Scorn Review

Scorn is a horror adventure that’s heavily influenced by the works of H.R Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński (which is a trend we’re starting to see a lot in games), and it has been on the periphery of our release calendar for what seems like forever. Following an unsuccessful Kickstarter in 2014 and then a successful one in 2017, developer Ebb Software is finally releasing it into the wild,

Getting weird without a sound

There’s no traditional narrative in Scorn. Storytelling is entirely environmental, and it’s up to you to interpret what’s happening. You spawn out of a pod and seem to be a genetically engineered or cloned laborer. You’re thrown into a world of death and decay, and your only impetus is to move forward. There are no logs to peruse or language of any kind to give you context.

Part of me liked this approach. Plenty of games painstakingly detail each facet of their universe with logs and encyclopedias. Something is refreshing about trying to put such a bizarre adventure into context with only visual clues.

However, by the time I finished the game, I didn’t feel fulfilled by the journey. The great thing about video games is that they immerse you in a story. You’re not just passively observing. Unfortunately, Scorn is so obtuse that it’s hard to identify with the protagonist. His motivation, origins, objectives, and demeanor are entirely opaque. Does instinct drive him? Does he have some fleeting memory we’re of which we’re unaware? It’s not for us to know.

Xenomorphs not included

Scorn’s artwork is a spectacle that’s full of biomechanical designs that look like they’re pulled directly from Giger’s brain. The ruins you explore are entirely alien, and even everyday mechanisms like keys and switches are made of bone and sinew. There’s also a struggle between the ancient bone-like structures and the creeping organic contagion that seems to have been this civilization’s downfall.

Even the weapons and items are strange and twisted organic facsimiles. Instead of a healing pack, you get a tick-like creature that stores cysts full of a blood-like substance in its body. When you need to get a little HP, you pull one out of the little booger and slurp it down. Your first weapon is like an organic captive bolt gun, the base of which can link to other weapons modules.

Puzzle it out

The exploration is entirely linear. It mainly consists of solving a puzzle in an enclosed section until you find an item or switch needed to move forward or finding a terminal to upgrade your organic key to open higher-level doors.

The puzzles were relatively simple, but are integrated into the game well. Even when it was a straightforward idea like getting a (skeletal) monorail car from the bottom of an area to the top, discovering the switches and mechanisms to do it was rewarding. Since there are no logs and a minimalistic HUD, there’s nothing to bash you over the head with the solution, which was nice.

But after a while, the illusion of exploring alien ruins wears off when you realize the game is just shuffling you from one puzzle to another. I would have liked to have seen more complexity here. It gave me Myst vibes at times, and having denser environments with multiple puzzles running at once, as that series does, would have broken up some of the monotonous pacing.

Combatting the combat

Scorn’s combat is another letdown. It’s a horror game, so resources are meant to be limited to make every fight feel like it might be your last. However, the fighting is so glitchy and the enemies are so tanky that it’s more irritating than thrilling.

The biggest issue I faced was that the two most common enemies you come up against can both fire an unlimited amount of projectiles. Your arsenal, on the other hand, is very limited. In particular, the “melee” weapon, a rod that thrusts out to an indeterminate range, is infuriating. It’s practically impossible to tell its max range, and it gets two “thrusts” before it has to recharge. Meanwhile, your foes can just go to town on you, and frequently their attacks will clip through walls.

You end up getting some better weapons, but your ammo pool is laughably tiny, and you only run into a reload machine once or twice an act. Your one advantage is that your enemies are dumber than fenceposts and have almost zero drive to chase you. So, you can just run past most of them and zigzag to avoid their ranged attack.

Over too quick

Scorn’s dank and desolate world is a real visual thrill to explore, but that exploration is also over in a hurry. I managed to get through the game in five hours, though others’ mileage may vary depending on their success with the puzzles. There was only one instance where there were multiple ways to solve a puzzle, with everything else taking a very linear path to the game’s conclusion, so there’s not much replay value here. There’s something to be said for playing a game once and soaking up all it has to offer, but Scorn could have done with giving me more time to spend in its world.