First-person horror game Scorn has been turning heads since it was first revealed in 2014, but it didn't land on many horror fans' radars until 2020 when it was given the spotlight at the Xbox Series X showcase event. It was then that a wider audience was introduced to Scorn's disgustingly detailed body horror and distinct fleshy art style, and it quickly became one of the most-anticipated horror games for many. Unfortunately for those intrigued by the game and hoping for Scorn to serve as a solid new horror game to play this Halloween season, it's a massive disappointment.
Scorn's obsession with body horror and H.R. Giger-inspired architecture does lead to some interesting sights at least. There are a few moments in Scorn that deliver impressive visual spectacle, almost making the slog through the game worthwhile. Scorn's animations in particular look great and are sufficiently gross, whether it's players sticking their fingers in wet flesh holes to activate an elevator or reloading their weapon by pushing yellow growths into the back of a meaty gun.
The problem is players are exposed to Scorn's disturbing animations so much over the course of the game that they'll become numb to it all. For the first couple of Acts, Scorn's gross-out body horror is admittedly effective, but it's something that has serious diminishing returns. By the end of the game, Scorn's body horror tricks become dull, predictable, and downright tiresome.
A big part of the problem is Scorn doesn't give players any way to really empathize with or relate to the main character. Scorn's main character doesn't appear to be a human being and players have no idea what their motives are. It's not even entirely clear that what's happening to them is out of the ordinary for their species. After all, the objects and machines players interact with throughout Scorn appear designed to specifically carry out the things that are happening to the main character, and they are too alien to really think of any other kind of practical purpose they would serve.
Compare Scorn's body horror to Resident Evil 7's attempt at it. Resident Evil 7 establishes early on that protagonist Ethan Winters is looking for his missing wife. He finds himself at the Baker estate where he is subjected to all kinds of horrific injuries. Ethan reacts to what's happening to him realistically, and it's all happening in a location that players can recognize as the real world, despite the supernatural elements at play. In Resident Evil 7, these unspeakable things are happening to a human being on planet Earth. In Scorn, they are happening to a personality-less, vaguely-humanoid entity that is simply existing, going from one area to the next and having things happen to it with no clear goal beyond solving that area's puzzle and moving on to the next one.
Scorn is primarily a puzzle-solving game. Each Act has a main puzzle or two for players to solve, most of which are fairly challenging without crossing the line to frustration. Scorn's puzzles are a highlight of the experience, with a couple that are particularly clever and actually incorporates the game's body horror in interesting ways. Sadly, Scorn players will spend most of their time aimlessly wandering around the levels instead of solving puzzles. To make matters worse, Scorn's areas all look the same, which makes the game confusing to navigate and incredibly tedious.
Exploring Scorn can be a nightmare and that's compounded by the game's baffling checkpoint system. Scorn does not allow for manual saves, possibly because it seems like it would be easy for players to soft-lock themselves in some sections, and it does a bad job of making it clear when it's auto-saved. The only reason players know that they've progressed to the next Act of the game is because they'll get an achievement and if they hit "Load" in the menu, they can see the various Acts they've reached so far. If players happen to get themselves killed by one of Scorn's monsters, the whole thing becomes even more confusing, as they may not realize what actions they need to repeat to get back to where they were before they died.
While it's not nearly as confusing to navigate as other sections of the game, Act 5 of Scorn is still the most frustrating part. Without revealing too many details, the puzzle of this area revolves around players having to use a machine that causes damage to themselves to temporarily be able to complete normal actions. The first attempt at using this machine caused a game-breaking bug that made all actions impossible. The game changed the Scorn character's weapon to a useless melee tool with no way to swap weapons or do anything besides walk around.
Thankfully, the checkpoint wasn't too far back, so quitting out of the game and re-entering fixed the issue. But the problem is that this stage of the game forces the player to keep a specific weapon (not the melee one) equipped for story reasons. The game-breaking bug already established that not being able to switch weapons could mean that the game isn't working properly, leading to confusion and assumptions that Scorn was still broken.
What will likely confuse players further is how the game tries to communicate to them that they are stuck using that specific weapon by design. While trying to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers, the idea is that this gun is basically stuck on the Scorn character's arm, and that's preventing them from interacting with objects or switching to their other weapons. If players try to interact with something before damaging themselves with the machine to get temporary freedom, the Scorn character looks down at their occupied hands to try to clue players in as to why this isn't possible. But due to a visual glitch, the gun the character is wielding in these moments is not the gun that's supposed to be stuck to their arm, and so many players will assume that their game is still broken and have no clue how to proceed.
Once players figure out that their game isn't broken, they'll start solving the puzzle like normal, but it's here where one of Scorn's most egregious oversights is found. The goal in this area is to be fast. Players have to use a machine that hurts them to regain full control of their hands, and then they have to move quickly to complete interactions and progress through the area before they're forced to hurt themselves again. It's established that this is all governed by a timer. There should be plenty of time for players to complete one of the puzzle's main objectives because it's only a room over, but instead, Scorn cheats and reduces the timer to zero if players try to go that way, forcing them to complete everything in the order that was intended. The game breaks its own rules to keep players on the intended path, which is about the worst thing a puzzle game can do.
Eventually, players will strong-arm their way through this nonsense and get to the end of Scorn's story. Unfortunately, they will soon discover that suffering through all that wasn't worth the headache. Without getting into spoilers, Scorn's ending is simply more of the body horror that players have already slogged through for five hours by the time they reach it. There's a cool visual to send players off, but it ultimately has zero impact.
Finishing Scorn does not leave players with a sense of satisfaction; it's not scary and it's not fun. Most will be glad that it's over, and at least it's mercifully short. It only takes about five hours to beat Scorn, and our playthrough ended with us earning 11 out of 12 of the game's achievements. Scorn gives players absolutely no reason to return to it, and quite frankly, it doesn't offer much reason to play it even once.
It should be pointed out that Scorn is a day one Xbox Game Pass game, and that is really the only way to justify playing it. Otherwise, Scorn is an experience that even the most diehard horror game fans should skip.
Scorn is available now for PC and Xbox Series X. The Best War Games was provided a PC code for this review.
Scorn
- Released
- October 14, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
Scorn is an atmospheric first-person horror adventure game set in a nightmarish universe of odd forms and somber tapestry.
It is designed around the idea of "being thrown into the world". Isolated and lost inside this dream-like world, you will explore different interconnected regions in a non-linear fashion. The unsettling environment is a character itself.
Every location contains its own theme (story), puzzles and characters that are integral in creating a cohesive world. Throughout the game you will open up new areas, acquire different skill sets, weapons, various items and try to comprehend the sights presented to you.
- Genre(s)
- Horror