The PS5 release of Scorn makes use of quite a few of the console’s features, especially when it comes to feedback on the DualSense controller. Haptic feedback has been specifically called out by developer Ebb Software in the press release announcing the game. Scorn on PS5 will also run 4K and 60FPS.

The PS5 release of the H.R. Giger-inspired horror game was announced back in August with a trailer shown off during Future Games Show. The announcement trailer showed off some of the game’s disgusting, fleshy monsters, weapons and environments.

Scorn has also proven quite successful, with the studio having revealed back in June that the game had been played by over 2 million players on PC and Xbox Series X/S.

For more details on Scorn, check out our review of the original PC release.

With a trailer premiered at the recent Future Games Show, it has been confirmed that Scorn will be launching for PS5 on October 3, a little under a year on from its original launch. The trailer offers a look at some of the disgusting, fleshy monsters, weapons, and environments you’ll be witnessing as you trek through the horror game. Check it out below.

In our review of Scorn, we gave it a score of 7/10, saying, “Scorn is an interesting game to play. Lacking any real story to follow, it instead relies on your own curiosity to see it through. You’ll be interacting with all sorts of disgusting things, and fighting off horrifying creatures, and if you’re the kind of person who can not only stomach the aesthetic, but actually enjoy it, Scorn will undoubtedly be a wonderful experience. For just about everyone else, though, maybe look at a couple of screenshots and trailers and see if you can stomach the aesthetic first.” Read the full review through here.

As of June, Scorn had surpassed 2 million players.

And though Scorn might, by its very design, be a game that doesn’t necessarily have the most mass market appeal, what with its overwhelming atmosphere and how little it holds the player’s hand, it’s found plenty of success for itself nonetheless.

Taking to Twitter, developer Ebb Software recently announced that Scorn has been played by over two million players since its launch in October last year. The game has, of course, also been available via Game Pass since its release, so this doesn’t reflect its sales figures, but does give a good indication of how many players it’s attracted.

Scorn is available on Xbox Series X/S and PC, and is set to launch for PS5 sometime this year.

https://twitter.com/scorn_game/status/1674775182404202496

According to the announcement, Scorn will be making use of as many of the PS5’s features as it can, including the capabilities of the DualSense controller. The studio states that the controller’s haptics will allow Scorn to show off more of its immersive world design. Players will also feel the direction of different haptics depending on the hand being used.

Using different tools and weapons will have players interact with the DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers, which will give these items a sense of weight. And finally, the light bar on the controller will also work as an indicator of the player’s health.

Scorn was originally released back in October 2022 on PC and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review.

Kepler has announced some new partnerships for 2023 and beyond, including an investment in The Gentlebros, the Singapore-based studio behind Cat Quest. The publisher will partner with the studio on future releases while providing “valuable expertise in the mobile gaming space.” A global publishing partnership with Sandfall, based in Montpellier, has also been announced, with the studio’s first game being an “epic single-player narrative-driven adventure.”

Along with launching on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam, Sifu is also getting a substantial new content update: Arenas. It adds five new modes, nine locations and 45 challenges for up to 10 hours of additional gameplay.

Stay tuned for more details in the coming days, and check out our review for the base game here. You can also read our review for Scorn.

The first thing I’d say about Scorn is that most players will likely be put off by it. Those who aren’t particularly interested in the niche sub-genre of body horror will likely find Scorn look disgusting more than anything else. This is where the cliche of “it’s not a game for everybody” comes into play.

Let’s get one of the most interesting things about Scorn out of the way: if you’re into the idea of body horror in the style of H.R. Giger like I personally am, Scorn is an absolutely gorgeous game. Even if the aesthetics might not be your cup of tea—which would be completely understandable in this context—it would be difficult to argue that Scorn doesn’t look good.

Every single pulsing vein and throbbing blob of flesh that adorn the environments in Scorn are absolutely beautiful, modeled and textured in the most minute details possible for a studio the size of Ebb Software. Just about every corner you turn around will have you run into some horrifying mixture of biology, metal, and rocks.

"Even if the aesthetics might not be your cup of tea—which would be completely understandable in this context—it would be difficult to argue that Scorn doesn’t look good."

The body horror aesthetics seep in quite a bit into even the smallest of details, such as when you try to interact with things. Rather than just simply pushing a button or pulling a lever before moving on, your character will slowly lay their entire palm on a console before proceeding to interface with it. It’s small touches like these, where even the protagonist shows apprehension, that really amplifies Scorn’s excellent atmosphere.

Speaking of atmosphere, let’s not forget the other most important aspect here: the sounds. As you might expect, Scorn sounds absolutely disgusting in the best possible ways. The wet thuds you hear when an enemy collapses on a floor covered with metal and flesh sound fantastic, and really help in giving the world of Scorn a sense of being real.

