Scorn Reviews

I have to admit i am a huge sucker for the science fiction horror genre.
This year has some promising releases such as the Dead Space 1 remake, The Callisto Protocol and Scorn. That makes me prone to being disappointed easily because my expectations are through the roof.

Graphics: 4/5
The general art style is highly influenced by the work of H. R. Giger probably most know for the aesthetic you recognize on the "Alien".
The problem here lies between calling this an outright ripoff and applauding the game designers for finally portraying his incredible art through a videogame.
I will leave the judgement up to the reader here and will not factor this into the rating.
The enviourment is really detailed with lots of really interesting structures to stare at for hours. The textures on the ground are not that detailed and sometimes blurry with occasional pop ins.
Some of the later levels reminded me of the Halo 3 level "cortana" which features the gravemind and some striking similarities with fan favourites such as "the butthole".
The level designers should be tasked with developing Flood levels for 343i.

Sound: 5/5
The soundscape is also REALLY well done. The soundtrack is something you would expect while roaming through some god forsaken alien structures.
The music that plays in the final scenes of the game really hit me and also fit the mood perfectly. Haunting and aesthetic at the same time.
The enemy sounds are also really well done. This part of the game really lived up to my expectations.

Gameplay: 2/5
Its below average. There are no tutorials, a confusing hud and the weapon swap mechanics stops the flow of the game to the point where the enemy will kill you.
There are no difficulty settings and just running past enemies also is not punished in any way. You dont know where a chapter starts or ends or when the game saves. Sometimes when i died i had to replay quite alot.
The mechanic of having some device implanted in your deformed arm gets super repetative during the later sections of the game.
All in all it seems like the did not have any real feedback during the making of the actual gameplay. If the game did not have combat i would not have missed it to be honest.

Story: 1/5 to 5/5 depending on your interpretation
This is where the problems really begin.
I can tolerate bad gameplay when the story is great but this is not it.
If you are not really open minded or totally love this genre you will probably stop playing this game pretty quick.
There really is no story at all. There is a conclusion at the end which will satisfy maybe 5% of the playerbase at best.
I cant really write much here without some gameplay spoilers... So i would advise you to just try the Game since its on Gamepass if the above points i made resonate with you.

!!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!!











The story is a huge exercise in futility. You basically just roam around the scenery without any knowledge at all. And there are no clues to whatever your objective is. There are no collectables that tell a hidden story.
There are a bunch of games which end with the character dying but this one manages to leave you completly apathetic.
This might might sense from a metaphorical view since there are themes of remote viewing (Controlling another character from outside his body).
This theme would have made alot more sense if there are multiple endings which the game really feels like but instead of this it only offers you literally the worst imaginable ending.
This might make sense if the developers want to portray a nihilistic view on life where in the end nothing really matters. This trope kinda works with this game since it has such a gloomy setting. It would have made alot more impact if you could build some form of connection with the character.

In the end you are basically left with nothing.
You solved a bunch of puzzles just to die right before seemingly reaching your destination. But the game excels at delivering a haunting feeling of hopelessness.
Sadly due to the game being pretty short and there being no different endings or collectables there is close to no replay value.

While deciding my final rating of the game i am baffled how a game can simultaniously be so incredibly captivating but also so shallow gameplay wise.

It still is a one of a kind experience that will leave you speechless in the end, thats why it still gets a 4/5 or 8/10.

Introduction

Scorn, a word that perfectly conveys the mood of Ebb Software's successful attempt at a horror puzzler. Recommended playing time, without a doubt, post sunset. This is dark material, ya feel me.


Story

What is even the story in Scorn? Any solid character growth, a typical hero's journey? Not really. At the end of this alienating experience, it is up to the player to decide what to make of it, which seems to be an intended purpose. Reminiscent of the movie Stalker, the viewer's final impressions will be subjective. You could refer to the title, in an attempt to decypher the outcome of the plot, but you'll need to make up your own mind, which will be a bit more damned after the credits roll.

