Scorn

Scorn is a first person action game for PC that combines horror and science fiction genres. It was mostly inspired by the works of a Swiss painter, H.R. Giger, the creator of the xenomorph from the Alien series. The title was developed by a remote indie studio, Eb Software from Belgrade, Serbia. Despite the failure at the crowdfunding campaign at Kickstarter, the developers managed to secure funding necessary to complete their game and release it for PC in two interconnected parts.

Mechanics

The gameplay of Scorn is based on the idea of throwing the player into an alien, unreal world that balances on the verge of dream and reality, similarly to productions of Frictional Games (SOMA, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, or the Penumbra series). While playing, we traverse several open regions joined together, built almost entirely from organic material. Each of them is characterized not only by different style but also a unique set of puzzles and characters. The game, first and foremost, puts an emphasis on the dense atmosphere and exploration that plays an incredibly important role since it can change the further course of the story. There are also numerous logic puzzles to solve where players must manipulate various fancy machines and switches.

As we progress in the game, the protagonist we control gradually masters new skills and finds a number of useful items and weapons that, similarly to the game’s world, are built of organic material, and their appearance can be really disturbing. Combat is not essential means to an end, though. We must also apply different tactics, especially given the fact that ammunition is severely limited. What’s interesting, not every encountered character is hostile towards us; depending on the current mood, they may ignore us or try to tear us to pieces, which forces us to constantly stay vigilant at every step.

Technical aspects

Scorn for PC is powered by Unreal Engine 4, an advanced engine that provides high-quality visual experience. The game’s main distinguishing feature is a unique graphic style that is clearly inspired not only by the abovementioned H.R. Giger but also the artworks of Zdzislaw Beksinski and the movie works of David Cronenberg. What’s interesting, the production features no film cutscenes — the entire story is told solely on the basis of the game engine. In order to empower immersion, the developers did not implement a classical HUD interface, thanks to which we are not distracted by useless information.

Last updated on 15 October 2024