For Scars of Honor, the first public playtest is currently taking place on Steam. Participating: the German YouTuber and streamer Entenburg. He is now hoping for a postponement of the early access date.
What does the YouTuber say about Scars of Honor? Simon “Entenburg” Bublitz is one of the largest German content creators in the MMORPG genre (77,200 subscribers and 160+ videos on the YouTube main channel) and streamer (36,681 followers on Twitch), and therefore was also in the ongoing playtest of Scars of Honor on Steam.
In his new video on YouTube, Entenburg summarizes his experiences from the test, and in the first days it was like us: thinking of a proper test was initially out of the question. The performance was at times a disaster. The servers were occasionally unavailable. Some players apparently even lost their characters. Fortunately, at least some of these issues improved over the course of the test.
Aside from the technical problems, according to Entenburg, the state of Scars of Honor during the playtest only leads to one conclusion: it must be a very early alpha version. This in itself is not a problem. It only becomes a problem because the early access launch is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026. Developing a game that is as finished and enjoyable as possible from the current version of the MMORPG in just a few months is simply not feasible.
Chief developer falls for their own PvP system
What are the biggest issues? While Entenburg appreciates the stylized comic style with its vivid colors, he criticizes the feeling of movement and the action-packed tab-targeting combat. These still feel very underdeveloped and stiff. The various abilities have little weight. Some effects and abilities seem to be functioning incorrectly, making builds not really playable.
Moreover, the YouTuber is disappointed with the talent trees of the classes, which, although large, still lack exciting choices. There is a lack of depth, and it is currently hardly possible to significantly alter the playstyle of each class or certain abilities in interesting ways. Instead, there are very many passive bonuses for various stats or cooldown reductions.
According to Entenburg, another problem is the lack of refinement in all areas: sometimes quests were not available or did not work. Sometimes NPCs were invisible. Enemies quickly lose aggro when kiting with the hunter, allowing them to heal up completely. PvP enemies are not clearly highlighted as opponents. And so on.
Here you can watch Entenburg’s new video:
Initially, PvP was active everywhere in the world, which led, among other things, to the chief developer being repeatedly ganked by testers in his stream. There were no PvP-free safe zones. The developers’ quick solution: there is now a command to enable or disable PvP. Whether that will stay forever is unclear.
Amidst all this, according to Entenburg, it should not be forgotten that we have only seen a small slice of the game during the playtest, namely just one region and only some of the planned classes. How far all the missing content is likely to be if the features currently presented to the public appear so unfinished?
What is the danger? The developers of Scars of Honor can still decide to launch an incomplete alpha version in early access at the end of 2026. However, Entenburg sees a great risk here.
Players remember the first impression. Unfortunately, that’s just how it is. When you go public for the first time and reveal yourself to your primary target audience, the first impression matters. It sticks. […] Rarely can an MMO or a game recover from a rushed release like No Man’s Sky or Cyberpunk has.
In the MMORPG sector, such turnarounds are even rarer, yet there are many negative examples, such as New World, which had almost a million players on its servers at launch, only to lose the majority permanently due to numerous issues.
According to Entenburg’s assessment, they shouldn’t even have engaged in the playtest in its current form. A focus group test with a confidentiality clause, as is currently common with various competitors, would have been more effective given the state of the game.
His suspicion: perhaps there is pressure from investors pushing for public tests and the early access launch. This is also reflected in how the developers have recently promoted Scars of Honor with streams, interviews, giveaways, and more.
Finally, Entenburg explains that he does not anticipate a second Ashes of Creation here, which would drain a lot of money from genre fans, only to ultimately crash. So far, no one has had to pay for test access; the monetization plans presented sound fair, and he believes the developers genuinely want to build a cool game. They just lack experience, and there is a dependency on investors.
The YouTuber now hopes that the early access launch will be significantly postponed due to community feedback. In another MMORPG, exactly that happened after it was invited to a major test on Steam in summer 2025: One of the biggest MMORPG hopes for 2026 is postponed again, not coming this year, and that’s exactly right
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