Biomechanical horror adventure
October 24, 2022 2:02 AM Subscribe
H.R. Giger's biomechanical landscapes are a disturbing fusion of decaying flesh, bone and machinery. Slideshow. Animation. Inspired by his work, SCORN challenges you to explore and survive within these nightmarish visions. RPS. Full walkthrough. (CW: horror).
Man, it’d be nice if a studio came along, focused their attention on something notable and great, and thought something other than “I bet we can make a good shooter out of that!” I’d be stunned if someone, somewhere, after a microdosed trip through the Art Institute of Chicago hadn’t tried to pitch a first person impressionist shooter, complete with separate waterlilly and haystack levels.
Seriously, though, a Giger based survival horror game? A slow burn role playing game where the character starts off vaguely human, and ends the game very much not (I mean, not specifically Bioshock, but not not Bioshock)? Hell, even a noir detective Giger game? Give me that over a shooter, especially as, from the RPS review, it sounds like the combat is, uh, half assed.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:48 AM on October 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
Seriously, though, a Giger based survival horror game? A slow burn role playing game where the character starts off vaguely human, and ends the game very much not (I mean, not specifically Bioshock, but not not Bioshock)? Hell, even a noir detective Giger game? Give me that over a shooter, especially as, from the RPS review, it sounds like the combat is, uh, half assed.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:48 AM on October 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
I agree, the artwork can stand on it's own. It could have been done as something like Dear Esther. But it's a commercial studio. If the reviews call it a walking simulator and complain there's nothing to shoot at - which they would - they can't sell their game.
The puzzles don't explain themselves and the environment is disorienting. Part of the atmosphere - it's an alien world, you're supposed to be disoriented and confused. And they made the combat challenging - these are all design choices. I think if they made a run-and-gun shooter, like some reviewers seem to want, it'd spoil the atmosphere and detract from the fucking amazing artwork. I included a walkthrough so people can appreciate the art without having to game.
And the artwork is the big star of this game. These people understand Giger and this is a massive homage to his work. I often feel Giger didn't get the recognition he deserved in his lifetime and still doesn't today. The people who made this game clearly care and are carrying his legacy into the future. I mean I get, I understand why people don't want this in their gallery. It's grotesque. That's the point. But he was a genius, I say that without hesitation.
posted by adept256 at 5:22 AM on October 24, 2022 [5 favorites]
The puzzles don't explain themselves and the environment is disorienting. Part of the atmosphere - it's an alien world, you're supposed to be disoriented and confused. And they made the combat challenging - these are all design choices. I think if they made a run-and-gun shooter, like some reviewers seem to want, it'd spoil the atmosphere and detract from the fucking amazing artwork. I included a walkthrough so people can appreciate the art without having to game.
And the artwork is the big star of this game. These people understand Giger and this is a massive homage to his work. I often feel Giger didn't get the recognition he deserved in his lifetime and still doesn't today. The people who made this game clearly care and are carrying his legacy into the future. I mean I get, I understand why people don't want this in their gallery. It's grotesque. That's the point. But he was a genius, I say that without hesitation.
posted by adept256 at 5:22 AM on October 24, 2022 [5 favorites]
A slow burn role playing game where the character starts off vaguely human, and ends the game very much not
I have good news about Scorn!
posted by Pyrogenesis at 6:00 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
I have good news about Scorn!
posted by Pyrogenesis at 6:00 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
The Flood ship level on Halo 3 was as close as I ever want to come to a Giger walkthrough. Hard pass.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 6:29 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 6:29 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
Obviously we did something the God of Biomechanics wouldn’t let us into Heaven for.
posted by notoriety public at 6:34 AM on October 24, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by notoriety public at 6:34 AM on October 24, 2022 [5 favorites]
Obviously we did something the God of Biomechanics wouldn’t let us into Heaven for.
No, no — that is the other good Ridley Scott movie.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:45 AM on October 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
No, no — that is the other good Ridley Scott movie.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:45 AM on October 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
James Stephanie Sterling has their written review up over at the Jimquisition. “There is a world of difference between a game that says “figure it out and have fun” and a game that says “figure it out and fuck you.” Scorn is so deeply entrenched in the latter end of the spectrum that it does, at times, feel outwardly hostile to the player. This aggression is carried over into every aspect of the experience.”
posted by skycrashesdown at 8:09 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by skycrashesdown at 8:09 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
This aggression is carried over into every aspect of the experience.
Does exactly what it says on the tin!
posted by notoriety public at 8:29 AM on October 24, 2022 [5 favorites]
Does exactly what it says on the tin!
posted by notoriety public at 8:29 AM on October 24, 2022 [5 favorites]
Elden Ring proves gamers don't want to be spoon-fed. They should have called that game Fuck You. That game is going to be talked about and celebrated for years to come because gamers relish a challenge. I've been playing games since the Commodore 64. You don't need to hold my hand, unless you want me to be bored. I'm sick of that shit, don't dumb it down for me. These critics seem to think turning your brain off and mashing the buttons is what gamers want. Elden Ring would be a huge flop in that case.
I want a sense of achievement because it's hard to achieve. Even Minecraft understands this.
