For the OLD SHOOL FPS FANS, this game is very general, not as good as AVP1 AVP2 QUAKE3 BLODD2 Kiss: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child FAKK2 DOOM System Shock2 QUT BREAK has fun
"And from start to finish it's a hopeless, depressing journey through a relentless world that absolutely hates you." My experience growing up in Serbia. Devs are Serbian
@@Grandmastergav86 That's the point, I think. With the slow pace and it's agonizing ending, it's clear that the devs want you to play the game only once.
@@Grandmastergav86 I have absolutely no problems with games meant to be played once. I'm surprised everytime it comes up again cause it doesn't even come to my mind until I hear about it. Is this a multiplayer audience thing?
@@piotr78 yeah it's really weird to me too. You could watch 15minuted if somebody playing this game and tell that's it's not a an infinitely replayable doom clone so why people are acting like that's what it should be are beyond me. Gamers are so immature it's wild to me. Could you imagine if movie enthusiasts went to film festivals and threw fla fit when every movie wasn't avengers endgame? That's what it feels in the game world lol
One of the main influences for that game wasnt giger, but also beksinski. If you leave the creatures alone and retreat from time by time, they will crawl out of the way. So you can avoid almost every encounter
I’m honestly not too bothered by the length. We’ve got too many 3 billion hour open worlds filled with “content” or loot filled grindfests so a focused 4 hour experience that makes for a good evening or two of moody gameplay during the Halloween season seems pretty dope to me. I love a game that actually ends
For real. I mean, I love Elden Ring, but I’m sick and tired of crafting systems and massive open worlds where it’s too easy to miss like 50% of unique characters, weapons, and items.
@@cubanreal7857 No shit, detective, there’s 6 different endings. They still could’ve at least improved the pacing of it with a better map. Elden Ring has the absolute worst map in the history of open world games, even after you find all the pieces to it. lol it’s embarrassing how horrible it is.
@@kaj7135 That is the most fucking ridiculous statement I've ever heard. Elden Ring is one of the best open world of the past 5 years. If you ACTUALLY think that it's the WORST MAP in the history of open world games, you're either trolling or braindead. Fuck off
Honestly the game really gave me feelings of, well, capitalism. Of beings exploited for their very essence, you reach a point where your body is just used up and then (spoiler) you end up never reaching your goal anyway, cut off by another predatory creature.
Can we imagine if this game comes out in VR in the near future. That alone will make an awesome experience,and makes us feel that we’re in this surreal nightmarish world of Scorn.
Man, Scorn VR would be INSANE. It has to be done! Even though i imagine implementing some of the puzzle controls wouldn't be that easy, i'm sure it could be done somehow.
I've always felt that body horror is the most disturbing and horrifying of the horror genre across any medium. Jumpscares do nothing for me at all. I like being disturbed on a deep and primal level, and staring at the ceiling at night because I cannot get the imagery out of my head. Also think Soma is an absolutely fantastic game, one of the best storylines in games of it's era.
@@yellowcard8100 👍I also recommend BLAME! for some biotech / organic looking technology. Other works by Tsutomu Nihei as well. A favorite of mine, although less of a horror series and more obscure is also Franken Fran.
It's sad that the market has become so saturated with shit that "Horror game=Jumpscares so no Jumpscares=Not a Horror game" has becomes a common mindset. Scorn is 1000% a horror game.
@@b4u992 Idk, much as I don't like the idea of limiting the horror genre to jumpscares (Which I dont think Gman meant, by the by), it also seems a bit too broad to call something truly horror just because its a game where everything is made out of meat and looks painful. Scorn doesn't seem like the game that makes you feel dread, like any GOOD horror game usually incorporates.
I see it as more of a surrealist art piece, it's not really a game so much as it is an experience. It's gross and horrific, sure but even a guy like me, who's never gonna touch the game, isn't horrified by it. It's not trying to hide its cards, so nothing really shocks you and I do think something being disturbing is far different then horror.
I have only really died like once while playing. You can actually avoid a lot of the fighting(especially early on) by simply keeping your distance from the enemies, a lot of the times enemies are going to a specific spot to enter a hole or crawl away or otherwise leave the area. Scorn is definitely a very weird and pretty unique game. I just kinda wish there was more of it, and I don't mean like "Ugh, it's too short!" but more like "wow, that was something special, can I get another dose of this shit? Straight into my veins, please and thank you."
