Scorn Reviews
Despite being utterly grotesque, Scorn’s visuals are great, and the sound design is a cut above. The puzzle-adventure gameplay is intuitively designed and is a great pairing. However, the vagueness of its design philosophy is often confusing, and I think the confusion outweighs the fun. Unfortunately, the creative choices the developers took with the story didn’t do it for me. While I can appreciate a show-don’t-tell approach, I think there needs to be some bespoke parameters. Solely relying on environmental storytelling is a cool idea in theory, and I appreciate Ebb Software seeing it through to the end, but ultimately it felt all for naught. As a result, this game is incredibly niche, and I think the audience for Scorn is really small. Everything in Scorn is clearly deliberate, so I can’t imagine the story and plot are any exception. However, I completely beat this game, rounding up every achievement on offer, and I have little to no idea what it was about. I don’t think it’s completely devoid of meaning, but I won’t be sticking around to uncover that for myself.
Ebb Software's rigid focus will immediately put off some (for fair reasons), but also earn the respect of horror fans who can stomach this grotesque world.
Although there is a room for arguments, Scorn's art design seems properly portrayed the original intention of the game. It is also fun to digest the ending as the way you think. However, intuition-dependent puzzles and insufficient combats can make players easily quit the game before ending. The combination of checkpoints and dysfunctional combat is the scariest part of it.
Review in Korean | Read full review
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.
Scorn really brings the art that inspired to 3D life, meshes it with good music, and presents it on a stable platform. But the mundane puzzles and poor combat drag it down.
What you get out of the game is what feels like a really great artistic idea, which the team committed to fully. And after the art was done, they tried to place their gameplay ideas anywhere they happened to fit. The end result is a visually arresting, but haphazardly designed experience.
Scorn is a visual atmospheric feast, but the focus on atmosphere left the title without solid gameplay and a narrative, making it as confusing as the conclusion.
An atmospheric experience more than a game itself, Scorn is a desolate travel reminiscent of old school adventure games like Myst.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
For every vomit-inducing scene of body horror, you’ll also lose your lunch at the game’s technical and design issues. Like the creature and the protagonist, it just feels as if Scorn is fighting against itself at every step along the way.
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.
Not without its flaws, but still a superbly atmospheric adventure of horror and discovery.
If you love H.R. Giger, unsettling body horror such as those seen in the works of Junji Ito, or creepy alien experimentation scenes from films like Fire in the Sky, you’ll undoubtedly appreciate Scorn’s overarching concept. Sadly the execution leaves much to be desired, which is a shame as I feel like Scorn could have been a real standout as far as atmospheric horror games go.
Scorn impresses as a visual tribute to H. R. Giger, but half-formed gameplay hurt its horror more than it helps.
Scorn is a game with a terrific art direction that is directly inspired by the creator of Alien, H.R Giger, but also the works of David Cronenberg. An incredible ode to Hans Ruedi Giger that fails on every other level. Combats aren't good and necessary, and puzzles are too often base on the same mecanic. A VR version could have made the ride perhaps less tedious.
Review in French | Read full review
A mediocre adventure with a fantastic scenery that's really lacking in a gameplay department. For that reason, the beauty alone can't hold your attention for too long.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Scorn presents some incredible art direction and a biomechanical Giger fever dream of a world to get lost in, but that’s exactly what you’ll be doing in it for most of your time: getting lost.
Despite showcasing an interesting visual design, Scorn is an agonizing trip through a bizarre alien world with clunky combat, glacial mechanics, boring exploration, and a misplaced narrative.
Scorn is aesthetically impressive and sets a tone early on. Unfortunately there's nothing more to back up this experience as plot is non-existent and puzzles are linear.
Scorn's frustrating combat, unbalanced puzzles, and unforgiving checkpoints make it an infuriating slog through an otherwise intriguing setting.
Despite a beautiful artistic design, Scorn is a tormenting journey to a strange world where there is no logic, purpose or fun.
Review in Persian | Read full review