- Tested on PC with the following configuration: RTX 2080 Ti, Ryzen 5600X, 32 GB of DDR4, Samsung TV 55Q8F, SSS Samsung EVO 1 To, 8bit Manette Pro Duo
- Graphic settings set to maximum, in 1440P to 120 FPS
- Editor's Screenshots
- Game installed via GamePass PC
- Game time 7h
- Minimum advertised configuration:
- Operating system: Windows 10.
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 3300X or Intel Core i5-8400.
- Memory: 8 GB of RAM.
- Graphs: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3 GB) or AMD Raden RX 470.
- DirectX: version 12 (Directx 12)
- Storage: 50 GB of space available
In many ways, the video game grew, it matured. In fact, the experiences he proposes mature with him. The mode of consumption of this leisure followed this molt, as did the consideration which accompanies it. What was at its beginning considered a toy, then a new form of leisure to finally be considered an art is becoming increasingly democratized, considered. With the evolution of the means of consumption, trends are coming and going. The games in cartridges purchased on a head-to-head view of a jacket in the specialist stores left room for the magazine just as specialized, which were accompanied by a demo that compiled games that were then unknown to the general public.
Madeleine de Proust
Among these games were a nugget, a singular work that haunts us. The outbreak of Gaming 2.0, dematerialized and at all the internet have radically changed the consumption biases and also allowed to highlight players' returns, avoiding bad surprises. However, the feeling gradually leaves room for an alleged objective evaluation of a game, a work, validated or not by the caste of so-called passionate players and other influencers. Finally, in recent years, subscription services such as the Xbox Gamepass and the PlayStation Plus Premium have emerged, bringing in many controversies, a new way of consuming video games.
What does it have to do with Scorn Will you tell me? I'm gonna go. Indeed, if one can give something interesting to services such as the Gamepass, despite the policy of overconsumption that they cause, it is the highlight of singular works to which curious players can try, at a lower cost, at a lower risk. Scorn is part of these works, a title that has the merit of instilling curiosity and allowing players not accustomed to this type of proposal to take part in what turns out to be a real experience in their own right. Because at the end of the day, what the hell Scorn Is that a question?
This is not a Shooter
Scorn is a game that stole my interest as soon as it was announced in 2014. A short excerpt from the game in its alpha version, a campaign Kickstarter and an initial publication in two parts had left a mixed impression, both intrigued by the universe of the game obviously inspired by H.R. Giger and suspicious about the realization of a title that was for the time only a letter of intent to a niche audience. Eight years interspersed with trailers later, Scorn is actually there, at 40 € on Steam and in the Gamepass since its release on October 14. I am not going to lie to you, as I am a person who is content with just a handful of information before starting a title – for the sake of preserving experience – I had only one idea of the form of the title, but I was totally on the bottom.
While I was expecting a horrific FPS in a creepy and grotesque universe, I then found myself in a game close to Myst and The Witness, interspersed with shooting phases. Far from feeling fuzzy and though confused by the proposal of this Scorn, I embarked on this fascinating, disturbing, confusing and visceral adventure. Against all expectations, what strikes first when you start the game is the sobriety of the proposal.
Diametrically opposed to the grandiose character of its artistic direction, the game struck by its silence and austerity. Scorn allows us to incarnate an aphone protagonist, whose silence is also in the image of the first minutes of the game. This sobriety is also manifested by the total absence (or almost) of interface, clean and without any indication apart from the interaction marks indispensable for the progression of adventure. Like the fantastic Limbo de Playdead, the game immerses us in a world as fascinating as it is silent.
The reflection precedes the action
In fact, this sobriety is also necessary to upgrade the level design and the organic progression of the title. Against the current trend where games popular with the general public bombard us with information, a heavy interface and loaded with icons, but also characters who talk and help the player without stopping, Scorn Makes the bold bet of taking back this eccentric trend.
Therefore, in order to appreciate all its substantial marrow, it is essential to understand that the title of Ebb Software is very far from the shooter to the first person that could be suggested by the first presentations of the title. Composed of five acts, the adventure is resolutely slow, but also sensory in that it will be necessary to use its senses and brain to understand the world around us, solve puzzles, fight entities and walk us a path.
