Welcome to our review of Scorn, a game that is esthetically pleasing and that is about it. There, I said it!
Scorn is an atmospheric first-person horror adventure game set in a nightmarish universe of odd forms and somber tapestry. It is designed around the idea of “being thrown into the world”. Isolated and lost inside this dream-like world, you will explore different interconnected regions in a non-linear fashion. The unsettling environment is a character itself.
Every location contains its own theme (story), puzzles and characters that are integral in creating a cohesive world. Throughout the game you will open up new areas, acquire different skill sets, weapons, various items and try to comprehend the sights presented to you. Scorn takes place in an open-ended world with different interconnected regions. Each region is a maze-like structure with various rooms and paths to discover. All the storytelling happens in-game, with no cut-scenes to distract you from the grisly reality of the living, breathing world you’re in. But keep your eyes open – the game won’t show you any sympathy if you miss something important on your uneasy travels.
Players will experience better immersion being aware of the character’s body and movement. Interaction with the world is realistic – objects are picked up with your hands (instead of just floating in midair), machines and instruments are operated by grabbing the controls, etc.
Your loadout is defined and limited. This plays a big role in keeping the player in an even greater state of awareness throughout the whole game. Players will have to think about when to fight and when to take cover and how their actions affect the world around them. Different play styles will be needed to advance.
Scorn is actually nothing like that for me, I felt the game was obnoxiously complicated and not fun at all. Now I know you will say nightmare inducing games are not meant to be fun, but this game is not nightmare inducing, at best, the nightmares you will endure from this game is the realisation that the time you spent playing, that you are never getting them back or worse, if you actually bought it instead of using Game pass…
Scorn is a game where you solve puzzles but the puzzles are needlessly weird and unusual to the extent of wanting to just say Fudge It, I more often than not felt like this was just a joke. I can not understand the idealogy behind the game. You literally get no guidance, nothing, zilch, zero. You are thrown into the game and have nothing going on information wise.
I just wish games would stop doing that, it is getting tiring to find out games are as lackluster as this. Sure, it does look great and while the Giger vibes do try their best to lift the games out of the slums of its gameplay, it sadly fails miserably. Scorn is a bad game and should be called one. At most I would call it a niche game for a very few select set of players but really, only bother with the game if you have game pass and avoid buying it. It is just a disappointment to me and while I very seldomely give ratings on the eshop, I did give this a failing one, it just has to be better to get my thumbs up.
In conclusion, Scorn is a sad attempt at building a nightmare inducing game and aside from the graphics, there is nothing to uplift this game to any extent…
