Scorn Review
Imagine if you had to stick your hands into a sink full of dirty, putrid-smelling water to fish around for clues to a mystery. You keep pulling out weirder and more confusing stuff, and you really don't want to go back in again – but what you've found so far makes you extremely curious about what other secrets may be hiding in there. That's the best way I can describe the overall experience of playing Scorn, a first-person puzzle game about exploring the ruins of a dead civilization. With a mesmerizing, biomechanical aesthetic inspired by the likes of H.R. Giger and Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, it's far more disturbing and unsettling than it is horrifying. But the vibes it creates can be very potent.
The most impressive bone in this mangled skeleton is the macabre art direction, which creates a cohesive world even when each of Scorn's hubs are distinct in their upsetting grandeur. The architecture and weird puzzle contraptions exist in a space that's not so much a fusion of flesh and machine, but more like someone blended the two until you can't quite tell if anything you're looking at is alive or artificial. Soaring, alien spires mimic the shapes of bone and viscera, while foreboding tunnels give you the distinct impression of being swallowed whole.
Since there's no dialogue or text of any kind to explain why you're here or what happened, you're forced to look closely at all of this fascinatingly unpleasant imagery to get some kind of clue as to why the world is so messed up and mostly deserted. And for my part, I do think I was able to piece it together by the end of my brief but dense seven-and-a half hour journey into hell. This is a world where there are ultimately no definite answers, but I
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