I hope they make Scorn 2 with a lot more mechanics, guns, enemies and fleshed out world. 😁 The wasteland is a missed opportunity to showcase different buildings that could be stepping stones for each other, but i don't think they had the man power or the time/funding to do that
He makes a point of saying he doesn't like when you have to play these games and avoid every enemy. It's obvious he was going into it under the assumption he'd be shooting a lot of shit all the time.
@@_Jay_Maker_ Well in RE2 and RE3 you can run and avoid most enemies and it's just collecting items and solving puzzles yet it's not criticised like this
The 2016 build shows it is that, I have criticism that the current AI are just violent and will attack you no matter what, you even have in the old build one of the small guys just walk by you and do turn to face you but doesn't do anything.
It's sad how much was cut from this game. If you look at the digital artbook, there was meant to be an additional two areas, between the initial 'crater' and the temple area. One would have been a labyrinth that would have had those little gnome looking dudes in some kind of perpetual war with another race, engineering all sort of oddities, and then the next area before the temple, would have been a tower area with a focus on cancerous out of control growths and monsters. The final product and art is amazing, shame not all of it was realised.
That's basically the only amazing thing about it. The visuals are amazing and the ambient soundtrack (if that's what you want to call it) is perfectly appropriate. Aside from that, the puzzles are repetitive, and the combat is godawful. This game had potential, but the actual game mechanics severely lacked.
@@jimherold7827 Unfortunately, i have to agree. The game only started being fun when i acquired the guns. Also didn't get to try the grenade launcher part of the game, as that wasn't done yet at the time of the playtest.
Given it's price on Steam, I'd argue 4-5 hours is about the sweet spot. I'm happy to see how over time you keep changing and evolving, and also appreciate that you're embracing more and more of a mentality of "gonna be fair to this game even if I don't like it or isn't for me", instead of the "I didn't like it, therefore is hot trash that I will burn" many youtubers had a terrible habit of doing for far too long.
Based on the gameplay i watched too, given its about a 40$ game; it also seems to be quite well made. I didnt see many things that looked like bugs beyond 1 i noticed; and in general the game doesnt come across or feel like an unpolished & rushed piece of shit like most games that come out now. Its 40$ for a seemingly polished, relatively short but welcome 4-5 hour game with a very interesting world and artstyle.
Eh I respectfully disagree, I don't think 4 hours for $40 is the "sweet spot", especially for a game that had gameplay when I was in school and comes out when I've been an adult for almost a decade. I respect the visuals, I think the environments and modelling are amazing, and I can see it being like Soma in that I both take screenshots and reinstall and replay it again every few years. But I think what I said will make sense to many.
that is not the sweet spot considering you can get games with 80 hours of content for 30$. i really like the game but def should lower the price that just aint worth it. its really bad. its 5 bucks less than doom eternal but has like 90% less content . doom can get you like 80 hours of content. dont defend prices like this. they would have probably would have made more money if game was 15$ to 20$ becuase i seenve alot of people say 8 hours for 40$ bucks and not even try the game wont get.
i agree, not every game needs that, but you know what they actually need? being more than just graphics and setting. which this game really isnt. its a painfully boring experience, unless you are one of those people who dont actually care about the gameplay.
@@gordonfreeman8109 so? its a game, not a question in a test with multiple choices. you are allowed to make the game a tribute to giger AND make it fun TO PLAY as well. its the same way you can have action and horror in aliens. its not an "either or", you can do both, and more importantly, you should do it..
@@marcosdheleno Just because it isn't fun to you doesnt make it bad. Atmosphere IS a component of gameplay, you're gatekeeping the very concept of a video game, a game isn't all about action.
@@marcosdheleno I had fun with it. I didn't walk in expecting a funky adventure with scores and epic scenes. I went in expecting a decaying world, hard to understand, with beyond questionable conditions of whatever they consider life. I got even more than that, and I've been following this game since the first screenshots and pretty basic trailers. This is a niche title. Less than half the player base will appreciate how much effort, detail and love went into compromising to it. I can already see that. But it did a good job, despite all the offsets, rather than forcing itself to mutate into a betrayal of the atmosphere, aesthetic, and mood. I wouldn't say it is a game to be completed in a single sitting. This is their first game. They've already done much better than plenty shits out there that blindly stuck to the average desires of the average player.
