Listen, I'm sure for some folks, this is gonna be a huge hit. And granted, maybe because I was writing guides, I was stopping and starting the game so frequently I couldn't fully get into it. But in all honesty, this really didn't do anything for me.
The world is absolutely breathtaking; a technological marvel for sure. But there's just not enough substance to back it up. It comes out the gate with this gross-out, shock tactic front, and that would be fine if the game was a 3-hour story-focused experience. I'm really not squeamish and I'm the last person to say gore is too gratuitous. But after 5 hours, you're just so desensitised to seeing mutilated body parts and squished fetuses that it all just starts to feel a little silly, especially because there's never a moment where the story justifies its use of it.
But I might've been able to accept and engage more with its grotesque grounding if the game didn't put so many roadblocks between me and its world. It often feels like this was switched up last minute to be more action-packed (perhaps in the hopes of making it a mainstream hit on Game Pass), when in reality, that completely robs the game of the atmosphere it spends so long building.
What I'm mainly referring to is the inclusion of combat, which completely betrays what Scorn's trying to accomplish. It feels like an experience that wants to drop you into an abandoned world with no guide and see whether you can pick up the pieces. That's a really cool concept and one that the first two chapters manage to execute quite well. However, when combat does eventually get introduced, you spend so much time dying, restarting lengthy sections and then speed-running them to progress that you're entirely drawn out of the experience and quickly start resenting it.
It's just not a game that's built for combat. The protagonist moves like he's made out of dumbbells and Scorn is stingier with ammo than Nintendo is with Metroid games. But regardless of the fact this was evidently built to be a story-focused puzzler, it treats you like like you're Rambo, throwing slug monster after slug monster at you despite every enemy tanking hits like a world-champion body-builder.
Every time the game begins to sink into a rhythm and allow you to drink in the atmosphere, it gets confused and says: "WAIT A MINUTE, YOU'RE BORED AREN'T YOU??? DON'T WORRY, HERE'S ANOTHER HELPING OF DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS COMBAT." Acts 3 and 4, despite featuring some of Scorn's most striking, lore-rich environments, will make you want to bolt through them at a breakneck pace just so you don't have to see another little asshole-headed gremlin spit puke at you from half away across the map.
At the end of the day, I like the compelling mystery, the HR-Giger-inspired art style and the way the game adamantly refuses to give you any context. I wanted to love it, really. It just feels like an experience that's entirely at odds with itself. The closest thing I can compare it to is that Agony game that came out and quickly disappeared in 2018. And let me tell you, that isn't a flattering comparison.
The world is absolutely breathtaking; a technological marvel for sure. But there's just not enough substance to back it up. It comes out the gate with this gross-out, shock tactic front, and that would be fine if the game was a 3-hour story-focused experience. I'm really not squeamish and I'm the last person to say gore is too gratuitous. But after 5 hours, you're just so desensitised to seeing mutilated body parts and squished fetuses that it all just starts to feel a little silly, especially because there's never a moment where the story justifies its use of it.
But I might've been able to accept and engage more with its grotesque grounding if the game didn't put so many roadblocks between me and its world. It often feels like this was switched up last minute to be more action-packed (perhaps in the hopes of making it a mainstream hit on Game Pass), when in reality, that completely robs the game of the atmosphere it spends so long building.
What I'm mainly referring to is the inclusion of combat, which completely betrays what Scorn's trying to accomplish. It feels like an experience that wants to drop you into an abandoned world with no guide and see whether you can pick up the pieces. That's a really cool concept and one that the first two chapters manage to execute quite well. However, when combat does eventually get introduced, you spend so much time dying, restarting lengthy sections and then speed-running them to progress that you're entirely drawn out of the experience and quickly start resenting it.
It's just not a game that's built for combat. The protagonist moves like he's made out of dumbbells and Scorn is stingier with ammo than Nintendo is with Metroid games. But regardless of the fact this was evidently built to be a story-focused puzzler, it treats you like like you're Rambo, throwing slug monster after slug monster at you despite every enemy tanking hits like a world-champion body-builder.
Every time the game begins to sink into a rhythm and allow you to drink in the atmosphere, it gets confused and says: "WAIT A MINUTE, YOU'RE BORED AREN'T YOU??? DON'T WORRY, HERE'S ANOTHER HELPING OF DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS COMBAT." Acts 3 and 4, despite featuring some of Scorn's most striking, lore-rich environments, will make you want to bolt through them at a breakneck pace just so you don't have to see another little asshole-headed gremlin spit puke at you from half away across the map.
At the end of the day, I like the compelling mystery, the HR-Giger-inspired art style and the way the game adamantly refuses to give you any context. I wanted to love it, really. It just feels like an experience that's entirely at odds with itself. The closest thing I can compare it to is that Agony game that came out and quickly disappeared in 2018. And let me tell you, that isn't a flattering comparison.
pex
5 months ago