Scorn Review

Have you ever looked at something so ugly and disgusting that it not only disgusts you, but intrigues you at the same time? Many games have tried to do this, but have failed to capture that feeling of, shall we say, unhealthy curiosity. At the same time, Scorn is not just trying to evoke such sensations, but is building a full-fledged game on them. Inspired by the works of Hans Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński, Scorn horror doesn't care what the squeamish and the faint of heart think. This survival game eschews traditional attempts at intimidation, instead throwing players into a thick two-part biomass of conceptual storytelling and an expressive yet gritty survival atmosphere.

Trying to describe the storyline of Scorn in simple terms is a disservice to the ideals on which it is based. The player controls a human or, if you like, a humanoid creature, who goes into the depths of an abandoned city that has become the tomb of an entire civilization. The secret component of Scorn's storytelling is that you actually just exist in its space. Descending into the depths of this completely alien civilization should be done slowly, peering into every detail of what seems to be something so alien and repulsive. More than once you will ask a simple question - "why?".

The game has many images associated with the ideas of the birth and creation of life, which are then opposed to parasitic forces that find new life outside their carriers. Which relationships are symbiotic and which are parasitic? Your ideas will invariably be different from mine, but in the end I would like to see many games try to come to the same abstraction, to the same contradictions.

On the other hand, in Scorn you can have fun and shoot at strange creatures that resemble chickens. If you consider the horror genre in the traditional sense, then Scorn is unlikely to ever scare you. Even if some monster takes you by surprise, you are unlikely to jump in a chair. Instead, Scorn creates a huge miasma of misery: a thick atmosphere, a stark color palette, and grotesque surroundings. An atmosphere that intensifies with each new stage, gradually exhausting your psyche. Even when you're armed to the teeth, the fact that Scorn maintains an overwhelming sense of distress throughout its history sets a whole new bar for horror. Despite the fact that you can shoot at strange crawling and running creatures made of flesh, the combat turns out to be somehow clumsy, and further reinforces the oppressive feeling of fear.

Ammo and medical supplies are rare luxuries, so knowing which creatures to shoot at and which ones to avoid becomes a vital lesson. The lack of these items sometimes leads to difficult battles in which you have to circle around enemies in order to hit them with melee weapons and not miss the retaliatory damage. It's exhausting, frustrating, and stress-reducing, especially when you have to reboot, but it ends up being your own punishment. It is not the developers who are so tough, but you made this wrong choice.

It is worth noting the unusual design of puzzles in Scorn. Especially in terms of how it scales as you progress through the game. For the most part, your immediate goal is to try to revive ancient technology. You will have to solve various puzzles in order to bring to life the working parts of larger structures that can be part of something larger. This is best demonstrated in Act 4, where you are shown the exit, but you must manually control the heavy devices scattered throughout the level to set the platform in the correct position.

None of the puzzle ideas stagnate. As soon as the design is brought to its natural conclusion (both in large and small puzzles), new, no less interesting and unpredictable ideas appear.

Another indicator of quality is an unobtrusive user interface. You can always find out what you can and cannot interact with, how much ammo and health you have, but it all looks holistic. Take even the various weapons that you find during the game. You get small pads that you change on the main device connected to the parasite on the hero's back. All this contributes to greater immersion.

Scorn is a short trip. And if you know what and where to do, it will take you 3-4 hours of playing time. On the technical side, I didn't find any bugs throughout the playthrough, and the Day 1 patch certainly improves stability.

Conclusion

I do not even want to praise Scorn for the technical component, the absence of any serious and even minor bugs. Instead, the main feature of this horror can be called the emphasis on the atmosphere, the depth of immersion, grotesque and unusual buildings. However, the game is not suitable for everyone, because it has a lot of, I would say, beautiful "abomination", so it should not be taken by the faint of heart or those who are not able to endure the sight of open or cut flesh.