Scorn review

I honestly am not sure how to even describe this game…. You just wake up in some weird flesh world that is what I can describe as vial and nasty. Which is what the creator wanted to get out of you… I think. Through ways of puzzles and combat you make your way through this world of death and flesh to find your purpose of being here? I guess. I really have no clue to be honest so just accept that I gave up on an overview.

I was under the impression this was more of a doom style shooter where you go hunting demons or weird SCP monsters, but honestly I was pretty happy to find out that it was more puzzles than it was carnage.

The atmosphere gives you the chills as you walk through this unknown plane of existence. Wondering what kind of horrors you will find along the way. However, the early game didn't give many frights, but it sure did put a chill down my spine.

Rip Egg Man 🥚

Throughout the beginning of the game you really get to see the stunning world. This world really creates an amazing atmosphere that you will get sucked into. Between all the joined areas and the world outside the shit you can’t help, but feel amazed at it all. The visuals help this even more though as without it you wouldn’t have the same feel. Pushing the Unreal 4 Engine to its limits creates these details you normally wouldn’t see that help tie everything together. The intricacy and design of it all.

This level of atmosphere and design is so well suited for the puzzles that are in the game. I think this was one of the best parts of the entire ordeal. With the puzzles and just world exploration it puts an awesome spin on this genre. I just wish that there was more of it since they are so well connected and create such a pleasing progression.

The other side of the coin though is the boss fight. I really loved this and thought it was a cool idea to put into the game. Even though the rest of the enemies and such might not have been the best, I really did enjoy this fight. It was pretty open ended and not explained in super detail however you can still easily figure out the solution to it. If there were more overall bosses I think the gunplay would have been pretty fun and have it where you need the next gun in some way to go with the boss you are fighting and the rest can be used as well that you already unlocked for different stages of the fights.

Sadly though not everything is all good. There was a lot in the game that I could just not get past. One of these being an issue that I had found in the beginning of the game. While trying to get Egg Man out and going I actually was soft locked. This caused a huge issue since I had to begin the game again at the start and couldn’t skip ANY cutscene and such so I lost so much time due to this. If there was either skippable cutscenes or some way to not have a soft lock happen I would have enjoyed this more.

No skippable cutscenes don’t help with health being an issue as well. I constantly got down to one shot territory, but I had such a long time getting past the enemies due to this. While trying to learn your tool and use it to actually kill things you had next to no health. I am not sure if they were planning to make this more doom-like or a soul style game, but I feel they half way tried it and it was NOT the play to half do it.

This wasn’t helped with the combat being tossed in with a pretty bad level design for the enemies that they chose. Between two acid spitters and a charger you don’t have a good way to evade them in tiny areas. And the spitters are almost impossible to dodge at times you just get free shots taken on you that might get you soft locked later on if not careful.

Luckily you won’t get soft locked though for being blind at least, but the interactable objects were not as easily seen as I would have liked. Anything that you are supposed to interact with can be really hard to figure out. They do not show anything until you basically get right on top of them. This can make it really hard to progress especially when you have a slow ass person monster thing following you.

The ending though…. OH HO HO THE ENDING. The ending WAS LITERAL GARBAGE AND I HATE IT. Anything and everything you could think of being explained was not. You quite literally start right back at the beginning and if you are not an artsy fartsy person and enjoy story or at least world building you can suck it. Because you get nothing and have to deal with it. Even just a smidge of understanding of the world would be amazing, but you get none of that really, just some leftovers from what might have happened that you just make your own story of.

If you are into a very appealing graphic game this is for you. Overall I didn’t think the actual game was bad, but as someone who really loves world building and a story to go with it I was fuming at the end to say the least. Maybe they will come out with an official story of how it all happened. Otherwise I will be angry at this game for until that happens or someone just makes something up that fits well. There is an overarching story in the whole thing, but there are so many holes that whatever might have been is not readable through the game.

If you have the game pass 100% worth a play though. The price tag on other sites at least for me is not worth it and I would have to not recommend it through those means. This game was meant to push Unreal 4 and I think it did, but they also forced too many elements I don’t think worked such as the combat and such. Maybe a more Shadow of the colossus style would have worked better with less overall enemies and more that take on that boss battle style such as with the final enemy of the game. Or if not that just have it be all puzzles and no combat. The combat did nothing, but piss me off and make me want to stop playing multiple times over.