Review: Scorn wraps a jaw-dropping world inside a frustrating game
In a previous job, this writer had to attend a business conference that was being held at a function room at a zoo.
In between sessions, attendees were allowed to head out and walk around the zoo, but weren’t allowed to explore for too long because they kept having to go back to the conference.
We bring up this fairly specific anecdote because Scorn is the video game equivalent of it – a wondrous, exciting world whose exploration is constantly interrupted by something far less enjoyable.
Had Serbian developer Ebb Software not already confirmed that HR Giger was an influence on Scorn’s art design, we’d have been able to guess it with no hesitation.
Video games are no stranger to Giger’s work, either directly – he was involved in the Dark Seed point-and-click games of the ‘90s – or indirectly, given that his work on the Alien movies was naturally replicated in the numerous video game adaptations over the years.
But even though Giger shuffled off this mortal coil some eight years ago, we’d have had no problem believing it if someone had claimed his ghost had returned to design Scorn.
Put simply, Scorn has one of the most breathtakingly, ornately biomechanical worlds we’ve seen in a game, often feeling more like an Alien game than most Alien games do.
Every room, every corridor, every vast expanse is meticulously detailed with gorgeously grotesque, organic scenery. We can’t even describe what we’re seeing most of the time – all we know is it’s both disgusting and dazzling at once.
There are no switches in this game, no buttons, no keyholes. Only orifices. Lots of slots, holes and wound-like notches for you to jam your fingers, your hand, even someone else’s dismembered arm into, with the magnificent sound design accompanying this
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