It's really impressive how artists are able to come up with an entirely different world from our own With it's own alien, yet detailed, architecture and culture
Deluxe Edition purchaser here, this game had so much put into it and yet so much more it could have had. After having read through and admired the art design book of the game I can't help but applaud the amount of thought that went into the setting design, and even more that was thought about that we didn't get to see in the game. Without giving away too much in the art book, there were two potential Acts that were intended to be put into the game that were left out, each playing more into the story and the motivation of the people that once lived in the Scorn world. I think at least one of these Acts could have been implemented into the game with a few tweaks to their concepts to make them fit as I was really starved for lore when playing the game, although I know that wasn't necessarily the intended purpose. If nothing else the art speaks for itself and if you do buy the game at full price, you might as well get the Deluxe Edition for the soundtrack and art book which are both beautiful and eerie. *Spoilers (Kind of) Below* As for my personal review, to be honest I think Scorn under-stayed it's welcome and just as I was getting into it, it abruptly ended and left me wanting in a bad way, as in an unfinished game kind of way. On top of that the (few) puzzles that were there felt forced and sometimes even out of place, The Crater puzzle being the worst offender where despite it being beneath a giant creature that births horrible abominations, the puzzle itself was a literal maze puzzle, and it honestly made it impossible to suspend my disbelief. Also, as most people have noticed the game intentionally lacks a sort of story in lieu of its detailed environment and contextual storytelling, but I still believe it needed a stronger "explicit" story element given how linear and short the game was. Or if they were gonna stick with contextual storytelling then it should have had a more free-form aimless style of gameplay where you slowly connect the dots over a longer period of time, as it truly was hard to digest and synthesize any cohesive theories just playing through the game. The game is beautifully designed and crafted, and even the combat was fine in contrast to what others might say about it. That being said it did NOT feel like a complete experience and like how others have described it, it's fine as a game pass game but the full price feels like a little too much. I hope the money they received from sales goes to some form of additional content because I feel this game needs some more fleshing out.
Those are two very classic titles, from before my time. We need more creative, uncanny valley (and uncanney ABYSS and everything in-between) non-human fantasy worlds like those.
@@TheScrootch Yeah it's definitely mostly Giger by volume, they just picked the green-grey murky aesthetic of Giger as opposed to the black-blue palette people associate with his work due to the Alien series.
I need the ability to stow my weapon to take screenshots! During some point in the game you actually have an opportunity to walk around without a weapon or tool and i took full advantage haha
Just finished the game. Absolutely superb. These are the type of games I’ve been craving. I get why most people won’t like it, short length, no real story, sluggish combat, confusing at times, heavily puzzle based etc But the positives outweighed the negatives for me. It was such a visual treat to explore this world, I’d find myself checking every nook and cranny, often staring at amazing structures off in the distance for several minutes at a time letting my imagination go wild. Really one of the prettiest games I’ve played in recent memory. The sound design and score of the game were also brilliant, and even the lack of sound at times. I also loved the fact I would get lost, and confused on some of the puzzles, it was satisfying to finally figure it out for myself, unlike the hand holding all modern games do now. What a surprise this game was, 9/10 for me. A nice treat this October on game pass.
"Its kind of ironic how this world feels so alien and hostile yet believable and lived in" Bro i genuinely had the same exact thought while playing this game and i sat there for more than an hour thinking about it
Come on Gman, a game/movie whatever doesn't need jump scares in order to be horror! But I get what you're saying, although I got to say the short play time is a plus to me, as there are plenty of games already waiting for me, so being able to enjoy Scorn as a sort of very malformed appetizer Great video!
I started playing this recently, and i would describe Scorn as "it's just not a scary game". If you have watched any of the good bodyhorror stuff like Re-Animator, Fly, Slither, The Thing, Event Horizon, Cronenberg films and so on, Scorn is like some baby shit in comparison.
@@RollerOfEyes True. It's just not scary at all for some reason. I wanted it to be scary, or at least give me a feeling of dread but no. It's just bland. It's just missing something on a fundamental level.
