Scorn Critic Reviews

Scorn is a special experience for anybody looking to have their expectations subverted for what a good horror game can be. It is a gory, surreal, provocative dive into difficult or even taboo topics, and is wonderfully crafted, and near perfectly optimized. The game’s themes and visuals are challenging and extremely mature, but executed with great subtlety. The game is a technical marvel and concise as any horror game should be, so as to not overstay its welcome.

Scorn is an author's game. An imperfect work of art indeed, but if the dull fighting gameplay doesn't set you off, the game will leave its mark on you, way after you turn the machine off.

Full of body horror and psychotically twisted imagery, players will have a variety of reactions to Scorn, but they are unlikely to be bored. While the game's world building and puzzle design are top-notch, the combat and a punitive checkpoint system may turn some players off.

Scorn is a feast for the eyes, a buffet for the mind but not for those of a weak stomach. It satisfies the morbid and the curious with its odd forms and sombre tapestries.

Scorn is a filthy game, especially thanks to the sick design that you both loathe and respect at the same time. It contains unique puzzles, an atmosphere that will give you the creeps and it might even make you nauseous, even after adjusting the video settings to your liking.

If you are into extreme horror, you should really try Scorn. If you are absolutely terrified of visions of flesh and gore, you should even more consider giving Ebb Software's video game a chance: you may be amazed by your own reactions. One cannot remain indifferent to the work of the Serbian studio: a radical product, which walks with its head held high in a world in which you try spasmodically to please everyone, only to discover that it has not really fascinated anyone.

Scorn is a beautiful game with a sophisticated setting. On the other hand, the narrative feels slow but intuitive in terms of history and exploration. However, in its genre, it will be one of the most detailed and horrific installments of 2022 that survival horror or adventure fans need to play.

Inspired by the works of Giger and Beksiński, Scorn is a visual masterpiece that will leave you uneasy, feeling defiled, possibly horrified. And worst of all – it will probably make you brood over uncomfortable things. It’s simply not a game everyone will enjoy. It will discourage some by exceeding the limits of good taste. Others will be too goal-oriented to take in the atmosphere, intellectually engaged in solving puzzles so much they’ll miss their consequences, too excited by encountering enemies to notice their weapons have an umbilical cord. But I’m sure some will appreciate Ebb Software’s captivating creation deeply.

Scorn is a unique and high-quality video game horror that doesn't try to jump-scare you in the first place, but builds an exciting atmosphere that you'll love to dive into again and again.

The constant suffering of our lives, the idea that there is something far worse than death itself, the prospects of a miserable life of pain and useful only for purposes not ours: Scorn is a modern decadent work that uses horror to higher purposes, to tell with silence what we are destined to be from our birth and what we will never be able to understand, while we enjoy our petty illusions that crumble in the face of the merciless reality that is ready to invest in any instant.

Eight years in the making, Scorn is a tremendous, grotesque and terrifying experience that encapsulates true horror with something alien and unknown, masterfully translating it into a first-person action puzzler. It doesn’t relish itself with its rudimentary mechanics, but it adds upon them with carefully synergized environmental design.

Unique, sick horror with a remarkable Alien style and innovative huge puzzles, but too few enemy types. Only for very strong stomachs.

It’s not just the sense that everything is aeons old, it’s that aeons seem to pass before your eyes, chapter to chapter. Brief combat encounters are tense but sparse, and neither a highlight nor detriment, although creature design is enjoyably gruesome. Not an acquired taste, then, but an unequivocally bitter one, engineered with such bold artistry you’ll wince as you go back in for seconds.

Scorn is a survival horror shooter puzzle game and it uses each of those elements in its own mold.

At no point during my playthrough of Scorn did I ever consider it a "fun" game, and to its credit, developer Ebb Software has made no effort to disguise the game as such. Through all its grit and grime, Scorn's more of an experience than anything else. Completing only one playthrough may mean leaving some secrets and story threads likely left uncovered, but one playthrough is more than enough for the grotesqueness of Scorn to leave a lasting impression.

I certainly don’t enjoy Scorn in the way that I do most video games. The thought of revisiting its monstrous world makes me feel ill. But I respect Scorn for its technical artistry, design and environmental world-building that successfully encourages player agency, and how strong and cohesive it feels in its overall creative vision, despite its mentally and physically taxing nature.

Scorn is a daring aesthetic experiment in virtual, interactive science fiction. Taking inspiration from the art of H.R. Giger and Zdzislaw Beksiński, developer Ebb Software seems hellbent on giving its players a surreal, nightmarish experience, and it mostly succeeds. While combat can feel like a secondary concern, Scorn’s puzzles provide just enough challenge to keep the game from feeling like a “walking simulator.” Really, though, the main attraction is Scorn’s compelling world, a fully realized artistic vision that will haunt you for days after experiencing it.

Unhealthy, gloomy and scary, Scorn pours into true horror. Not the "good-natured" one of classic survival horror and easy jumpscares, but the one that grips the guts and really makes you feel uncomfortable. His sticky and visceral universe, inspired by the works of H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński, offers us a nightmarish biomechanical vision. In fact, with regard to the atmosphere, Scorn is a bit Agony in success.

I would very highly recommend Scorn to fans of both horror and puzzle games. It definitely stands out in both genres as unique, and its challenges will keep you thinking constantly. It is also a game worth checking out if you are a fan of the Alien series or anything biopunk. The art alone was enough for me to immediately wishlist it. While the lack of dialogue did at times feel upsetting, possibly because I myself am a writer at heart, it definitely did add to the creepiness of the atmosphere.

Scorn is a hard game to pin down, but it’s one I can’t help but recommend. It’s disgustingly alluring in its visual execution, with each new location bringing with it a waterfall of questions as you poke, prod, and cower at every discovery. This ambition of being artsy and cryptic can hold it back at points, but there’s something fiercely admirable in its artistic vision that few games in the genre are able to match. This is a tragic horror of Lovecraftian proportions, and one that really must be seen to be believed.