Search results
- An overlooked and misunderstood gem, Scorn is plainly a film by cinephiles for cinephiles. It's also a tribute to the personal complications that come with filmmaking. Everything else about the film is subservient to this, and while that may not be for everyone, it's a wonderful work of art. The acting is superb and makes each character feel real.
www.rottentomatoes.com/m/scorn
People also ask
Does Scorn have a story?
Is scorn a good horror game?
Is scorn a new type of horror?
Is scorn a good book?
Can you play scorn as a human?
Is scorn a gruesome survival-horror-FPS?
Oct 14, 2022 · Pros. +. Stunning and provocative visuals. +. Uses horror to explore intriguing themes. +. Well-crafted multi-part puzzles. Cons. - Easy to get confused and lost at times. - Combat sections can...
- Freelance Games Critic
Oct 20, 2022 · Scorn's place among the best horror games of 2022 may be cemented by its masterful use of body horror, making it the perfect challenge for players that tend to seek out - or perhaps avoid - that particular flavor of fear.
- A relentlessly unsettling delve into Hell with dreadful combat.
- How much action do you want in your horror games?
- Scorn - 10 Screenshots
- The 31 Best Modern Horror Movies
- Verdict
By Leana Hafer
Updated: Oct 16, 2022 5:07 am
Posted: Oct 14, 2022 10:00 am
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 liked that it trusted me to draw my own conclusions and gave me enough hints to do so.
None – powerlessness is scary
A little bit – make me count my bullets
Some, but guns shouldn't solve every problem
Plenty – I'm not going in there without a bazooka
Scorn stars an equally enigmatic zombie… thing who wakes up in the middle of this mess and sets about solving some moderately challenging puzzles with no stated mission other than to keep moving forward. Thus, it's purely curiosity that motivated me to keep going. This nameless homunculus, or whatever he is, presents me with the same question as the expanse around him: Is any of this even worth saving? And an unskippable cutscene early on seems to suggest that, no, he isn't. So I didn't really develop any sense of self-preservation or hope for salvation. This place and this character probably got what they deserved. I just wanted to see what was beyond the next rib cage door.
It's constantly, unforgivingly grim.
Still, I have to applaud the singular, clear vision behind every sight and sound. There isn't so much a soundtrack to Scorn as there is a subtle, electronic ambience that deserves to be experienced on some nice, surround sound headphones with good bass. It's also impressive how everything you can interact with has moving parts that fit together – whether that's one of those colossal puzzles the size of an entire tower, or even your inventory, which is made up of these weird, fleshy artifacts. Each round that goes into one of your weapons has to be hand-loaded, and getting more from a replenishment station is another animation all its own. This really served to make me feel grounded in the world.
Combat itself is dreadful. And I don't mean that in a good way.
“
Unfortunately, the combat itself is dreadful. And I don't mean that in a good way. Most enemies have highly accurate ranged attacks, your strafing speed is painfully slow, and the only weapons that do a decent amount of damage have very limited ammo. Some of the hitboxes are ridiculous: it looks like you should be able to shoot through the bars on a cage-like, rotating platform, but you can't, which undermines the tactile feeling Scorn tries to create. And both healing items and checkpoints can be very stingy in places. Thankfully combat is only a major part of one of five chapters, which is the only reason it didn't entirely ruin the experience for me.
I don't think any of this was an accident. On the contrary, it seems like combat was meant to be a pain in the ass to encourage you to avoid it if you can. But there's no real stealth or cover system either, so I generally resorted to cheap but tedious strategies, such as running around a pillar like a cartoon character and getting in a hit wheneve...
If Scorn were much longer than it is, I think it would have overstayed its welcome. But the fact that it's such a bite-sized sprint through the grisly and surreal made it memorable and satisfying. The frustrating combat, mercifully, only haunts a fraction of that playtime. But the superb, darkly mystifying art direction and ambient soundtrack suffu...
Oct 14, 2022 · Scorn's dreadful bio-mechanical world is a fantastic example of horror design and level design alike, but its lovely mess of flesh is let down by messier combat. Developer: Ebb Software. Publisher: Kepler Interactive. Release: October 14th. On: Windows. From: Steam, GOG. Price: £32/€40/$40.
- Former Deputy Editor
An overlooked and misunderstood gem, Scorn is plainly a film by cinephiles for cinephiles. It's also a tribute to the personal complications that come with filmmaking. Everything else about the...
- Mystery & Thriller, Drama
- Lindsley Register
- Jonathan Kirk
Sep 27, 2017 · Flesh for us equals danger, pain, and death. In SCORN it’s normal. Part of any good horror genre is an initial unfamiliarity where everything we know has been upended.
Oct 18, 2022 · Our Scorn story explainer covers our interpretation of Ebb Software’s surrealist first-person survival horror game, including its hidden meaning and themes
Prime Members Get Instant Access to the Latest Movies, TV Shows and Amazon Originals. Watch Binge-Worthy TV, Blockbuster Movies, and Hit Shows Included With Prime Video.