Presentation, Image and Sound

Journey into H. R. Giger's universe as you wake up and find yourself in a space that looks exactly like the alien hive we know so well from Ridley Scott's Alien movie franchise. This game has character, albeit gross.

We're talking eerie, dark and twisted visuals, menacing and crazy looking environments, from which you'll immediately wish to escape, to never, ever, return to.

The developers adopted the biopunk art style with verve, reflected greatly in the creature design and the many body modifications endured by the protagonist.

Interchangeably trek through tight, damp corridors, triggering suspense and claustrophobia, to then arrive at a more open section where you'll solve familiar puzzles, though at the unique backdrop of grotesque body horror and bloody scenes.

Let me explicate that this game looks great and sick. In more expensive words, next gen graphics and gothic style set pieces from hell. It looks the part. 100%.

The sound design is complementary, everything needed to set the creepy mood, ominous sounds, wet squishy noises and offsetting growls from the critters you encounter. It's super effective.


Gameplay

A very intuitive experience, the game lacks a formal tutorial, however, you can of course refer to the help menu to find the control mapping.

Discovery and exploration are key in this rather short experience, and with a bit of patience, you'll manage to figure out every challenge the game throws at you, enemies or puzzles alike.

The traversal is self explanatory, it is nearly impossible to get stuck or lost.

Overall, it's a lineair affair, with brief instances of backtracking, required after acquiring certain upgrades that you need to unlock spinelike looking doors, vents and gates.

There are weapons in the game, you can kill enemies so to speak, but it's avoidable in most instances. You have four uniquely looking weapons, the reload animations are dope AF, if you will.

Technically, the game runs well, there's no sight of bugs or crashes, controls are responsive.

It is recommended to use the D-pad rather than the Y button to switch weapons. Aside from the short animation I don't see the reason to use Y, especially when under attack.

The game never gets difficult, you may run short on ammo or health pick ups, but those are never essential to reach the end of the game.

The smaller puzzles can get tedious. The goal is always clear, but you may struggle to arrive at the desired solution. A lot of these are familiar puzzles, just dressed in a rotting meat jacket. Use your rational mind and patience, and you'll find they are as simple as water is wet.

The larger puzzles involve a bit of exploration and reward you with cool and gory animations, the outcomes are surprising, even when everything happens in ''threes'', a common trope in gaming.

There's no artificial game lengthening here, your time is respected which is nice and the pacing feels considered and weighed.


Achievements

An easy completion, without looking at a guide, you'll finish with 800/1000, there are two missable achievements in the first act of the game and you can reload Act 1 after finishing the game if you choose Load Game. It's no more than a 2-3 hour completion if you follow a guide.

The achievement art is great, a unique frame for every one of its twelve achievements, in the same vain as the in-game art style.


Final Verdict

A nauseating descent into hostile and bizarre territory, Scorn's surrealistic surroundings easily elevate its run of the mill puzzles. Oriented towards a niche audience, it's a grim experience that can't be recommended to everyone. Horror fans are treated to a two to three hour drop off into a nightmare from which they can thankfully wake up. Why the lead character endures such deep suffering is never revealed, but great experiences often leave you wondering. This dark ride is worth a ticket.

I'll keep this short and sweet. This game has amazing atmosphere and visuals, everything looks horrific and sounds disgusting and unsettling, which is fantastic if you ask me. The story is 100% interpretive, as in there is no story other than what you decide the story might be I guess, I have no idea what's going on at least. Lastly, the gameplay, at first its just a bit stiff which isn't a problem when exploring and doing puzzles, but then the game decides its a shooter now too and everything falls apart fast. Combat is awful, your first "gun" is more or less a crappy melee that has to recharge after two hits, the rest you get almost no ammo for and more enemies than you can handle, and healing is also very rare, with the added bonus of taking damage in cutscenes, Yay! If the game had been nothing but the first hour or so, I'd love it, but once combat came in everything started to drag. It doesn't help that you can't manually save and have no idea how far back you'll end up when you die for the 8th time so you could lose a lot of progress. I do not have any interest in finishing this game now that I have to deal with the crappy combat all the time, and it sucks because the visuals were really doing it for me.

