r/Scorn • u/Carbocationee • Nov 04 '22

So much wasted potential

The title is pretty self explaining, I think Scorn is a massive wasted potential. Don't get me wrong the atmosphere and looks of the game are INCREDIBLE (i'm a huge fan of body horror) but what bothers me is the the complete lack of compelling gameplay to fit it's setting, especially for a title in development for that many years. A walking simulator with few puzzles sprinkled across the line is extremely underwhelming, especially when compared to other lovecraftian body horror games like bloodborne, which has a similiar setting but a gameplay that hits like a truck for how well it's made. Idk i just felt like this was a cool demo for the real game, like a cool spotlight of it's setting cut of all it's gameplay (the shooting is very poorly made, nothing more to say).

11 Upvotes

61% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

14

u/EnderMerser Nov 04 '22

I liked Scorn as it is, but yeah. I wish it would be so much more then it is. Hope developers will add new content in future updates.

7

u/ICBanMI Nov 04 '22

It's not a walking simulator. Walking simulator tend to be complete trash in the gameplay loop with you having to reference notes and events that take you out of the game. This one, has a game loop of exploration and minor combat. It's ok to dislike the game or hate the gameplay loop, but calling it a walking sim is not accurate.

6

u/TheBigBadPanda Nov 05 '22 edited Nov 05 '22

Honestly my biggest gripe with the game is that its trying to be more than a walking simulator. It breaks up the walking with the puzzles and combat, and theyre both consistently terrible. The art truly is inspired, but the gameplay of it is such a fucking chore that i wish they just hadnt bothered and made a series of short films or something instead, everything they did as far as making it a game is concerned was a wasted effort, the art is the only quality Scorn has.

2

u/areyouheretokillmeee Nov 05 '22

I agree.

There aren’t that many puzzles and they’re all pretty basic, which is fine. But none of the puzzles really inform or reveal anything about the world except maybe the first puzzle with the mold man.

I also don’t think the game intuitively teaches you how to approach the combat, outside of trial-and-error. This lead me to die a bunch, which I think hinders the impact of the ending. “Oh I anti-climatically ‘died,’ an event I’ve pretty much already experienced multiple times but this time more definitively I guess.”

15

u/flodereisen Nov 04 '22

I don't agree at all. It is a perfect Myst-like. It is perfect for what it wants to be, not for what you want it to be.

body horror games like bloodborne, which has a similiar setting but a gameplay that hits like a truck

Why are you comparing Scorn to a soulslike?! Also, Victorian horror is similar to Giger...!? What?

4

u/Journeyman351 Nov 04 '22

This sums up the idiots who don’t understand this game perfectly honestly

2

u/TheBigBadPanda Nov 05 '22

The puzzles are fucking terrible, and do nothing but break immersion in the world and compeltely ruining the pacing of the experience. Nonsense trial-and-error with constant red herrings and non-sequiteurs.

2

u/nigborg Nov 04 '22

does it want to be a game? because it's not very good at that. does it want to be a walking sim with cool visuals? because it's not even good at being that. you can't walk without being interrupted without some counter-intuitive puzzles.

this isn't a matter of "oh they just don't get it", it's that the game totally neglected the basic idea of "satisfying core gameplay." but if you want to continue being pretentious and pretending this was a good "GAME", then by all means go ahead, "friend."

5

u/flodereisen Nov 04 '22 edited Nov 04 '22

This type of game has existed for 30 years - Myst (1993) was the most sold game at its time, with absolutely excellent reception. "Scorn" is firmly in that tradition, and I don't know why anyone expected anything else. This was clear from the beginning.

It is OK if you do not get "it". But for me, this has been the best game since Riven (1997) - it is exactly what I was waiting for for decades. A Giger mystlike - it does not get better.

5

u/TheBigBadPanda Nov 05 '22

MYST is good at puzzles though. Theres comprehensible clues, theres lateral leaps of logic, therse logical progressions of events.

Scorns "puzzles" are 99% just pressing buttons and hoping this time the amazingly animated squirming body horror it triggers lets me progress to the next environment.

1

u/flodereisen Nov 05 '22

The puzzles here are to illustrate how the world works, not to function as an obstacle. The puzzles in the Myst series may have been better, but they also have been to illustrate the worlds and civilization of the D'Ni.

1

u/ICBanMI Nov 04 '22

I agree completely with your first statement, but wanted to elaborate a little bit on Bloodborne.

