures that attack you to bits. The weapon designs are very cool, and the game does manage to hit all the right buttons. We would have perhaps loved a few more enemies thrown into the mix, but all in all, the game looks good and performs well.
One thing does deserve a mention, however, and that is the quality of the cinematics. At the start of a run, you’ll see a short cinematic, and no matter what our settings were, this always ended up looking blurry. We were also a bit disappointed that the cinematics didn’t even show our chosen cosmetic upgrades.
Sound
The atmospheric sound design does manage to hit all the right notes, but you won’t be paying too much attention to the music when you’re exploring a level or fending off hordes of enemies. The SFX of the weapons are decent and pack a proper punch. We would have perhaps liked a bit more voice acting sprinkled in between the action, or some banter or interaction between the player characters, but all in all, the sound design is decent.
Gameplay
Sker Ritual is a wave-based shooter with objectives much in the same vein as the Zombies mode in Call of Duty. You’ll basically play through one of the available levels, killing hordes of enemies, uncovering secrets, and completing objectives until you clear the level or meet your untimely demise. The offset is simple and the game is best enjoyed with friends or via online matchmaking. You can play with up to three additional players.
Truth be told, in terms of gameplay, things are really simple. You pick a level, you kill baddies to earn points to buy new weapons or unlock doors, and do your best to survive. As you progress, you also gain so-called Miracle Points that grant you some additional skills and abilities. These abilities are cooldown-based and give you an extra edge during the ever-increasing magnitude of the waves of enemies. The gameplay loop is simple but satisfying and rewarding. A round can take up to an hour, so you’ll have to keep that in mind.
At the end of a run, you are rewarded with experience points that unlock some additional cosmetics and stat points that you can invest in passive upgrades. These upgrades could have been fleshed out a bit more, but they still give you a goal to work towards together with the cosmetic unlocks. The cosmetic upgrades don’t offer that many interesting items, but it will take you quite some time to unlock everything the game offers.
As a whole, the gunplay in Sker Ritual is very satisfying. The game does offer a lot of fairly traditional weapons you can purchase during your runs, but there are also a few very unique ones that are fun to mess around with. At all times, you can own up to two different guns, which can be upgraded with the points you get from killing enemies. You can replace guns by buying new ones. Fun gunplay aside, some weapons barely provide any feedback, making them slightly less impressive, and we also noticed that the game does suffer a bit from laggy servers. While the latter never got too bad, we sometimes had moments when quite a few of our shots didn’t connect.
Even though the game is a blast with friends, it does lack a certain depth. This is one of those games that is great for in-between bigger titles, or just a title that’s perfect to revisit now and then for a fun evening with your friends.
Conclusion
Sker Ritual is a fun wave-based shooter that will scratch that Call of Duty: Zombies itch for those looking for a standalone experience. The game hits the right notes when it comes to its overall atmosphere and gunplay but sadly lacks a bit of depth. Unlocking all the cosmetics and trying out all difficulty levels will keep you and your friends occupied for quite some time, but we hope a few more stages are added in the future. That said, if you just want to shoot hordes of enemies to smithereens, we suggest picking this one up.
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