a great atmospheric game.
a game with no dialog, no monolog writing no text, but it still has lots to say.
the only thing that connects this world to our civilization is the menu, where it says resume, load, settings, and main menu.
there are lots of things I probably missed and didn't understand about the story, but it really makes me think about creation. it will remind me of the "Prometheus" movie directed by mister Ridley Scott but it's not the right time for philosophy.
a unique atmosphere, and it's done well. structures, rooms, pillars, walls, weapons, devices, items, and control panels, are designed pretty well like there is an organic base/theme everywhere but empty of life. everything in here greatly smells of death, disappointment, and forgotten like a great civilization abandoned or died centuries ago.

The gameplay and controls are very simple, and combats are not too hard or easy but if you take it easy you got killed easily, I believe it's a fair fight, plus you don't have to fight them if they didn't notice you.
it's a horror game, the atmospheres pretty do the trick, but on the other hand, the enemies are not scary personally I have never scared of those, yes they are scary because they can kill you easily but they do not look scary but its an atmospheric horror game and that gives a creep to the player.
I really like games that don't have HUD, like that health bar in dead space or guns with visors for ammo like in halo, there is an impressive idea here and that is you just need to look down to see your number of heals, ammo and the extra item you carry.

levels and paths are pretty linear but it doesn't mean that there's no backtracking, there is backtracking but not too back.
puzzles are nice not too hard not too easy its a fair but personally I believe that was space for at least a bit harder.

The opening of the game was excellent and engaging just like its ending.

there is no bold and great music in this game, except in some points that have a piece of atmospheric music, it is understandable cuz silence is an important key in horror elements. sound effects were sharp and clear it was engaging like echos and...

I didn't notice any bug or glitch except one time in the final chapter (avoiding spoiler) after a fight you should do something to proceed to the level that continues with another fight, but the way of doing it was blocked with a big box or something that makes it impossible to lower the gate, I was struggling with it for about 17,18 minutes after that I consider maybe it's a bug so I reload my checkpoint and it gets fixed but except this, I didn't saw any bug.

I belave there was room for more gameplay and but on another hand, I think scorn delivers everything it promised before its release.

I'm of mixed feelings to this one. First of all, the design is horrific, in a good sense. The hellishly ugly environments paying homage to artists Hans Ruedi Geiger and Zdizslaw Beksinski. Biomechanical, nearly all organic constructs, the whole location looks like a living specimen, even the outside rock formations look like sandblasted bone.

But that's all the game has going for it, I'd even say it's carrying the game. For everything else falls flat. The game implements combat to prevent feeling like a walking simulator or no-combat survival horror clone, but really it should've removed the combat and been the latter.

The combat is sluggish and clunky, the protagonist cannot move fast enough to dodge attacks and there too many enemies, the makers should either have reduced the number of enemies per area or removed the action and been all stealth.

The puzzles, well, they're there. Hardly interesting for me to talk of.

The game is short and features a brief list of achievements, two of which can be missed, which can be resolved with a guide and reloading saves.

Just as well it's short for there's little-to-no replay value, it may interest with its art but like I said, it's the game's standout feature and I suspect the game may be forgotten in a short time frame.

A lot of Body Horror.

Scorn is a bit of a horrific game, as you’re about to see. I’ve said often I’m not a fan of horror, but Scorn didn’t scare me. It’s more that I hate the visual style here, which is trying to make people uneasy and succeeds. Players will move around a strange location, solve puzzles, and eventually fight enemies, but do so as this gruesome character, who often attaches weapons and items to their body.

Scorn has some big problems, there are lengthy parts of the game where you’re just walking in large uninteresting spaces. The combat that I’ve seen isn’t scary, it’s more abysmal. And ultimately I’m not that scared, more just turned off by the art, which some people will love, but this doesn’t feel like a true horror, just more a game to make people disgusted.

Pick this up if you like what you’re seeing on screen. I picked this scene on purpose, but at the same time, this was probably the best moment of my experience. The rest was pretty underwhelming

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