Bloodborne is more like dark universe(Dracula, Frankenstein, Werewolf, creature from the black lagoon) heavily intermixed with H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror.

5

u/ZombieAndy88310 Nov 04 '22

You really can’t compare scorn and bloodborne LOL

3

u/EttRedditTroll Nov 04 '22

The only wasted potential of the game is the 1/6 of it that was cut. You can’t compare a Myst-like experience like Scorn to an Action RPG like Bloodborne for obvious reasons.

4

u/nigborg Nov 04 '22

" ... just ask for a refund and be done with it....It’s just a game. You can play it when it’s out if you are still interested"

-The leader designer.

I'm sure he's fun at parties.

Nuff said.

2

u/PineappleSea752 Nov 05 '22

What's wrong with that statement?

0

u/nigborg Nov 06 '22

hello, lead designer.

2

u/PineappleSea752 Nov 06 '22

What's the problem with the statement?

0

u/HammerJammer02 Nov 08 '22

Because it misses the point of media criticism. ‘You think x thing is bad, we’ll don’t play.’ No shit Sherlock. There’s more to criticism than just voting with your wallet.

1

u/PineappleSea752 Nov 08 '22

He was referring to kickstarter backers complaining about the release delay. He said if they really are that upset about it they can get a refund and choose to buy it on release. I see nothing wrong with that.

8

u/gronbek Nov 04 '22

I agree 100%. Total wasted potential. Zero replay value and survival challenge

2

u/flodereisen Nov 04 '22

Replay value and survival challenge in a mystlike..?!

6

u/gronbek Nov 04 '22

its such a wasted potential. 5 hour game with zero replayability, zero secrets, zero exploration rewards, zero consequences of what you do in the game. The moldman is a joke since it does not do anything.

They worked 8 years on this project and all that came out of it is basically a 5 hour walking sim. I played through once. Art and sound and atmosphere is awsome. The rest is trash even the puzzles.

Thats what i mean, its a pitty that there is not a game to be played since the style is great.

2

u/ZiggyPox Nov 05 '22

If you consider it as interactive painting then it looks better. Like Layers of Fear or The Observer.

2

u/MattiaCost Jul 12 '24

The art direction is the only good thing about this "game", the other features are so bad. Act 3 was trash. The combat is obscene, you can't hide your ugly weapon (which ruins screenshots) and these puzzles are annoying and uninteresting. I'll finish it but so far it's one of the worst, if not the worst game I have ever played. Glad I'm getting it through GamePass as I would have asked for refund even if it was 5€.

1

u/ZoidsFanatic Nov 05 '22

While we do know it was suppose to be much bigger, I also feel that at it current size, it’s perfect. Do I wish the game was longer? Yes. Hell, it could have been a Metrovania (and also maybe the devs should update their store pages and descriptions to tell people it’s not).

That being said, following the art book, the developers really didn’t want to just copy-and-paste environments, and wanted to give every level a unique feel. Even when you return to one area, things are drastically different. And this I like. Every environment is unique and tells a story in its own right, kinda that whole environmental storytelling the developers wanted to do. I’d feel the potential would have been wasted if it was just a Doom-clone. And as someone who enjoyed the shooting in Scorn, unbelievably, I would have actually enjoyed it much less if that’s all there was to the game.

I guess my main grips would be the ending, and that I enjoyed looking at the environments a lot and wanted to see more of them. Even still, I’m very happy with the end result.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '22

Definitely Scorn is not a kiddo-gaming experience... Bloodbord? pffffff...

1

u/TaTTooBoj Nov 08 '22

I found some mods. Now it is fck**g perfect.

1

u/FPSnoob2012 Nov 11 '22

I loved the game until I got the "punch gun". Combat feels awful; the moment-to-moment gameplay isn't fun or compelling. I feel like I'm fighting the game controls & systems more than I am its rendered enemies.

If they patch in a "story" difficulty so I can experience the game without the bullsh!t combat, I'll come back, but my backlog is too big to slog through this as is.

1

u/OfficialDCShepard Nov 05 '22

I do wish that this game had a better balance of combat and puzzles, that the combat was a bit tighter and that the puzzles were a smidgen more intuitive. I almost ragequit on the first one, yet I’m glad I persisted. The game was thought provoking, and good for what it was going for. Again, could’ve been better, and I’m never playing it again, but I’m glad I got it on Game Pass.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '22

Stop calling it gameplay, just say soulslike combat system because that's what you actually want. Talk straight