Scorn Preview - What A Grotesque Experience
The essence of Scorn is to create a feeling of disgust and unease, plunging the player into a state of anxiety with its grotesque and biologically repulsive creature designs. It resembles the Terran species infected with the Zerg virus in Starcraft from a first-person perspective. However, if you were to categorize it solely as a horror game, I'm not entirely sure, but it definitely gives off an unsafe feeling as you constantly sense someone lurking behind you. Based on the demo that Kepler sent me, the repulsive and fleshy imagery of Scorn was effective, and I feel like I would enjoy anything that Ebb Software incorporates into the game.
The studio even admits to drawing inspiration from Swiss artist H.R Giger and Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński. So it's no surprise that the world of Scorn is very fleshy, with organic matter mixed with machinery. The game lacks dialogue, so music and sound effects are what you hear. To be precise, all of these elements serve a common purpose, which is to tell the game's story through the game environment itself.
In Scorn, you play as an anonymous character isolated in a desolate and brutal place, where wet, fleshy organisms cling to the environment and surroundings, creating a sense of biological and mechanical fusion. Through this demo, I realized that although it is a first-person shooter, it focuses more on puzzle-solving and exploration rather than high-action gameplay or jump scares. To be exact, it is a psychological horror, devoid of cheap scares, but instead creating a sense of anxiety as you constantly solve puzzles to escape while feeling like someone is waiting behind you to strike.
In terms of graphics and art design, I think Scorn has done a great job, and it's fair to say that it has already garnered attention since it was revealed years ago due to its distinctiveness. Its eerie and macabre ambiance is unsettling, as everything in the game is neither fully alive nor completely dead, creating an uncanny blend that players know they are not alone in this world. It's a sense of solitude that isn't really lonely. Even the fleshy walls create a feeling that they are observing and guiding you towards a strange and terrifying place.
Personally, I'm not a fan of horror games, and if you watch my vlog discussing whether The Last of Us Part 1 Remake is worth $70, I clearly state that horror games are selective and not everyone enjoys prolonged anxiety. And Scorn delivers just that. It seems to meet what I expected when trying out this demo, but its experience feels different from other horror games. It's an experience that doesn't deceive you and genuinely astounds you, rather than attempting to scare you with cheap jump scares.
The lack of dialogue in the game further enhances the sense of unease as you silently venture into this brutal area. Perhaps this is Ebb Software's intention in creating an experience centered around survival and exploration. It seems that nothing and no one in Scorn will tell you what to do or at least provide explanations or hints about what is happening in the game. The storytelling and narrative construction in the game is non-existent, so you won't truly know where you are or what you should do. You have to explore and seek answers to the puzzles on your own.
I believe the goal of Scorn is to escape from wherever it may be - be it hell, an alien planet, or an infected flesh ship, whatever it may be, and honestly, if I knew, I couldn't disclose it due to the embargo from the publisher. In general, Scorn doesn't give you anything, relying solely on your survival instincts to stimulate blind curiosity and encourage you to move forward.
This isn't a new design approach, as many players of From Software's Souls games are already accustomed to it, with the lore of the game being discovered through personal exploration without any guidance.
However, in reality, Scorn may have taken this approach too far, as its storytelling and level design seem too vague and unclear in terms of what they are trying to convey. Of course, it's still too early to conclude as I have only played the demo, and it is very short, just over an hour. So, everything will have to wait for the official release of the game, and maybe then I will be able to evaluate it. It would be unfair to judge an entire game based solely on the initial minutes, so I will not do that.
And that's what I experienced after spending over an hour with the Scorn demo. The game's openness and lack of a clear objective can be a double-edged sword, as the storytelling method can either intrigue or fail to convince players to delve deeper. However, I lean more towards the former, as the game's environment and setting are incredibly strange and captivating. Scorn creates a sense of anxiety and intensity, purely within the realm of imagination, where players never know when it will introduce terrifying and grotesque elements. It is all within the player's mind, even though the game doesn't show it, and that is perhaps the best thing that this studio intends to achieve. Giving players a large enough space for them to feel their internal fear. I think Scorn may not be for everyone, but it has true potential.
