Scythe X is basically two more episodes of Scythe II.
That’s it. That’s the whole review. Thanks for coming, everybody.
Alright, alright…
Erik Alm made his triumphant return in 2009 with a quick one-two punch: the Scythe II re-release and the first release of Scythe X. It was a smart marketing move — filling out the famously empty three mapslots in Scythe II to reinvigorate interest in the series, and then jumping right into what were supposed to be episodic releases of the next WAD.
Except that’s not what happened. We got the first two episodes of Scythe X at once — ten maps in total — and then never heard from Alm again.
It’s almost certain at this point that Scythe X will never be finished. What we have is still worth playing, though. And given how Alm has repeatedly fumbled the endings of his Scythe WADs, Scythe X being only a beginning isn’t altogether a bad thing. Instead, we’ve got a small collection of first-half-of-a-megaWAD type maps, and that’s exactly what Erik Alm excels at.
Everything you need to know about these kinds of maps… I’ve already written when I covered Scythe and Scythe II. Scythe X plays exactly like the first three episodes of Scythe II, with all the fast-paced, interconnected, trap-laden gameplay he’s known for. You can tell an Erik Alm map when you play one, and these are Erik Alm maps to the core.
I do wish he had chosen a more interesting theme for the first episode than “boring grey techbase with occasional colored lighting.” It’s the least-compelling episode over the course of the series from a visual standpoint, but all the gameplay is still there. The second episode is a significant improvement, but has so many elements in common with the first one that they might as well have been a single 10-map episode.
Alm hits his stride in the seventh and eighth maps, which represent some of the best stuff he’s ever put out. Who knows whether he would have continued to improve from there on out or whether Scythe X would have buckled under its own weight like the two Scythes. Ultimately, the ten maps here show off Alm’s mapping style at some of its most refined, even though the visuals leave a lot to be desired. You could play this right after those overwrought, out-of-control final episodes of Scythe II, and it would probably be a nice palette cleanser to remind you why you loved Erik Alm in the first place.
Scythe X is a trip to a simpler, cozier place. If nothing else, it’s a perfect capstone for the series — even in its unfinished state, or maybe because of its unfinished state. The world may never know.
Scythe X requires DOOM2.WAD and runs on limit-removing ports. If you’re not sure how to get it running, this may help. And for more awesome WADs, be sure to check these out!