Scorn Reviews
Scorn is a mind-blowing experience that will satisfy the eyes of thrill-seekers. But walking through such a flesh and blood maze, only visually experience is not enough. The gameplay and art are supposed to complement each other. I wonder if Scorn is held back by the mediocre gameplay or is too high by the impressive art - its poor bones can hardly hold up its entire core experience, which eventually leads to a discrepancy between the exterior and the interior.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Scorn was intended to be an extremely impactful experience, capable of transporting the player into a world that is, in its own way, astonishing.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Scorn, with its mix of puzzles, horror, monsters and exploration, is a unique and alienating experience that you'll love or hate.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Scorn impresses as a visual tribute to H. R. Giger, but half-formed gameplay hurt its horror more than it helps.
Scorn is a special experience for anybody looking to have their expectations subverted for what a good horror game can be. It is a gory, surreal, provocative dive into difficult or even taboo topics, and is wonderfully crafted, and near perfectly optimized. The game's themes and visuals are challenging and extremely mature, but executed with great subtlety. The game is a technical marvel and concise as any horror game should be, so as to not overstay its welcome.
Scorn is arguably worth playing for the visuals alone. We’re rarely transported to somewhere truly alien in games, and it’s something I’m glad I experienced. However, it’s more of a theme park ride than a genuinely immersive experience. That’s fine, but with a little more complexity and refinement outside of the artwork, it could have been something extraordinary.
It should be pointed out that Scorn is a day one Xbox Game Pass game, and that is really the only way to justify playing it. Otherwise, Scorn is an experience that even the most diehard horror game fans should skip.
It is likely that many do not agree with its mechanics, but its visual impact is so powerful that it is impossible not to recommend it. Scorn is so disturbing that you're going to want to look away and so overwhelming that you're going to be able to stop looking at us. It's as if a macabre mind's nightmare has become a video game.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
“Scorn” is an art house experience. I’m sure that other reviewers will plumb “Scorn” for its hidden high-minded commentary on the human condition, but for me, the appeal of the game is how it made me feel rather than think. I felt a constant, humming anxiety for simply existing in its macabre world. I was never particularly scared of anything I encountered; like the playable creature, I just wanted out.
In truth, Scorn doesn’t tell a particularly fascinating story, but it hardly matters; the way in which it’s told is done to perfection, and provides an incredibly refreshing horror experience that truly gets under your skin.
Scorn is a relentlessly unsettling delve into a surreal, macabre world of alien mystery, but the scariest thing about it is the dreadful combat.
By the time the parasite does finally obstruct your ability to use machines or change weapons, the damage is already done. There are few enemies left and the game is almost over, so whatever additional tension might have resulted from these restrictions never materializes. Scorn is a transportive experience to be sure, at times a genuine masterwork of visual craft. But the unfulfilled possibilities linger a little too prominently, a reminder that it falls short of being a mechanical masterpiece, too.
Scorn works wonders with Giger's and Beksiński's artwork, not only in terms of aesthetic fidelity but in creating a world that's utterly strange to exist in. This is a violent, painful, but fascinating place, thick with symbolism and interlocking puzzles that hint at some terrifying grand design. While it can be overly obscure and frustrating, especially in combat, Scorn serves up one hell of a journey.
Scorn is an exercise in environmental storytelling, eschewing cutscenes and exposition in favour of simply letting the player piece things together for themselves. It doesn't provide all the answers, leaving much of its deeper meaning wide open to interpretation: and it's all the more compelling as a result.
Scorn is a feast for the eyes, a buffet for the mind but not for those of a weak stomach. It satisfies the morbid and the curious with its odd forms and sombre tapestries.
Unconventional experience in an impressive H.R. Giger world that shoots itself in the leg with superfluous shooter mechanics.
Review in German | Read full review
If you are a fan of extreme horror, you should really try Scorn.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Most video games that model themselves on H.R. Giger's biomechanical monstrosities are purely aesthetic. Scorn wears its influences not on its sleeves, but inside them; a mass of ooze and darkness and gnarly, desiccated things; a grimly singular puzzle, but perhaps one that didn't need the combat to deliver its horrors home.
It’s hard not to admire developer Ebb’s commitment to a bleak and violent biomechanical world. No game has ever nailed the style of Giger quite so precisely and consistently. Scorn is genuinely disturbing in the way of an unsettling nightmare, but even unrelenting tension eventually loses impact. Its puzzles and exploration sometimes feel arbitrary and needlessly obtuse. Ebb might not care if I waste time getting lost or missing important clues, but Scorn’s rewards aren’t always worth the effort. Scorn is a darkly beautiful vision but just not much fun to play.