Scarf is a visually stunning 3D puzzle-platformer and adventure game developed by Uprising Studio and published by THQ Nordic. It follows Hyke, a magical spirit, as he and his polymorphic scarf solve various puzzles, help other lost souls in their quest to meld with nature, and learn what it means to be a hero. This is the story blurb found in Scarf's marketing materials and that's important to clarify because very little of that is made clear whilst playing the game.
What is clear, however, is how fun Scarf is to play and explore. Uprising Studio utilized Unreal Engine 4 to create beautifully detailed environments that are saturated with color, radiating with light, and provide a welcomed feeling of peace. Players navigate through Scarf's three worlds by running, jumping, and utilizing their scarf to glide, swing, and double jump. These worlds are inhabited by spirits, including the scarf itself, and each one requires players to find their respective spirits by solving shrine puzzles, environmental puzzles, and mechanical puzzles.
The puzzles are not very hard but are quite clever. One particular section that stood out was in the forest world that required the player to utilize multiple systems in order to succeed. Whilst exploring each world, players can stumble across three different dark orbs called Inks, which reveal a different perspective to the story once enough are collected. Unfortunately, that different perspective becomes quite confusing as one would often forget there's a story at all.
Scarf is largely wordless, relying on physical expression to tell its story but whenever an ink is collected or a specific cutscene occurs, narration suddenly cuts in. It's clear that the information being delivered in these moments is intended to build off what the player pieces together, but there's not much that allows the player to do so. The little bit of story that can be pieced together is at odds with the story that it markets and a spoiler-free example of this occurs within the gameplay loop itself.
The opening narration talks about a Mother spirit being torn to shreds by other spirits for its power and the scarf's quest is to take that power back. As players are about to enter the first world, a moment plays out where the scarf morphs into a sinister claw and seems to drain a spirit of its energy and then Hyke just moves along like nothing ever happened. This scene plays out at the end of each area, and it feels strange and out of character every time - especially given that Hyke is supposed to "learn what it means to be a hero."
Even as the final moments occurred, which also felt like it came out of nowhere, it didn't feel like the player was a hero. Given the wonderful mechanics, design, personality, and narrative intentions of Scarf, the confusing storytelling is unfortunate but, thankfully, doesn't make the game any less enjoyable. While it's never fun to push story to the sidelines, doing so will let players get lost in Scarf's beautiful worlds and have an absolute blast during its short but sweet playtime.
Scarf will be available on December 23 for PC. Screen Rant was provided with a Steam download code for the purpose of this review.