The sounds during less action-packed scenes—the moments of quiet exploration and puzzle solving—serve to unnerve the player as they move about quite well. The music is very understated, instead giving the player more of the area’s regular sounds, like dripping liquid or pulsing flesh bulbs. The sound does a lot to elevate the sense of dread and paranoia as you explore the horrifying, seemingly-alien zones of Scorn. The visuals and audio design work in tandem with the fact that you never really leave the first-person perspective once you’ve started the game to provide an excellent horror experience.

When it comes to gameplay, Scorn is a bit hit or miss. The best parts of the game are often the quieter moments, like when you’re trying to figure out how an interlocking series of flesh-and-metal contraptions work together. The ambience created by the phenomenal soundscape coupled with the art direction in an incredible way. The puzzles themselves can often feel rather prone to a trial-and-error approach, at least until you start getting a semblance of familiarity with your environments to really understand how everything works.

"The game never really feels like it was designed with any sort of combat in mind, and it shows, with the character having some weight behind their actions. Unfortunately, this makes for a terrible time whenever you have to use your wonderfully bizarre-looking arsenal to actually fight things."

The other side of gameplay—the combat—often makes up some of the worst parts of Scorn. The game never really feels like it was designed with any sort of combat in mind, and it shows, with the character having some weight behind their actions. Unfortunately, this makes for a terrible time whenever you have to use your wonderfully bizarre-looking arsenal to actually fight things.

The gunplay is terrible, and enemies feel like they’re bullet sponges, and the combat often serves to eliminate whatever fun I was generally having while just exploring and puzzle solving. Now, don’t get me wrong. I understand that horror games are often enriched by their protagonists being poor fighters, but when it comes to game design, something like a classic Resident Evil game or Silent Hill 2 never really feels this bad in actually playing, even when you have to fight things.

Ebb Software has stated in the past that Scorn was never envisioned as an FPS, but the combat feels so bad, Scorn honestly feels like it would have been a much better game had it just focused on its aspects of exploration and puzzle solving. Sure, not having monsters that could potentially kill you could put a bit of a damper on the escalating sense of dread that Scorn thrives on building, but the other aspects of the game—the breathtaking visuals and excellent sound design—could have quite easily carried the game into still being a great, creepy horror game, even if you couldn’t die.

When it comes to the story, Scorn opts for telling a relatively simple one. Lacking anything in the way of exposition through cutscenes or even collectible audio logs or something, Scorn instead lets you experience the story completely through gameplay. A lot of the story told in the game is just the player’s actions in their attempt to rid themselves of a seemingly-malicious parasite. Scorn doesn’t really feel like it takes place in any real world; rather, it feels like a nightmare that a person is going through. The feeling of the game being a nightmare is echoed by the fact that the protagonist seems to know what they’re doing and where they’re going, despite the player not being given any real details.

With everything said and done, Scorn feels like more of an experience than something you’d play just for enjoyment. Don’t get me wrong, the non-combat bits of the game were genuinely quite a bit of fun, especially if you’re into the body horror aesthetics. But it doesn’t really feel like the game is even trying to tell you much of a story either. I get the distinct feeling that you’re meant to draw your own conclusions on just about every aspect of the game. The only real story-arc throughout the game is the relationship between the protagonist and the parasite, and even calling that a real relationship or story-arc would be generous

"Scorn feels like more of an experience than something you’d play just for enjoyment."

Scorn is an incredible experience, and I’d honestly recommend it to horror fans just because of how unique it is, with aesthetics ripped right out of the mind of H.R. Giger. It features jaw-droppingly gorgeous visuals and phenomenal audio design that really help pile its thick atmosphere on the player. Throughout the relatively-short game—I completed it in a single sitting over around 7 hours—the oppressive atmosphere and the general mystery of its setting was more than enough to pull me through.

Exploration in Scorn is a lot of fun, and there’s a level of enjoyment to be had just in admiring the craftsmanship of the visuals and audio alone. As a complete package, however, Scorn is a bit of a let down, not because of its short length, but rather its abysmal combat.

Since it feels like it’s meant to be more of an experience than a game, I believe Scorn succeeds at what it was trying to achieve. Sure, it doesn’t have much in the way of an obvious story to follow, but like I said, even just wandering around ends up being quite a bit of fun.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Scorn’s H.R. Giger-inspired art style, its impressive visual fidelity, and its focus on body horror have been among its most promising elements in all that we’ve seen of it in the lead-up to launch, and this new trailer continues to show all of that off. It also offers glimpses at various haunting and atmospheric locations and rather gruesome-looking weapons and enemy types. Check it out below.

According to Ebb Software, Scorn will be about 6-8 hours in length. You can get more details on the game in our pre-launch feature through here.

Scorn will launch tomorrow, on October 14, for Xbox Series X/S and PC. Check out its PC requirements through here. The game will also be available via Game Pass at launch.

