I think one big prefacing must be made when tackling Scorn, and that is that your enjoyment of the game will be all dependent on whether you go into it knowing you are not gonna experience a high-octane horror shooter or not.
This is a comparison that has been made before, but it bears repeating, Scorn is less an Alien Isolation type of game and more of a Myst experience if Myst was a nightmare of flesh and sexually suggestive imagery.
Scorn is willingly obtuse and silent, no line of dialogue is ever exchanged, no item description to be found, and no logs or notes to fill in the voids of what is going on (as a matter of fact, any and all mentions of backstories are found in the game's artbook, of all things). This is, understandably, frustrating, yet serves its purpose well in creating a sense of mystique and oppression. Scorn isn't here to make the player at home, feel easy, and comfortable, quite the opposite. Every step in the game is taken with dread, wondering what horrible creatures and sights await you. Or more often than not, if where you are going is the right direction.
Scorn's almost religious replication of H.R Geiger's style is both one of the game's greatest strenghts and one of it's greatest weaknesses: if the meaty, organic, sexual look the surroindings give the game it's own unique identity, one that sticks with you and is sure to stay in your mind for a long while, it also makes exploring the world at times a touch confusing. Sometimes environments look similar enough for you to get lost in them, less in a "wow this world is so engrossing" and moreso in a "where the fuck am I supposed to go now" kinda way. At times the puzzles the game throws at you aren't the ones that require the most mental sprain but rather navigating the world put in front of you. More times than I want to admit I found myself in a situation where the path to progress was right in front of me, but it meshed with the architecture, making me waste more thant needed.
But that isn't the biggest flaw the game is cursed with is also, perhaps, what many would've wanted the game to nail the most: the shooting.
Combat in Scorn is not good. No one two ways about. Scorn's guns don't feel bad, per se, as they are punchy in sound and are visually as disgusting as you'd want them to be, but moving while aiming makes your accuracy plummet, requiring you to be at a standstill to make sure your shots hit their target, this is to say nothing about the fact the avarage enemy requires a good number of shots to put them down and ammo is scarse enough to make you not want to use it (not counting the starting weapon, a weird utensil that acts as a meele weapon of sorts and isn't even remotely fit for the task). All of this is bad enough, but coupling this with the fact most enemies are actual aimbots, and aggroing them makes running away from them without getting hit almost impossible.
But maybe that's the point? Barring the few times later on in the game where combat encounters are necessary, it's preferable to let the enemies go about their business, let them walk around a bit and wait for them to enter their alcoves, then proceed. Combat is bad, perhaps, to make sure you don't engage in it, after all the creatures will not actively try and hurt you if you decide to give them space. Failing to do so will probably result with your death and following that, a reload of the previous checkpoint, which can be few and far between (not helping matters is the game's lack of a manual save feature).
So, if the game suffers from all these issues, why the high score? Well first off I don't like scoring systems like this cause I think they are too minimal and inprecise, but also because I genuely think that under all these problems, there lies a fantastic, gruesome and unique experience; one that is an acquired taste, for sure, but one that will stick with you for days to come, a virus of sorts, a fleshly creature sticking to your back and not letting you go. Doesn't sound pleasant, does it? Well, it isn't, but it is not meant to be. In its ugliness, it's unpleasantness, it becomes one of the most unique and shockingly beautiful experiences you can have with a game, of that, albeit short (the game only has 5 chapters and can be completed in a few hours if you don't get stuck), will be sure to not be forgotten, for better or for worse.
This is a comparison that has been made before, but it bears repeating, Scorn is less an Alien Isolation type of game and more of a Myst experience if Myst was a nightmare of flesh and sexually suggestive imagery.
Scorn is willingly obtuse and silent, no line of dialogue is ever exchanged, no item description to be found, and no logs or notes to fill in the voids of what is going on (as a matter of fact, any and all mentions of backstories are found in the game's artbook, of all things). This is, understandably, frustrating, yet serves its purpose well in creating a sense of mystique and oppression. Scorn isn't here to make the player at home, feel easy, and comfortable, quite the opposite. Every step in the game is taken with dread, wondering what horrible creatures and sights await you. Or more often than not, if where you are going is the right direction.
Scorn's almost religious replication of H.R Geiger's style is both one of the game's greatest strenghts and one of it's greatest weaknesses: if the meaty, organic, sexual look the surroindings give the game it's own unique identity, one that sticks with you and is sure to stay in your mind for a long while, it also makes exploring the world at times a touch confusing. Sometimes environments look similar enough for you to get lost in them, less in a "wow this world is so engrossing" and moreso in a "where the fuck am I supposed to go now" kinda way. At times the puzzles the game throws at you aren't the ones that require the most mental sprain but rather navigating the world put in front of you. More times than I want to admit I found myself in a situation where the path to progress was right in front of me, but it meshed with the architecture, making me waste more thant needed.
But that isn't the biggest flaw the game is cursed with is also, perhaps, what many would've wanted the game to nail the most: the shooting.
Combat in Scorn is not good. No one two ways about. Scorn's guns don't feel bad, per se, as they are punchy in sound and are visually as disgusting as you'd want them to be, but moving while aiming makes your accuracy plummet, requiring you to be at a standstill to make sure your shots hit their target, this is to say nothing about the fact the avarage enemy requires a good number of shots to put them down and ammo is scarse enough to make you not want to use it (not counting the starting weapon, a weird utensil that acts as a meele weapon of sorts and isn't even remotely fit for the task). All of this is bad enough, but coupling this with the fact most enemies are actual aimbots, and aggroing them makes running away from them without getting hit almost impossible.
But maybe that's the point? Barring the few times later on in the game where combat encounters are necessary, it's preferable to let the enemies go about their business, let them walk around a bit and wait for them to enter their alcoves, then proceed. Combat is bad, perhaps, to make sure you don't engage in it, after all the creatures will not actively try and hurt you if you decide to give them space. Failing to do so will probably result with your death and following that, a reload of the previous checkpoint, which can be few and far between (not helping matters is the game's lack of a manual save feature).
So, if the game suffers from all these issues, why the high score? Well first off I don't like scoring systems like this cause I think they are too minimal and inprecise, but also because I genuely think that under all these problems, there lies a fantastic, gruesome and unique experience; one that is an acquired taste, for sure, but one that will stick with you for days to come, a virus of sorts, a fleshly creature sticking to your back and not letting you go. Doesn't sound pleasant, does it? Well, it isn't, but it is not meant to be. In its ugliness, it's unpleasantness, it becomes one of the most unique and shockingly beautiful experiences you can have with a game, of that, albeit short (the game only has 5 chapters and can be completed in a few hours if you don't get stuck), will be sure to not be forgotten, for better or for worse.
ExSOLDIER
1 year ago