I was waiting so eagerly for your video on this game. Being a huge fan of HR Giger one can only dream of such thing. The last videogame I played with thar aesthetic was Dark Seed II back in 99.
Lust for Darkness and Lust from Beyond are inspired by Giger, Lovecraft and Beksiński, so they are very similar in visual style, they go much deeper into the weird gross stuff though. Beyond is much better than Darkness though.
It looks very unique. Giger's influence is obvious, though its different enough to give it its own feel. My feeling with games like this is that its about the atmosphere - you say the shooting is a bit ordinary basically and I can believe it, its not the primary point by the look of it. The puzzles, the cruelty, the body horror, it sounds like this is a world designed to give you an emotional, artistic experience as much as a gaming one, and the short play time sounds like it backs that up. Is it Doom Eternal? No, and it isn't trying to be and that is most assuredly a good thing. If its not too expensive I might look it up - cheers for the review, man. :o)
From an aesthetic standpoint the game looks really good, the devs did a good job at making you feel uneasy as you look at this world but from a gameplay standpoint, most of its meat is in its puzzles.
This game hits a weird spot for me. The art and the general feel are EXACTLY my type of jam, but this is something I would 1100% call art, but would not call a game. Literally if you asked me are video games art I'd point to Scorn as the dividing line between one and the other.
I'm more than happy to suffer through the horrors. I never wanted proper fun from this game, I want to be freaking out constantly. Beautiful suffering.
i dont think you understood it, the game isnt fun, in the sense that its just not fun to play. all of its mechanics are boring, the gunplay is atrocious, the combat is depressing, and not in a meta kind of way, but in a, "oh god, i think being tortured is better than continuing to play it". ALL the game has is presentation, its literaly the complaint of modern games made real.
@@marcosdheleno yeah it just looks like an interactive tech demo with the most bare bones combat elements spread out here and there. These games bore tf out of me. Like, I'd have much more fun watching a single full playthrough of the game than I would actually playing it, and I'd feel like I wasted money buying it because there's no replayability whatsoever + a short campaign
@@PlaidSuitPinstripeWorld It's successful in what it aims to do. It is good, it's just not the masterpiece many people wanted it to be. You don't have to pick one of the two extremes, there's a middle.
it is better, but Agony is still a good, if misunderstood and pretty underrated thing. It's beautiful in its horrifying existence of hell, just looking at it fills me with emotions. It may not be as solid in terms of gameplay, but it also provides more with it, mainly thanks to additional modes, especially The Succubus, and it was so good that they eventually made a full game out of it. I haven't played it myself yet, but Agony's Succubus mode really was fun, great stress reliver after finishing the main campaign.
I can see where they were going with the combat. The idea that you're armed and can fight to get where you need to go, but it's all just as hopeless and unforgiving as the world around you. Sadly that's one of those things that makes a lot of sense on paper but when it come to actually being played it's pretty hard to pull off in any way that doesn't just translate the envisioned frustrated struggle of the main character into the players mind. Honestly I love the show-not-tell approach to the world "lore". It's nice to have an open ended interpretation rather than endless spoonfeeding, directly from the man who wrote a diary about his thoughts on the world while a monster was eating his legs, complete with the "Ow, oh god it hurts" on the last page. While this approach definitely doesn't work in every type of game, it's perfectly on point for the type of world this game was, and some good amount of sight seeing and viewing of the murals starts to paint at least some vague picture of what happened to this civilization. With the depictions of worship changing focus, tentacles beings and pregnancy, space fungal rot and the brain. Have to say though, your double takes on both horror games being bad if they aren't jumpscares + horror games are bad if you don't have a gun to blow away every enemy instead of ever having to run or be cautious has put you in the "don't ever listen to horror game opinions" category for reviewers for me now though. Luckily this isn't your primary content type I guess. You don't want horror games, you just want shooters with loud sounds
2:55 Seeing that thing in the middle of room made me think of Concept art... and not 2 seconds later G says it. Don't know if we think alike or he hinted at it, like an author giving pointless clue that will reveal the secret at the end But not the less I like that I thought about it before he said it
When I freed the little guy from the pod at the start of the game I was so excited to have a buddy I even named him Gregory but then I discovered that he can’t come along with you and I was damn near ready to cry.
