Scorn is a divisive, disgusting, yet kind of remarkable game, sending you on the grimmest of odysseys across an alien landscape that houses the remnants of a biomechanical society. I’vereviewed the game, I’ve analysed its story, and I’ve beenamazed by some of the cosmic horrors contained therein. There were times when I didn’t particularly enjoy the experience of playing it, and yet these were ultimately outweighed by the sheer amount of fascination this biomechanical world filled me with.
But one aspect of this unspoken narrative adventure that didn’t quite do justice to it was the ending, which simply left me feeling a little short-changed after my hours of hardship. In a moment where some degree of player autonomy could have made our own roles as players in that journey feel meaningful, the game seizes the reins and funnels you to a‘meh, everything’s futile’conclusion that just doesn’t feel as profound as the journey leading up to it.
To summarise: in the final act you arrive at a temple high in the clouds. You manage to tear the parasite that’s been riding on your back since Act 2 off of you, then sit in a chair where a surgical robot-thing slices you up and connects your brain to what appears to be a hivemind. At this point, you alternate between control of two Sentries,’ which you use to open the gates to a swirling vortex that could be any number of things: heaven, another dimension where your species have departed to, some kind of cosmic void?
For a deeper analysis on the story and ending,check out our in-depth explainer.
Judging by the statues surrounding it, this ‘Beyond’ place is something coveted by this society, a promised land that (perhaps) is not meant for just anyone - especially a lowly pleb like the one you seem to play as here. Subsequently, your character uses the two mind-controlled Sentries to try and carry himself through the gate. Before he can get there however, he gets attacked by the Parasite, which merges with him and turns him into a hopeless, pathetic monument at the entryway to the mysterious void.
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It’s a bleak ending for sure, but it’s not like any of the hours leading up to it exactly make you think that a game like this will end in all sunshine and rainbows. A satisfying conclusion doesn’t need to be a happy one, but it certainly feels like it could’ve said something more profound than either a) All your efforts are futile, or b) Your character makes a mistake that you, the player, now have to pay for. Scorn’s ending doesn’t address the player’s own ordeal in getting to that ending, and that leaves you feeling a little bit empty, having failed to round off some of the cool themes it flirts with throughout.
Of course, that ordeal is by design; from the visuals of the parasite tearing through you, to the various switches doubling as torture equipment, and even the stiff, uncomfortable combat, the journey isrough. If you’re a sicko like me, or otherwise a fan of the biomechanical art of H.R. Giger or hellscapes of Zdzislaw Bekszynski, then that journey is also engrossing (with an emphasis on thegross), and the player, devs, and even the character you play deserve to have it rounded off in style.
What’s frustrating is that it seems so clear where those choice tipping points could have been implemented. First of all, it seems like your character could’ve accepted a place in the hivemind without necessarily trying to go through the pearly gates. The chamber where your brain andahemramrod get hooked up to the hivemind is encircled by others like you who have gone through the same process, and seem to have found a purpose by binding with this greater being. In a story that seems to explore the themes of the individual versus the ‘whole,’ this could have been the perfect moment to solidify that by letting the player choose between their individualistic drive to see what’s in that Great Beyond (the ending we got), and the collectivist decision to become one with the hivemind.
Some people have also posited the theory that the Parasite isn’t as nefarious as it seems (at least not until you remove it at the end and cause it to seek revenge). The Parasite provides you with a weapon, and very kindly holds your ammo pouch up for you when you need to reload. There’s some kind of symbiosis there, where you twoneedeach other to get as far as you do, and yet your character chooses to abandon it. You can understand the instinct, of course, but given the ambiguous relationship betweem character and Parasite, it again begs for some kind of player agency about whether to keep or get rid of the Parasite. And what would an ending with the Parasite intact have looked like? Would it really have been a bad one?
Scorn isn’t really a game about choices, though oddly you make quite a significant one very early on about whether to kill or free a certain character. This, to my knowledge, is the only binary-style choice you have in the game, and along with the seemingly unexplored choices of the final act makes me wonder if at some point during its lengthy development Scorn was going to be more choice-oriented before the direction was scrapped.
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