Scorn review

Recommended

by BloodScorchedSun

This game looks incredible. The art style and atmosphere of this game are unlike anything else I've played. Exploring this abandoned and crumbling world is captured in such a great way. I did find a few elements of the game to be pretty cruel. I know this is part of the game and the world they convey, especially later on but I still don't like harming a living creature, having it whimper, try to escape and reach out to me for help only to take it to get brutally killed just so I can grab it's arm. It is important to the tone but and realizing your character is just a selfish asshole. When it comes to the gameplay, that's a different story. The general exploration and puzzles are fine but the combat is awful and seems like an afterthought. The guns look great but there is no way to dodge attacks and the environments lead you to getting backed into a wall and dying. For the puzzle elements, this game really does just throw you into the world with no direction. This for the most part is fine, this creates an opportunity for the player to explore and test things. The issue here is this is an alien world where not a lot is familiar in form or function. I know this game had a troubled development, a lot of stuff was cut and reworked. It is insane to me that on top of just throwing the player into an unknown environment, the first thing they have you do is a slider puzzle. It's not hard, just trial and error but it's crazy this is the first thing they have players do. I saw previews for this game all the way back in 2014 and it seemed to be marketed as more of a horror game and not a Myst type game with this Giger esque horror style over it. I'm completely fine with that but I can't help think that this played a role in it's poor reviews. Overall I love this game because the style and atmosphere are so damn good. The combat elements are a pain but there isn't too much of it to detract too much.