During the first playtest on Steam, the new MMORPG Scars of Honor mainly showed one thing: The developers have a lot of work ahead of them. MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz hopes for a postponement of the early access launch.
My wish for a new MMORPG is actually very simple: An experience like in WoW Classic, but in a different setting/universe, with modern technology, and please eliminate the beginner mistakes that Blizzard made back then, especially in class and gear design. Also, a few unique ideas that sensibly expand the fun of the past would be nice. That would actually be enough for me.
Scars of Honor could at least partially go in this direction. There are many parallels to WoW, such as the two opposing factions, the visual comic style, the theme park offering of dungeons, quests, arenas, and battlegrounds, as well as some familiar races and classes.
However, Scars of Honor also has its own approaches, such as the scar cards that are supposed to impact abilities and playstyle, or the extensive talent trees that resemble Path of Exile. Before the test, my anticipation was therefore at an all-time high.
First Playtest Damps Anticipation
After several hours in the playtest on Steam, however, my anticipation is noticeably dampened. Despite the apparent potential, it creaks at every corner so much that I would urgently advise the developers against an early access launch this year.
This starts with the quests in the playable region of Ondall’s Fall. Many are buggy and cannot be accepted or completed. Aside from the typical kill, collect, and deliver tasks, there is also (still?) a lack of highlights that are memorable… and of rewards that motivate.
Experience points gained during gameplay are the most impactful, rewarding level-ups and additional points for the talent tree. However, I have not yet unlocked scar cards for example. Is this a bug or intentional? Hard to say in the current state of Scars of Honor…
Equipment upgrades have been hardly present. The only thing I could craft was a few weapons at the forge. Cool: If you master the rather simple forge mini-game, you receive a blade of higher quality. It’s a pity that the ranger (with whom I spent most of the time in the alpha) couldn’t use the epic sword.
Since the first healing potions and life-regenerating buff food only landed in my inventory after a few hours, battles with the alpha characters played out rather slowly for a long time. By the way…
It Lacks Weight and Depth
I tried both the paladin and the druid besides the ranger. For all classes, I see a solid foundation for interesting builds, and I like many of the attack effects – for example, when a druid summons a tree or when a ground area is suddenly filled with hindering vines.
Currently, however, the battles suffer from two major issues. First, there is a lack of hit feedback and weight. The abilities lack impact. At the same time, the character still feels noticeably rough to control. Second, while the talent trees are large, they do not yet fulfill the promise of exciting choices. They are packed with passive bonuses and hardly influence the playstyle of the class.
In the alpha, every PvE battle reveals itself as a tedious race of damage and healing: Who will fall first? It doesn’t help that enemies lose aggro when kiting with the ranger and heal themselves completely as a result. Or when targeting the right enemies doesn’t work as intended. Or when ability effects are buggy. Or… you get what I’m getting at: There is still a lot of fine-tuning needed.
More than once, the rapid respawn drove me away, as two enemies can be very dangerous at once. It is probably best to travel through Scars of Honor as a duo or trio – with one specializing in healing. This way, quests that require defeating strong monsters that one has no chance against solo can also be accomplished.
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An MMO for Cooperation and Competition
This type of cooperation seems to be designed for Scars of Honor – and not just with regard to combat. One of the first quests, for example, requires gathering wood from specific trees. However, around the camp, there are mainly the large varieties that one can only fell with a group of players. Anyone wanting to tackle the task alone literally has to look for a branch.
For a later comparable task, I was supposed to gather a specific resource. For this, there were significantly more normal resource veins that one can mine alone, but the drop rate at the large resource points was significantly higher. When mining, all participating players must always master the respective mini-game for gathering. This is supposed to hinder the work of bots, but could also quickly annoy many players.
At the beginning, PvP was active everywhere on the alpha servers, by the way. There was no protection zone in this playable region. Anyone encountering players from the opposing faction had to be prepared for an attack at any time. The lead developer himself had to experience how frustrating this can be when he was truly ganked by alpha testers during his stream.
Initially, he threatened with bans and switching to Godmode, later the developers added the option to activate or deactivate PvP for one’s character on the servers available up to that point. Fans of mandatory open PvP were then given an extra alpha server without this option.
Many Questions Remain Open
On May 6, 2026, I was able to check out a freshly unlocked PvP battleground, where two teams fight over souls that must be taken to specific control areas to generate points. Cool: Everyone starts with comparable gear in the match. You can find upgrades in chests on the map. However, when a character dies, they also drop items, allowing enemies to take them.
What sounds like fun PvP rounds in theory was practically unplayable in the alpha. The lags were so severe that my ranger mostly did nothing, even though I was hammering on the keys like crazy. Several actions were executed only after respawn, causing my character to take significant damage in the resurrection zone, even though there were no enemies around.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how PvP plays when performance is up to par. Nor do I know how the procedurally generated dungeons of Scars of Honor play. How the developers plan to accompany and promote faction warfare in the open world. In what form one has an influence on the world through their quest progress (which is part of the developers’ promises).
In other words: I haven’t seen much of Scars of Honor yet, and what I was able to play still felt noticeably unfinished. I strongly doubt that enough progress can be made in the coming months to launch an early access version at the end of 2026 that will not immediately backfire on the developers. Overall, I agree with Entenburg’s assessment, who reports similar experiences in his video: German YouTuber for MMORPGs plays Scars of Honor for the first time, his conclusion is unlikely to please the devs
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