Veteran gamers accept Fuck You as a question. Fuck you? I don't think so.
posted by adept256 at 8:45 AM on October 24, 2022
I want a sense of achievement because it's hard to achieve. Even Minecraft understands this.
Veteran gamers accept Fuck You as a question. Fuck you? I don't think so.
posted by adept256 at 8:45 AM on October 24, 2022
I enjoyed the aesthetics and I've got no inherent problem with a narrative presented this way. However, the narrative I started getting was not interesting to me and the gameplay was uninspired, simple, and just not fun or enjoyable to get through, and not in a contemplative way, just a "they didn't have any good ideas here and really struggled to make something happen." Take away the graphics and you'd be left with a very bare-bones flash game with myst puzzles designed by someone scared of myst difficulty and puzzles in general, but this person also really loved wasting your time with making every basic action feel so clunky and take so long to do that you actively dread finding a new button or console to interact with.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:50 AM on October 24, 2022
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:50 AM on October 24, 2022
The world is in a strange place when people choose to steep their minds in this kind of dark shit.
posted by Liquidwolf at 9:02 AM on October 24, 2022
posted by Liquidwolf at 9:02 AM on October 24, 2022
Myst with entrails...
posted by jim in austin at 11:03 AM on October 24, 2022
posted by jim in austin at 11:03 AM on October 24, 2022
About thirty years ago Cyberdreams did two Giger inspired video games, Dark Seed & Dark Seed II.
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:32 AM on October 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:32 AM on October 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
The one artist that I think had greater influence on this that nobody is talking about is Zdzisław Beksiński
I backed this game in 2014, and then again in 2016 or whenever. Given the turbulence during development, I'm fairly happy with what I got.
They took their money and poured ALL of it into atmosphere; which I respect. The only thing I would really change is I would have the combat team from Alien Isolation work on the game with them. My impression of the creatures you had to grapple with was one of a "new ecosystem". They all seem to be vying for biomass, or steadfastly defending what they had. For the most part combat can be avoided, just let the little meatballs wander to their warm tubes and they will ignore you. I am a fairly big fan of SOMA and this game seems to share a lot of DNA with it, story and otherwise.
I understand the "just make it a walking simulator" arguments, but wanting it to be more than a stroll through a 3d art gallery is an understandable goal. Given the cut content, and the demands of outside investors, I'm amazed what was left worked as well as it did. I personally would have liked a more "you're a meat handyman" approach to it; fixing your way though a broken world to get to your inscrutable goal.
The world is in a strange place when people choose to steep their minds in this kind of dark shit.
This wasn't meant for everybody, and I can understand this point of view, but for me things like this help me recontextualize my own experience. I've seen a human born, I've seen a hawk split open a squirrel, I've even looked down at my own dislocated kneecap before popping back into place. Taking that, putting into a different world but with the same base needs, it's a fun diversion for me.
I had just wished they were able to finish the "labyrinth" content. From what I understand of the artbook it would have filled in some of the narrative.
posted by The Power Nap at 11:33 AM on October 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
I backed this game in 2014, and then again in 2016 or whenever. Given the turbulence during development, I'm fairly happy with what I got.
They took their money and poured ALL of it into atmosphere; which I respect. The only thing I would really change is I would have the combat team from Alien Isolation work on the game with them. My impression of the creatures you had to grapple with was one of a "new ecosystem". They all seem to be vying for biomass, or steadfastly defending what they had. For the most part combat can be avoided, just let the little meatballs wander to their warm tubes and they will ignore you. I am a fairly big fan of SOMA and this game seems to share a lot of DNA with it, story and otherwise.
I understand the "just make it a walking simulator" arguments, but wanting it to be more than a stroll through a 3d art gallery is an understandable goal. Given the cut content, and the demands of outside investors, I'm amazed what was left worked as well as it did. I personally would have liked a more "you're a meat handyman" approach to it; fixing your way though a broken world to get to your inscrutable goal.
The world is in a strange place when people choose to steep their minds in this kind of dark shit.
This wasn't meant for everybody, and I can understand this point of view, but for me things like this help me recontextualize my own experience. I've seen a human born, I've seen a hawk split open a squirrel, I've even looked down at my own dislocated kneecap before popping back into place. Taking that, putting into a different world but with the same base needs, it's a fun diversion for me.
I had just wished they were able to finish the "labyrinth" content. From what I understand of the artbook it would have filled in some of the narrative.
posted by The Power Nap at 11:33 AM on October 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
There is a world of difference between a game that says “figure it out and have fun” and a game that says “figure it out and fuck you.” Scorn is so deeply entrenched in the latter end of the spectrum that it does, at times, feel outwardly hostile to the player.
Man, I don't even know what sort of a bizarre sense of hand-holding or entitlement makes someone write stuff like this. Let's be clear here: Scorn is a walking simulator. It has about 2-3 puzzles, if "puzzle" means you have to pause for 10 seconds to think. Overwhelmingly, it is a game of walking around until you can press a button. That is literally it. I guess not having an automap and an arrow pointing exactly where you need to go and onscreen text telling you to press E is "fuck you" and "hostile".