There was this old game named Cyberia which was a few cool 3d rendered video cut scenes inbetween ages of solving horrendous puzzles. You'd still put yourself through the pain just to see the cutscenes which were something mindblowing for that time.
developers said back in 2019 that to get the game out by this year, the story needed to be divided into at least 3 episodes, so hopefully theres plenty more of this otw. 🧐
@@markbaker4425 They just are - it's very very hard for something to be scary and STAY scary, most people inadvertently give themselves exposure therapy and what once was scary is now a nuisance. It's like walking too slowly through a haunted house, it ruins your suspension of disbelief when you take your time and soak in the sights of what appear to be Best Buy associates waving you through with the same goofy glowsticks they land planes with.
It is one of those rare games you just can't believe you're playing. That that faraway teaser or announcement with a couple of concept art-screenshots and two second rendered video that rarely reminded world of its existence is finally out. Not cancelled, not just lost or even remade so hard from its original concept that the game is completely different, but actually out, in line with initial identity and playable. You just get so used to it being forever in the workshop and belonging to the time when you first heard about it that it is more about a mix of nostalgia for the time when you discovered the teaser and reminder of years cruelly passing with it finally out. Time moves. Things change.
I played this one in one sitting and that night I had weird dreams about an assortment of weird humanoid looking demons that looked like they were made of different types of animal carapaces. I guess I can say this one left an impression in me even though it was kind of a slog to get through, but damn if the aesthetic of everything isn't a 10/10.
Seriously the last couple hours have been the longest wait I've felt in so long I've been waiting for sooooooooo long and it's definitely worth the wait so far ❤️
Most immersive game I've played in years, despite being short it got a lot more out of me than much more in depth and longer games. Also you can shoot the enemies in the face and the end of your gun implants their face you get a mini animation its tricky to pull off though
I also can't really agree with Gman that it has barely any story, there's a lot of story there in the tiny details of the environment. It's like real world archaeologists diving into a ruin and figuring out things about a civilization just from how a structure is put together.
@@kemanorel3110 I mean there's absolutely no dialogue and I have nothing but questions, if they continued this or made another game about a different life process or something I'd love that
Looks very interesting. The setting is quite unique. It's not really the kind of game that I'd buy. But I'd give it a go if I had the opportunity. Definitely seems worth checking out if you're into games like this. It's always good to support new developers creating original content.
@@lildevin16 I'm not interested in 99% of the games on game pas. I only game on weekends and usually fortnightly, and when I do it's mainly PC exclusive games with friends. It's good for kids and young people who game a lot. But not for me.
@@marcosdheleno yes, the same can be said to many linear games with generic gameplay that are movies wannabe. It's movie like, so just watch it like a movie you'll get almost the same experience.
Literally scorn and Agony were both being developed at the same time, it just that Agony decided to Jump the Gun as scorn took a long while for it to. Im happy This Game finally came out and wish they give it a DLC to expand
Thank you for reviewing this! I’m glad this game finally got released and we can experience it. It’s always been an interesting yet unsettling game that’s been on my radar. I don’t know how much the walking or confusing puzzles will effect my playthrough, but I’m definitely wanting to play this! However, I think I disagree with you in this not being a horror game. Horror is usually defined as an intense feeling of fear, shock, and disgust (not trying to be pretentious, I’m just adding context to my point) and I think this game from what you’ve shown is full to the brim of that in terms of its setting and atmosphere. There’s probably nothing more terrifying than waking up in a cruel, unforgiving, alien-like world that feels desolate and grotesque and fills you with dread. Slow burn horror can be just as effective, if not more, than cheap jump scares.
Did anyone else notice that the first section of the game bears resemblance to Oddworld? You're saving a helpless creature from it's binds to help you complete mechanical puzzles in order to progress.. Maybe it's just me.
Definitely agree with the visuals. Clearly they took a page out of the Xenomorph playbook. It looks like a planet overrun with biomechanical madness. Geiger would be proud!
I’m getting strong Soma vibes from this. I’ll definitely pick it up this weekend. Even if it’s just 4 hours, the game is just too unique to pass up. I gotta play it!
