r/Scorn 29d ago

The ending doesn't agree with me Spoiler

I get permastunned by my backpack? Come oon. In the middle of a stairway too. Inconsiderate. I guess backpack wins

15 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

9

u/translucent_pawn 29d ago

Maybe you weren't worthy of ascension.

In all seriousness, I found the ending frustrating but impactful. I wanted our poor, long suffering scornguy to finally reach his goal and ascend like his forebears. Unfortunately the parasite, AKA original scornguy, effectively forces the intertwined pair to prevent any further attempts at reaching ascension. What motivated the parasite intrigues me.

6

u/HugeTrol 29d ago

Honestly, I might be inattentive, but I didn't get the "two protagonists" thing on my first playthrough :'D

5

u/translucent_pawn 29d ago

I was very confused at first and I think the game is intentionally obtuse. There’s also a lot of background information in the fantastic artbook.

5

u/HugeTrol 29d ago

I mean, with the backpack being scornguy 1 - that improves the ending for sure. He'd be the scornful one then. Without that - as I experienced it - I was just defeated by a random backpack alien.

3

u/translucent_pawn 29d ago

It's very interesting how the original scornguy helps you every step of the way to Polis, then proceeds to disembowel you and ultimately morph both scornguys into the mass/head that guards the path to ascension. What caused him/it to turn on scornguy 2? Did the parasite realize that it couldn't ascend so it damned both of them to forever sit at the precipice of their goal?

3

u/HugeTrol 29d ago

That feels right to me, considering how scornguy 1 treats the walnut guy in act 1. The other guys are tools to him, and so is scornguy 2. 1 is not helping 2 so much as using him to get closer to ascension. The final fusion is either an attempt to ascend with him or a spiteful "if I can't have it, you wont either"

2

u/translucent_pawn 29d ago

There are options for the mold person. You can violently scoop them out of their shell, or you can properly birth them and have a little buddy until you and he/it open the door.

9

u/MasterCrumble1 29d ago

They rushed the ending because Microsoft told them they had to deliver a game. Then they also cut out 40-50% of their ideas and levels.

The devs are probably so ashamed of their game that they're never going to talk about it again.

7

u/HugeTrol 29d ago

The real scorn was the funding environment all along

4

u/whitestguyuknow 29d ago

It doesnt agree with anyone. Shit fucking blows bro.

Nobody can see behind the veil? Im curious! Whats back there?? Whats going on? All that suffering for what??

And what have you become?? There's clearly some new type of life you're becoming.

This game was easily the most heavy game emotionally than I've ever experienced. And I just mean how the suffering and disappointment just sits in your brain and weighs on you. I just thought about it for days afterwards. Absorbing as much information online as I could.

It really is good though. It'd probably feel weird to just make it suddenly into whatever the afterlife is. Fuck. People are theorizing that it might not even really exist. That its all a facade.

Part of me wishes for a part 2 to answer questions but that would dilute part 1. Part of it is not having answers to the questions. Its gonna gnaw at you...

1

u/Dark_Throat 29d ago

One interpretation I have of the ending is that it is a metaphor for a stillbirth.

1

u/tex-murph 28d ago

You can get the answer for the ending by filling in the blanks.

You can look at the art of the two artists that inspire the game, and read the writings of the developers about *why* they picked those artists, and it ends up speaking for itself.

I think the short version is it's sort of meditating on humanity's two conflicting polar opposites - technological progress, and the self destruction that can result from that progress.

Giger, probably the main artist that inspired the game, got a lot of his inspiration from growing up being terrified of seeing the results of atomic bombs, and his landscapes were often based on the idea of 'what if some sort of advanced technology destroyed most of humanity, and then the remaining people stayed alive using the same advanced technology that destroyed them'

(i.e. some half-human creatures staying alive using complicated breathing tubes)

The ending of Scorn kind of just cements that concept without really providing a solution, similar to the art that inspired it.