Thus, the player's ability to observe is at the heart of a gamedesign where we will have to analyse the different mechanisms of the game – both in its own sense and in the figurative sense – to make progress. In addition, our hearing is just as essential to understanding the world of Scorn. Whether it's to detect mysterious sounds that are essential to spot and move forward or to anticipate threats in this world at the labyrinth mazes, I won't be able to advise you to play helmet. On the subject of riddles, which are at the heart of the ScornI personally appreciated each one. To the difficulty varying according to the logic of everyone, none of them seemed insurmountable to me while I do not consider myself a player with heightened patience.
![[...] the criticism of Scorn, the nightmare awakened by [...]](https://www.movieandgame.fr/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Scorn-Giff.gif)
In addition, it is important to note that as the game offers an interface purged of all information, only interaction markers and dynamic combat-related ATH will be displayed. Therefore, the player is surprised to have to operate mechanisms without understanding how they work at first glance, to better understand them as his understanding of the world is sharpened. It is in my opinion one of the forces of the title, the construction of a twisted world, devoid of morals, but with implacable logic. Also, despite the propensity of Scorn to immerse ourselves in a contemplative adventure where the brain is more emphasized than our reflexes, the developers of Ebb Software have wanted to break the rhythm through confrontations.
Perfectible combat, as visceral as unequal
Absent at the beginning of the adventure, they will gradually integrate and increase in intensity and number as we progress in the game. Nevertheless, if there is one element of the game that is being debated, it is this one. While some think that the fighting betrays the cerebral and contemplative aspect of the game, accusing developers of deliberately placing confrontations for mercantile reasons and thus responding to a form of specification, others consider that these confrontations have a meaning within the adventure proposed by Scorn.
As often, the truth is in my mind between the two. While it is clear that the emphasis on fighting in the different trailers of the game is undoubtedly driven by a desire to sell the game more, making it look like it's not, I think these clashes have their place in the adventure. Some will say that they are soft, repetitive and they would be right.
However, I believe that the weak character of our protagonist, as well as the perceived hardship in the use of weapons, is an interest. Indeed, in the image of a Silent Hill 2 who did not shine by his confrontations, Scorn Puts us in the skin of a vulnerable character using weapons that look DIY. Yes, obviously, the first weapon of the game and its plunger at the dreadful pace are a wound. Yes, the game is punitive, gives little ammunition, little health and leaves room for serious moments of frustration. But as we understand the patterns of the enemies and we get the three new weapons, the fights in my opinion gain in intensity and in fact, in interest.
They allow my sense to rhythmize the adventure and accentuate the sense of threat that emanates from his viscerally anxious world. On the other hand, if I were to send a red card to the developers of Ebb Software, it would be less about fighting than about the managed backup points anyhow. Thus, it's not uncommon that after succumbing to a confrontation, the game recharges some time earlier with a reduced life bar from the start, even if the player had more health before the fight. As a result, you often find yourself having to start over a section with a reduced health to the skin of grief and no way to heal yourself. It is not only frustrating, but also terribly penalising for the progression of a game whose only brake until then was the apprehension of its world as such. A world that remains and represents the major force of Scorn.
The source of the sublime discovers here its abym
Obviously, if Ebb Software's production shines first, it is thanks to the richness and grotesque beauty of its universe. Rarely, a video work has managed to blend impeccable technique and artistic perfection with so much maestria. This tour de force, we owe it mainly to four men. Indeed, if Ebb Software's project manager Ljubomir Peklar and artistic director Filip Acovic had an idea as precise as it was brilliant of the world they wanted to give birth to, this project could never have taken shape without the obvious and palpable inspirations of the famous Swiss artist H.R. Giger (creator of Alien's xenomorph) and the most confidential Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński. While the influence of the Swiss artist is evident in the representation of the biomechanical world of Scorn, the imprint of the Polish painter feels just as much reinforced by Baroque and Gothic representations.
In fact, the wealth of this world lies in the digestion of these influences by the thinking heads of Ebb Software in order to offer us a unique adventure. Let us not lie, the aesthetics of Scorn is confusing and is simply not within everyone's reach. Disgusting with beauty, scandalously fascinating, each chapter of the game is an ode to contemplation. The universe in which the player evolves is a crazy coherence, where the anatomy of this world is represented by a mixture of flesh and machines that unite to bring to life a coherent and systemic world. The player then wanders in a living environment, in every sense of the word. In the chiselled forms of the machines mix clusters of organic matter with irregular lines.
