Scorn was announced by Kepler Interactive and Ebb Software back in 2014 but immediately attracted my attention with its design and atmosphere. The grotesque and cruel biomechanical world has long intrigued players, but over the years very little information about the game has appeared: art, screenshots and short videos. The full picture of the gameplay was formed only after the release itself. And this is not quite the game that many were waiting for. Or rather, not at all. Another pass from Game Pass or a good game? This is our Scorn for PC review.
The plot of the game, if you can call it that
We wake up from hibernation and start wandering around some station. It is not clear where we are, but I understood for sure that the action of the game takes place on the same planet, at some station. The protagonist is a creature that looks like a man without skin, and here begins our journey through an unknown building and moving along it to the end point.
What attracts players to this game at the beginning is the desire to find out what the main character is doing the whole game and what our goal is… I was hoping to find notes and explanations about the game world, its inhabitants, buildings, etc., but in the whole game, you don’t hear a word, see a note, or a picture. There simply isn’t any further information about the game anywhere.
The weak disclosure of the plot, in my opinion, is the main drawback of this game. I was fascinated by this world and its fate, but I could never find anything about it because there are no words written or spoken in the game. It’s a good thing that the plot in this game is not its backbone.
Gameplay
The developers said that the game would have a conditionally open world between the regions to which you will travel, but this is absolutely not the case. Scorn is the most linear game where it is simply impossible to go the other way or explore secret areas. There are only about five chapters, each of which is one small location with many levers and puzzles, solving which you will gradually move on to the new one.
Many expected it to be a survival horror game. And already at the beginning of the game, players will be disappointed. I started the first level, and the first thing I realized was that I didn’t understand what they wanted from me. The game lacks hints, maps, landmarks, a target designator, and other components of most games. I wandered around the level for a long time, not knowing what to do. I noticed some mechanisms (that probably missed ten times) that you need to put your hands in, turn levers, and so on, but none of them worked. There are no weapons, no enemies, no one.
After a certain time, I found the purpose of this place. You will simply drag objects from place to place, watching various bloody scenes… And after that, you will be launched into a large location with incomprehensible cars and various puzzles.
At each level, as we progress, we are given different weapons. There is a pushing weapon that you will literally poke enemies with until the end of the game. They will give a pistol similar in power to a large-caliber one. You will be given a shotgun and a grenade launcher. The weapon is made in a unique style and looks amazing. We have a base to which separate parts are attached. The only negative about the weapon system is that it is slow, reloading is slow, the weapon module changes slowly, and it will sometimes cost you your life. Especially at the beginning. The weapon has little ammo, only two clips in each weapon.
There are not many types of enemies, but they are different. There are “leather creatures” that ram you, there are small and large “leather creatures” that spit; that’s all the enemies. There is one boss for the whole game, which you will pick for a long time. There are not many enemies, as you can see, but the game is short, and there are enough of these enemies. And yes, the enemies are pretty tricky when there are many of them.
Locations, though beautiful, and simultaneously intuitively terrible. It is easy to get lost in the game because the corridors are the same, and there are no signs, so you will definitely get lost. But you can clearly see where the imagination of the developers went. Everything that does not concern the gameplay in the game is done at the highest level. The soundtrack, the atmosphere, and the design of the surrounding world do not frighten horror but crush and terrify.
So what is Scorn?
Scorn is not a story game.
Because it just doesn’t have a story. No dialogue, no notes, no cutscenes, nothing. The game tries to tell something through the environment for about twenty minutes in the beginning, then the same in the middle, and a little in the final. And four or five hours between these episodes – a dull running around the corridors with stupid gunfights and simple puzzles. Of course, you can come up with something and fantasize, but what’s the point if you just can’t test your theories?
Scorn is not the adventure game it initially pretends to be.
Because the riddles are elementary, and all their complexity rests only on the fact that you have to run back and forth along the same corridors a lot in an attempt not to get lost.
Skorn is a shooter and not a puzzle game.
For most of the game, we don’t even walk with a “firearm,” but with some kind of poke weapon that shoots a bio-rope a meter ahead and overheats at the same time … And God forbid you end up in a corner squeezed by one enemy. The riddles are very simple, and once you understand what they want from you, each one takes a couple of minutes.
But following the vision of Giger art in the game is good
While Giger art is good, it quickly gets bored. First, Gigerism, like storytelling, is centered at the beginning (the first shock), the middle (the appearance of a colossal creature that also smells like Lovecraft), and the end of the game.
Scorn often shows completely unremarkable empty corridors entwined with some kind of flesh and not particularly inventive monsters. And secondly, because the interactivity of the environment is almost zero – in fact, there is little “live” here, not only that you can touch, crush, break and poke. And those interactive moments that are still there quickly begin to repeat themselves.
What do we end up with?
In terms of game design, Scorn is a failure on every level. On the one hand, it will not go far since the gameplay is very weak. On the other, the game is definitely not for everyone. People are divided into two categories: the game is terrible or the game is beautiful. I have been waiting for this game. Playing it revealed that it is visually pleasing, but it has many flaws in the gameplay.
The game is very controversial. It features a terrible start but a good continuation as you move through the game. You are very interested in the world, but it is not fully revealed, and the game’s meaning is unclear. I don’t like puzzles, but their excellent game art and intrigue made me want to figure them out. I hope for a continuation of the game, but the developers need to fix the cons and add more lore to the game.
Contempt has become hostage to its concept. This is an excellent interactive artbook, which has practically no analogs. But as a game, this is still a piece product, not everyone needs a product that not everyone will appreciate. But with all this, you will obviously get new emotions, which is the most important thing.
Editor’s note: This is a verified game purchase for PC via Steam.
