Scorn

Scorn is an example of how stunning art direction and truly masterful environmental storytelling can be ruined by absurdly poor game design. Without the rage-quit-inducing combat, this would easily have been one of my favorite games, a must-play for surreal cosmic body-horror fans. At it stands I can't even recommend it.

Much of the game is walking-sim-style exploration with satisfying, visceral puzzles. Hooray for that. Two thumbs up. But then around the mid-point combat is introduced. The fact that it's very difficult, at times unfair, and very plentiful is bad enough. But the real issue is a save system that makes me pull my hair out: it's automatic, invisible to the player (you have no idea when the game is saved), and with save points very far from each other. The cost of death can be having to repeat long, tedious, and challenging segments of the game. And here's the cherry on top: this automatic save can easily have you at just one hitpoint and with no ammo.

We can all write long essays on how this awful design could have been fixed without negatively impacting immersion. Just look at the many excellent horror games that do it right, or at least much better than Scorn. It's hard to understand why the devs made such a horrible misstep when they got everything else so right.

I persevered and finished the game, all the way to its glorious ending, which may be one of the best I've ever experienced. Everything is just ... wow. I am awestruck. But getting there was often the opposite of fun.

Maybe modders will be able to fix this game. Until then, you are better served watching a playthrough than playing it yourself.