I’ve seen some reviews of Scorn… But if I don’t see the masters review of Scorn… None of the others count 😂 Thanks as always Gman, I respect your insight the most for shooters.
@Gmanlive I approached Scorn being a HUGE Zdzisław Beksiński fan. Which this game is firmly dedicated and inspired from. If you haven't yet Gman, check out his unbelievable work of Beautiful Nightmares. They are gripping, disgusting, inspiring and like your mum, will make you imagination go wild.
Holy shit. I honestly thought Agony WAS Scorn all these years (literally since I was a child, I'm 30 now) and was disappointed to play Agony and find it turned out the way it did, never realizing I was just thinking of Scorn.
I've been waiting for you to play/review this!Let's get it! Im making this comment as I start watching the video! I already know your gonna give me a dope video as usual! Keep it Up my G! You literally one of if not my favorite gaming creator, especially FPS Titles!
Just recently finished the game. Took me around 4-5 hours, yet felt like a bizarrely enjoyable exploration through a world that has clearly collapsed. All throughout the game, I had this creeping feeling that I was on the precipice of something in equal parts terrifying and esoterically beautiful. I honestly might just load up certain chapters in the future to soak up that Giger ambiance. Definitely a good game to try out if you want some body and existential horror in October to go along with your regular Halloween spooky stuff.
The ending was absolutely horrifying and left me absolutely hurting inside. About 6 hours all up because I couldn't stop just standing around and looking at the world and the details. Nailed it, mate.
16:30 - Personally I deeply hate how jumpscares have become so normal in horror genre that every title which doesn't include them is not deemed "horror enough". And sure, jumpscares can be scary if you are either 9yrs old or playing horror games for the first time. But for me who is into horror genre since early PewDiePie days, it has become so utterly annoying, cheap and shitty to see for billionth time a game featuring some abandoned house/mental hospital/Cold War era lab with killer toy/ghost child with shit-eating grin destroying your eardrums with high-pitched scream and stabbing you to death. It's even shittier and cheaper when developers don't bother to model the character that is chasing you, but give you a PNG creepypasta picture with screaming sounds instead. And I am so glad that Scorn devs didn't go the jumpscare route. Haven't seen the proper slow-burn horror since Alien Isolation.
I don't think you mention it, but the art style (and firearms specifically) very much take inspiration from the movie "EXistenZ" which is lesser-known, but well worth a watch.
did the devs say this or are you assuming? because this game is straight up a giger dream made real. from the weapons to the enviroment, its literaly based on giger designs.
@@marcosdheleno Yes, Giger is clearly the game's main artistic influence. It seemed unnecessary for me to say so, given that it's something everyone already knows, and that the video explicitly mentioned.
I was just wondering the other day if this ever came out. I remember reading about it years ago, glad to see it finished and it really does look impressive, truly is concept art in motion. This seems like a you have to play it yourself kind of thing to understand though
Much like with films not every game has to be fun and sometimes that’s the whole point. The fact it’s short I think it is a blessing really. Sometimes with some games you just want to finish them and be done with them. You can still respect what the developers did and really enjoy the look of it and not especially enjoy the game as a whole. Sometimes finishing a game is the greatest achievement possible.
I loved scorn, but its one of those games that I will probably never play again. It has some of my favorite world design in any game from the past few years and does a truly wonderful job of communicating the feelings that the devs wanted without any sort of actual dialogue or overt story. It just feels like a chore to play though, even with the relatively short time to complete the whole thing.
I played it for about an hour an half and at some point I started asking myself what the hell I'm doing because I'm just walking around clicking buttons. It's neither scary nor gross. It's weird, sure. But when I realized that I have no idea where I am, who I am, what, this world is, what happened here, what I'm doing here, or what my end goal is, it just completely removed any and all reason to continue wasting my time on it. There is no story, no progression, no goal, no reward, nothing of interest whatsoever. It's just a visual walk through of a world that is supposed to gross you out I guess. But in my opinion it even failed at that. Watching saw is more entertaining than this and that's a C list movie at best.
Scorn has been that game that I've played the demo constantly and was waiting so long for it to release because it's inspired after one of my favourite Artists, H.R.Giger, which a lot of reviewers are crying about and they seem to hate the puzzles... but then again those are "Gaming Journalists" so of course they'd find this game hard