All that constitutes the world of Scorn is made up of mechanical pillars, doors and switches, carved from the bones and joined by muscles, giving rise to mechanisms oiled by blood. Hence, the first weapon of the game is a perfect representation of this logic, true mechanical piston from an organic source. We could then talk about the ergonomic representation of the world as we see how the relationship between man and machine is at the heart of the visual and semantic representation of the title.
Moreover, H.R. Giger's influence is again found in the anatomical dimension of his universe. Here we find an eloquent sexual symbolism, with among other joyous phallic representations, whether metaphorical or real, which are continually associated with orifices of any kind. Far from being a simple pot-pourri fed by various influences, the world of Scorn is coherent, sublime in its monstrosity and succeeded in responding to its own logic. This impression of duality, whether that of man in the machine or of beauty within the horror, is felt in every moment, where the player's wanderings in corridors with irregular contours are followed by breathtaking aerial panoramas.
The reason for the horror
But if the visual success of the game is total, the sound score is not left behind. Thus, the biomechanical character of the artistic direction of the title is also reflected in the sound effects where the slamming of the machines mix with the noises from the many organic sources, that they come from the decorations where lamentations and grunts of living entities wandering in this nightmare museum. The music is not set aside, ranging from discrete tracks highlighting the singular atmosphere of the title to real flights during the discovery of certain places. Here too, about form, Scorn again succeeds in a score without false note.
Finally, however sublime it may be, the form is not sufficient if it is not followed by the background. A question remains, does this universe have anything to tell us? The least we can say is that in his speech, Scorn is nebulous. Indeed, the sobriety of the game mentioned earlier is the result of an obvious desire to propose a purely environmental narrative. No real kinematics or dialogues, no texts either, Scorn lives and looks at himself. Specifically, Scorn analyses, inspects, the player eager for information to then take the bull by the horns and dissect each part of the five chapters to understand its meaning. Like an abstract painting, the title is a work destined to provoke a feeling through its exhibition. From metaphors to metaphors, interpretations to interpretations, the adventure proposed by Ebb Software delivers an adventure with many questions, without any answer, but before anything without meaning. Many players will finish the game with a particular feeling, disappointment for some and fascination for others. From two lunar things, either the fascinated or disappointed player will want to get answers and will indeed want to start a game again in order to better understand the extent of the questions marking this universe prolixe in symbols, or he will let go of the controller and uninstall the game, satisfied or not with the experience he has just experienced, or to undergo. One thing remains certain, Scorn, during his five to seven hours of play, will fascinate and deg
For
- Finally, however sublime it may be, the form is not sufficient if it is not followed by the background. A question remains, does this universe have anything to tell us? The least we can say is that in his speech, Scorn is nebulous. Indeed, the sobriety of the game mentioned earlier is the result of an obvious desire to propose a purely environmental narrative. No real kinematics or dialogues, no texts either, Scorn lives and looks at himself. Specifically, Scorn analyses, inspects, the player eager for information to then take the bull by the horns and dissect each part of the five chapters to understand its meaning. Like an abstract painting, the title is a work destined to provoke a feeling through its exhibition. From metaphors to metaphors, interpretations to interpretations, the adventure proposed by Ebb Software delivers an adventure with many questions, without any answer, but before anything without meaning. Many players will finish the game with a particular feeling, disappointment for some and fascination for others. From two lunar things, either the fascinated or disappointed player will want to get answers and will indeed want to start a game again in order to better understand the extent of the questions marking this universe prolixe in symbols, or he will let go of the controller and uninstall the game, satisfied or not with the experience he has just experienced, or to undergo. One thing remains certain, Scorn, during his five to seven hours of play, will fascinate and deg
- A proposal that honors the player's intelligence
- The amazing artistic direction
- The remarkable soundtrack
- A controlled and bug-free technical score
- A sober interface, almost absent
- Environmental narrative
Against
- A singular work that marks the spirits
- Unhappy and mischievous check-points
- Perfectable and sometimes frustrating fighting
- A short lifespan
- Answers
Not everyone will like it
Frankly a great test, I felt the same way on my side, especially vis-à-vis the backup points.
At the end I had to a little rushed with the life that goes down since I was in dirty condition before the checkpoint, it gave rise to a strange situation on the border of agony.
But I kept an incredible memory of the game that no other similar. The comparison with Myst and The Witness is good. In short, very good pick.
I found your comparison with the combat system. « heavy » Silent Hill 2 and the reasoning that follows very relevant.
Like you, I'm not ready to forget about Scorn. It's time to read your year record.