Get off my lawn!
posted by Pyrogenesis at 11:35 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
Man, I don't even know what sort of a bizarre sense of hand-holding or entitlement makes someone write stuff like this. Let's be clear here: Scorn is a walking simulator. It has about 2-3 puzzles, if "puzzle" means you have to pause for 10 seconds to think. Overwhelmingly, it is a game of walking around until you can press a button. That is literally it. I guess not having an automap and an arrow pointing exactly where you need to go and onscreen text telling you to press E is "fuck you" and "hostile".
Get off my lawn!
posted by Pyrogenesis at 11:35 AM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
Game (as such) is beautiful, but it badly needs a game designer.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:15 PM on October 24, 2022
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:15 PM on October 24, 2022
Sounds to me like someone targeted gamers. Gamers.
posted by tigrrrlily at 12:54 PM on October 24, 2022
posted by tigrrrlily at 12:54 PM on October 24, 2022
This game was decent. The aesthetics were very well done and more varied than I expected from the previews. The gameplay I feel is squarely in the survival horror tradition -- creepy exploration, dumbass logic puzzles, and infrequent combat where you feel disempowered through intentionally awkward controls and heavy limitations on ammo and health.
I liked that my character seemed to know more about the setting and his goals than I did. I was doing these abstract logic puzzles to, like, extract organ tissue from homunculi to feed into a rube goldberg claw device, not knowing what the outcome would be until much later on. But my guy, he totally knew. He clearly had a plan from the start. The experience of this game is so deeply alienating, you’re even alienated from your own character.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 1:14 PM on October 24, 2022
I liked that my character seemed to know more about the setting and his goals than I did. I was doing these abstract logic puzzles to, like, extract organ tissue from homunculi to feed into a rube goldberg claw device, not knowing what the outcome would be until much later on. But my guy, he totally knew. He clearly had a plan from the start. The experience of this game is so deeply alienating, you’re even alienated from your own character.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 1:14 PM on October 24, 2022
Hell, even a noir detective Giger game?
Ghidorah, I think Dark Seed was almost that. I'm not sure if it's available on any of the old games platforms but I remember loving it when I was young.
posted by deadbilly at 1:45 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Ghidorah, I think Dark Seed was almost that. I'm not sure if it's available on any of the old games platforms but I remember loving it when I was young.
posted by deadbilly at 1:45 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
BrotherCaine: About thirty years ago Cyberdreams did two Giger inspired video games, Dark Seed & Dark Seed II.
Not just Giger-inspired, but Giger himself did some original art and consulted! Such a very, very early 90s adventure game.
posted by xthlc at 1:48 PM on October 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
Not just Giger-inspired, but Giger himself did some original art and consulted! Such a very, very early 90s adventure game.
- Starred the game designer as himself, a very nondescript schlubby dude with a moustache [EDIT: and a mullet!].
- Voice acting entirely provided by friends and family with compression artifacts in the silence.
- Horribly unforgiving, where a mistake made in the first 5 minutes would cause you to lose the game 2 hours later.
- Hi-res 640x350 graphics in 16 colors.
posted by xthlc at 1:48 PM on October 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
Whoops, I searched the comments for "darkseed" and not "dark seed". On review, what BrotherCaine said!
posted by deadbilly at 1:52 PM on October 24, 2022
posted by deadbilly at 1:52 PM on October 24, 2022
Loved Dark Seed back in the day.
This new game is Giger and Beksiński? With a gorgeous score and big helpings of Gothic horror?
As Arthur Holmwood wrote, “Count me in every time."
posted by doctornemo at 6:36 PM on October 24, 2022
This new game is Giger and Beksiński? With a gorgeous score and big helpings of Gothic horror?
As Arthur Holmwood wrote, “Count me in every time."
posted by doctornemo at 6:36 PM on October 24, 2022
The one artist that I think had greater influence on this that nobody is talking about is Zdzisław Beksiński
Yes! I only discovered his work a few years back because of, specifically, some bit of coverage of Scorn’s art direction. I love Giger and love that this pulls from his work too, but there’s a lot of Beksinski in what I’ve seen of this too.
I haven’t played the game yet, and will get to it at some point because it’s such an unusual aesthetic treat however well or not the gameplay itself lands for me. I suspect I’ll like I more than a lot of reviewers based on what I’ve seen and read.
posted by cortex at 7:23 PM on October 24, 2022
Yes! I only discovered his work a few years back because of, specifically, some bit of coverage of Scorn’s art direction. I love Giger and love that this pulls from his work too, but there’s a lot of Beksinski in what I’ve seen of this too.
I haven’t played the game yet, and will get to it at some point because it’s such an unusual aesthetic treat however well or not the gameplay itself lands for me. I suspect I’ll like I more than a lot of reviewers based on what I’ve seen and read.
posted by cortex at 7:23 PM on October 24, 2022
I don't normally get motion sick but the SkillsUp review video had me so queasy halfway through that I had to turn it off and go and do some slow deep breathing for a while.
posted by ninazer0 at 12:14 AM on October 25, 2022
posted by ninazer0 at 12:14 AM on October 25, 2022
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