SCORN - Gigeresque horror/sci-fi game close to release

[fragger]

"Scorn" has been in development for about eight years now, but is finally getting a release this October, if all goes well. Clearly inspired by the nightmarish "bio-mechanical" artwork of the late Swiss artist H. R. Giger (of "Alien" fame), it looks incredible - if maybe not for the squeamish

It isn't a shooter per se, although it does have shooter elements. It seems to be more of a puzzle-solving affair than anything. Below is a link to a new teaser trailer. The devs at Ebb appear to have done a terrific job of bringing the unsettling look and feel of Giger's artwork to life. It's easy to imagine that this could be the homeworld of Alien's "Space Jockey" and his ship...

I've never been a horror fan, of either movies or games, but I have always had a morbid fascination for Giger's artwork. His subject matter is pretty disturbing, but his artistic ability was superb and his - er, fevered - imagination was certainly unique (he always maintained that he was afraid of his own imagination and that getting his visions down on canvas was a way for him to deal with it, like a kind of therapy).

I'd be interested to have a go at the game just to check out the environments. This might be one time when I'd prefer a game to be a "walking simulator", so I could just wander through and look at stuff without the stress of having to deal with revolting alien hell-spawn

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I saw this in my Steam recommended list a few weeks ago and looked at the trailer. Though interesting for the most part, I decided it's probably not for me, though I would like to just walk around in god mode if there is one and look at all the cool stuff they created. Giger being one of my favorite artists if only for the surrealist elements.

Did you know he also did furniture? Imagine the significant other's reaction after you bring this dining room set home

https://www.hrgiger.com/gegauf/loft.htm

[PZ]

Wow, those are impressive graphics. 

Like D_B, I wouldn't mind exploring in God mode if that is going to be possible.

[mandru]

An interesting game.  I do like Giger's visualization that captures the gritty feel of bio-mechanical scenery, characters, and objects.

That said imagery of his mindscape even in this trailer skirts too close to being pornographic for my comfort.  But then I'm certain that the whole intent of Geiger's art is to make people uncomfortable.

In that he succeeds setting a very high bar for any who follow in his genre. 

[fragger]

@ D_B, that dining suite is pretty macabre alright (and a tad uncomfortable-looking), but that's not very surprising for him I once saw a video on You Tube where Giger was interviewed while showing the interviewer around his house and grounds. His whole house was full of stuff like that, and there were some pretty weird sculptures in the grounds. Whatever made him happy, I suppose... He seemed like a pretty friendly guy actually, despite being famously reclusive and rather - unconventional.

@mandru, indeed, some of the stuff in the trailer looks decidedly X-rated. Then again, subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) sexual themes were inherent in some of Giger's artwork, so I guess it's in keeping. I'm not a fan of that sort of thing myself though.

A bit of Giger trivia: There is a particular female face which features in a lot of his art, and the model for that face was his then-girlfriend, a Swiss actress/model named Li Tobler. There are a few rare photos of her real face, which Giger stylized a little but you can see a distinct resemblance. One of his famous uses of Tobler's face was in his artwork for the cover of Emerson Lake and Palmer's "Brain Salad Surgery" album:

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Tobler committed suicide when she was just 27, but I don't know the story behind it. Not much seems "normal" when it comes to Giger's life.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah he also did the cover art for one of Debbie Harry's (of Blondie) solo albums. Not my style of music but the art style was unmistakable.

[PZ]

A bit of Giger trivia: There is a particular female face which features in a lot of his art, and the model for that face was his then-girlfriend, a Swiss actress/model named Li Tobler. There are a few rare photos of her real face, which Giger stylized a little but you can see a distinct resemblance. One of his famous uses of Tobler's face was in his artwork for the cover of Emerson Lake and Palmer's "Brain Salad Surgery" album:

Indeed, interesting trivia 

[fragger]

The game released yesterday, and from what I can gather from the user reviews on Steam (it got an overall "Mixed" rating), it's what I was afraid of - visually arresting (if gross) but pretty much lacking in engaging gameplay. It appears to consist mostly of being a walking simulator broken up by the odd samey, icky, "stick-your-extremities-in-here" puzzle-solving activity, with a wee bit of token "shooting" along the way and almost nothing regarding an engaging story.

