We need more games where you can kick enemies off cliffs

2022

Scorn is a great game that heavily relies upon its fantastic atmosphere: there is no story, no narrator and nothing that could give the player a clue on what is actually happening.
This is the point of the game, to make the player feel lost in a nightmarish and silent landscape populated by weird creatures and mechanisms with no clear purpose. Puzzles need some thought and fit well in the pace of the game.

However, the combat isn't great, though not as bad as many people say, and the checkpoint system needs fixing, which I think is already been done with the first patches. Personally, I didn't encounter any bugs.

I enjoyed playing Scorn as it was exactly what I expected, a 5-hour game with a great design and atmosphere: being on Xbox GamePass it's one more reason to give it a try.



I stumbled upon this game quite randomly, browsing the Steam shop, and I bought it the moment I realized it was about plant identification, a subject I love. Moreover, I've always had a thing for "unusual" simulators.

In Strange Horticulture, the story progresses with the identification of new plants and the solution of small riddles, which are never too complex and fit well in the pace of the game; the customer's requests give purpose to the plants' properties, described in the manual. In a way, the story is told by the plants themselves and their use, while the setting and atmosphere provide a nice background.

In just a few hours, Strange Horticulture manages to deliver a wonderful experience with a gameplay which is indeed simple, yet never trivial.