Alprnoffline It is very difficult to perceive or describe Scorn as a game. Just a small module of a universe that needs to be experienced more than a game. This is part of the reason why this review was delayed, because I didn’t know how to explain it either.
We are a gaming magazine. When reviewing a game, we talk about its mechanics, gameplay, and how fluid it is, as well as (perhaps even more) how it looks and the world it creates. Scorn, on the other hand, fails to delete from the bets in this second classification. As a game it is not fluid; from start to finish, there is not the slightest indication of where to go and what to do. The puzzle mechanics are very easy at times, a nuisance at times just because they’re not explained. Enemies hit very hard compared to your character. The middle of the save points is so open that I felt like I was playing those old games that wiped everything when they were closed. So yes, it is being played, but the segments that should make it a “game” are not very encouraging.
Then why did I like this Scorn, why did I like it?
Scorn as a tribute
Long story short, I liked Scorn because we can get as close as Scron to navigating an HR Giger painting right now. But this is a review, so I’m going to expand on this idea quite a bit now.
Even many people who don’t know Giger are actually familiar with one of his cult designs: Alien. Yes yes, Ridley Scott’s Alien. And I think Alien’s design sums up a lot of things Giger can talk about at length. The combination of the organic and the mechanical, dozens of additional limbs on the bodies that take up only as much space as “necessary”, forms that “evolved” within the framework of a rationality that does not come close to today’s concept of efficiency, but is supposedly beyond our understanding.
Yes, it’s not a heart-warming concept. Compared to more than one person, everything he does is very nasty and rude; by no means obscene, rightly wrong. Giger’s creations are a matter of concern for some, an itch that never goes away for others.
Scorn, on the other hand, is a 3D rendering of Giger from head to toe. All designs are not only inspired, but completely embraced by Giger. In every corner of the game, Giger’s creations come to life again, without any excess (neither murderous nor obscene). That’s why Scorn is an incredible experience for fans of this one-of-a-kind art type, with the mechanics that make it a game, no matter how hard it is.
I don’t find this puzzle thematically appropriate, my vote is -3
Now, doesn’t one expect incredible high-level puzzles from the ruins of such a sophisticated and beyond human comprehension civilization? Of course it’s waiting!
And indeed, some of them, especially the end-of-chapter puzzles, satisfy this craving for complexity. I say mostly because sometimes Scorn doesn’t just feel like it’s complicated because the truth isn’t guiding us properly. Actually, since it is a short game, I will give a few examples from the first part so that there are no spoilers.
At the beginning of the game, we get ourselves a friend in a surprise egg. (We named him “Elien” in the broadcast on Oyungezer’s Twitch channel. We certainly didn’t have that name from somewhere.) However, the puzzle we solved to get him was one of those puzzles that we tried to create a photo by pushing the squares left and right, almost having a single empty box. Now the race that created these biomechanical perfections… Did he think of that? Brother, there is also the first puzzle of the game, yes, obviously it was put in order not to force it. But people want something more striking and plausible, the first puzzle, and take us away.
Another event that we encounter in the first part is that we have options. For example, we tucked the friend into something like a chainsaw in order to hatch the surprise egg on the air. We thought he was going to die, but it wasn’t that bad. The saw only cut the bark.
I had to start the game over for review when I accidentally deleted it while trying to check my saves. This time, I put the egg friend into a tool like this kind of scoop. This time he’s dead! Yes, I was able to take his arm and pass the section again, but we lost the friend.
There are small differences in the game that do not actually affect the course of the game, but will change how you perceive this world. Because if he hadn’t died, we would have seen him save himself and escaped when we went back to the door we opened. At this point, the story you set up in your head about Scorn becomes another.
The right to love the disgusting
It is very valuable to enter a game like Scorn with real expectations. It is not a “horror” game in the sense we are used to; It has no intention of making you jump or stretch your back. The game mechanics often make people say, “It could have been more adequate,” even though there are some really nice puzzles in it.
When it’s like this, I can’t get mad at reviews that give low ratings, seeing Scorn as a bland walking simulation. But at the same time, I don’t want these reviews to discourage players who want to scrutinize Scorn’s world. When you open a door and go to a different part, when you go to open areas and see those huge organic structures through the fog, Scorn’s atmosphere is enough to make you forget many shortcomings.
