Game On: Scorn review – a haunting but tedious ode to H. R. Giger

After nearly nine years in development, Oct. 14 saw the release of Scorn, a first-person horror game that tasks players with navigating a nightmarish realm. The world is composed entirely of techno-organic structures and machinations drawing heavy inspiration from H.R. Giger, the late artist famously responsible for the design of the xenomorphs from “Alien.”

Scorn’s unique art style is far and away its greatest strength. Throughout my time with the game, I marveled over the alien and unsettling appearance of everything around. There isn’t a single item or structure in the entire campaign that isn’t bizarrely twisted and macabre in some way. Even the player’s character can’t exactly be considered human – just humanoid.

Unfortunately, I feel that’s the extent of Scorn’s virtues. The game itself is an absolute slog, tasking players with resolving all manner of tedious puzzles to progress forward. I love puzzle games, but the ones Scorn presents aren’t compelling or legitimately challenging. On several occasions, I thought I was simply lost long before I realized I was being presented with a puzzle. My patience was tested far more than my problem-solving skills.

Combat enters the picture about halfway through Scorn, but the mechanics are clunky and downright dreadful. Enemy attacks are seemingly incapable of missing, no doubt aided by the player’s inability to strafe properly – meanwhile, your own weapons are terribly underpowered.

In similar titles, this is a game’s way of encouraging players to find ways to avoid or sneak around enemies. But Scorn implements zero stealth mechanics and precious few alternate routes, so your best bet is to fight or “run” away – and by run, I mean take a brisk jog while some bio-mechanical monstrosity gnaws at your ankles. Fun stuff.

On one hand, it’s worth noting that Scorn is an indie game developed by a very small team – the graphics alone are absolutely stunning for an indie effort. On the other hand, it’s a video game, not an art gallery, and must be considered as such. Its Steam store page promises “all the story-telling happens in-game, with no cutscenes to distract you” – I’m sorry, but where’s the story?

I’m no stranger to implicit storytelling – Icewind Dale and Left 4 Dead, a couple of my favorite games of all time, utilize environmental clues to fill in the blanks left by their apparently simple plots. With Scorn, there’s no story anywhere – you’re thrown into the world with zero explanation and zero motivation.

That lack of motivation is deeply problematic. Scorn’s first puzzle essentially tasks you with torturing some helpless creature to proceed forward. It was a visually disturbing experience, but I’ve felt much guiltier for far less heinous crimes in other games.

Despite Ebb Software’s obvious attempts at immersing the player, I didn’t feel immersed at all since there’s no story, no stakes, and seemingly no point to anything. I was the proverbial fly on the wall despite the first-person perspective. Scorn isn’t horrifying, it’s just numbing.

Thus far, reviews for Scorn are predictably mixed, but ultimately I’m just baffled it’s made the splash that it has. I’m not sure who the game appeals to – horror aficionados will hate the combat, puzzle gurus will find it laughably unchallenging and fans of immersive storytelling will feel shortchanged by the lack of an actual story.

A far better experience in the realm of dystopian techno-organic horror is the 1996 point-and-click I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, a game based on the Hugo-award winning short story by the same name. The graphics are a massive step down from Scorn, but the plot is compelling and downright haunting if that’s what you’re after.

For all my criticism, I will say this – Scorn is remarkably polished, working exactly as intended. I didn’t encounter a single bug in my playthrough, and in 2022, that’s a rare accomplishment. My hat is off to Ebb Software for taking their time – all nine years of it – instead of releasing a half-broken product and patching it up later like so many others.

Riordan Zentler can be reached at riordanzentler@gmail.com.