And it's short. A playthrough will last just a few hours, then it's over. And since the game is primarily a puzzle-solver, I believe there will be very little, if any, replay value.

Basically, it's an animated romp through Gigerland for a couple of hours (if "romp" is the right word...)

So it'll be a hard pass for me, I think. Almost $60 AUS is a bit too much of an ask for a few hours' dalliance in a Gigerian nightmarescape. Man, all those years of development and this is the result... Sign of the times, I guess. All facade and no substance.

This will be a future $5 bargain-binner for me, and maybe not even at that price.

[PZ]

I fear the gaming industry is going the way of the appliance industry. Back in 1985 I purchased a small chest freezer which is still working flawlessly today. I can't remember how much I paid for it, but it was minimal because I was in college at the time. In contrast, I purchased a top end Samsun fridge which failed about 5 years after purchase. Also purchased a top end dishwasher also failing after 5 years or so. I now have another expensive fridge and it is failing even before the warranty is expired.

I believe corporations today believe in planned obsolescence. After all, why build a fridge that will last a lifetime when you can build a piece of *bleep* that only lasts 5 years thereby forcing a consumer to purchase many times over.  After all, why give a consumer quality when you can give them *bleep* that they need to purchase repeatedly.

I have no idea what is going on in the gaming world, but reading your mini review instantly reminded me of "planned obsolescence" being introduced into the gaming world in the form of short play, and no replay.

[fragger]

Indeed, it's like much else these days, PZ. The quality declines but the prices sure as hell don't

I'm noticing a similar thing happening with some packaged foods - less food and more space inside the package, but the price doesn't change. I remember a time when I was a kid, might have been in the very early 70s, when this same thing was happening because I distinctly recall buying candy bars and the bar would only be half the length of the wrapper. Even then I thought, "What are these rip-off merchants doing?" But after a while the ripping-off actually stopped and the wrappers began to fill up again. I don't know whether it was due to public pressure, a fluctuating economy, or what, but things came good. Whether they will this time around remains to be seen.

That sort of thing is happening again now (at least it is here) though I suspect the cause this time is partly the disruption to supply systems wrought by the effects of COVID on staffing levels and partly the general world-wide inflation and cost of living problems we're suffering. And a wee dollop of corporate greed of course, that's always a constant

But yeah, just like Mars bars when I was a kid, games are metaphorically taking up less and less room inside the wrapper.

[nex]

That's why I'm sticking to Ghost Recon Wildlands, besides the main campaign mode it has a Ghost mode as well, same game but game over when you get killed, then you have to start all over again.

The devs of Satisfactory released update 6 with quite a few gameplay changes, I started a new game, so I'm playing both games at the moment, and going by the latest releases I will be keeping myself busy with these two games for some time still.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Ah yeah I haven't seen a review or game play yet. No idea what the price is here in the US but I think it will be a pass for me as well.

[PZ]

I need to start GRW again as well as finish my AC games, the Watch Dog games, finish FC5, and maybe restart my modded FC2 games. I have plenty to keep me busy on my PS4. Initially I wanted a PS 5 but I'm not going to pay the exorbitant prices they are no charging.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Watched a bit of a live stream of Scorn the other day. It seems it's a lot more of a puzzle game than a shooter. The parts I saw were pretty typical of these types of games, use the controls to move this thing over to that spot, turn something on, move the thing to another spot, turn something on, and the door opens. Another spot was moving things into certain spots to activate another thing but one of them broke and flooded the room with gunk and I think killed the character? I wasn't quite sure and neither was the streamer playing, so that's a thing. There were a couple gruesome parts beyond just the Giger-inspired art style, which was really cool looking, very atmospheric and well done I thought. But as far as the actual game goes, I don't see a lot there for me, and for sure it looks like a one time play through since it's essentially a puzzle game and once you've done them, not much point in doing them again. The streamer did mention there was a point or two where you could do things differently but that the outcome was essentially the same, and there was no change to the overall game flow itself. So probably I will pass on this one.