VISUAL STYLE

Probably the most instantly apparent thing about Scorn is its visual style, and just how striking it is. Since the day it was first unveiled, its dark, eerie, moody aesthetic has turned quite a few heads, brimming with otherworldly, stomach-churning sights. Given how effectively unsettling it looks, its no surprise that Scorn’s developers at Ebb Software have said quite a few times that the game’s look is inspired by H.R. Giger, the man responsible for the iconic art design of the Alien franchise. Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński has also served as an inspiration for the game.

SETUP

Scorn’s narrative premise is quite an interesting one, in that it’s been purposely designed to be vague and mysterious. The game throws players right into the deep end- you’ll play as an unknown, unnamed humanoid… something (with horrific, skinless limbs, apparently), finding yourself lost on a terrifying alien planet where everyone and everything you cross paths with – from the enemies to the environments themselves – are a weird, horrific mix of machine, flesh, and bone. The nature of the planet and what you’re doing there and even what your ultimate goal is are things that (presumably) will be revealed to you as you play more of the game.

STORYTELLING

Appropriately enough, Scorn’s storytelling method is going to be as purposefully vague as the actual content of its story seemingly is. The game is going to have absolutely no cutscenes, with all the storytelling happening passively in-game itself. The developers, it seems, have made it a point to make the narrative style as indirect as possible.

NOT A SHOOTER

Scorn is a first person game, of course, and you will find projectile weapons to use in the games, but while normally you’d put those two together and assume you’re in for a first person shooter experience, here, that’s not going to be the case. Ebb Software has explicitly said on a few occasions that Scorn isn’t an FPS, and is instead focused on the exploration of its environments, uncovering its mysteries, and solving puzzles.

ATMOSPHERE

Horror is a wide genre, and different experiences go about tackling in different ways. With Scorn, Ebb Software is veering away from the sort of in-your-face horror you’d expect from the relatively more mainstream stories, and is instead going for an experience that relies almost entirely on atmosphere. Back in 2020, in an interview with GamingBolt, game director Ljubomir Peklar said that the game focuses on slower, palpable dread through atmosphere “to a ridiculous degree.”

IMMERSION

Something else that Scorn seems to be putting quite a bit of emphasis on is immersion, and while the design and level of detail in the environments will have a role to play in that, your awareness of your own character’s body will also play a role. From solving puzzles to picking up objects to interacting with things in the environment, Scorn is promising a very tactile style that will emphasize moment-to-moment immersion above all else.

STRUCTURE

Scorn’s structure promises to be an interesting one. The alien world the game is set on is going to be a collection of several distinct locations, each with their distinct themes where obstacles and enemies are concerned. Environments will be interconnected and the game’s structure is open-ended, while players will be tasked with acquiring new tools, weapons, and skills to unlock more of the world and explore further and further.

WEAPONS

While combat certainly isn’t the focus in Scorn, you are going to get your hands on a few weapons in the game. Their grotesque visual design looks unique, much like the rest of the game itself, and so far, we’ve seen a few of them in action. There’s a grenade launcher (which we’re assuming will be a late-game pickup), a 6-shot pistol that’s good for decent range, and a 3-shot shotgun that’s deadly when used against foes up-close. These biomechanical weapons are equipped by implanting them into your body, and as such, only one can be equipped at a time. To swap, you’ll have to manually remove the one you have equipped and slot in the one you want to use.

INVENTORY AND AMMO MANAGEMENT

Given Scorn’s focus on palpable atmosphere and largely combat-free gameplay, it’s no surprise that even though you will have access to some weapons, you’re not going to be able to go all guns blazing whenever you want. Conserving and smartly using your ammo is going to be a crucial consideration, as it often is in horror games. That means that figuring out when you need to run, hide, or avoid confrontation in other ways will be key to making progress.

LENGTH

Horror is one genre where being too long can very easily be a bad thing for a game, especially if it ends up hurting the pacing. Scorn, however, is apparently going to land in the sweet spot. Ebb Software has confirmed that the game will take roughly 6-8 hours to finish, depending on your play style and skill level. Of course, how well the game uses that runtime remains to be seen, but that seems about the right length for a horror game of this style.

NO PHOTO MODE

Scorn is clearly a gorgeous and technically impressive game, and there’s a good chance that players are going to want to stop and admire its grotesque world to their heart’s content while they’re playing. Photo modes have proven a popular way of doing that and sharing the experience in many games in recent years. Sadly, Ebb Software has confirmed that Scorn won’t have a photo mode- well, at least at launch. Whether or not it ends up getting added in following release remains to be seen. One can certainly hope.

4K/60 FPS

For a game as technically impressive as this one, you’d expect impressive resolution and frame rate targets, especially seeing as Scorn is skipping last-gen hardware. Thankfully, it seems like it won’t disappoint. On Xbox Series X, the game will run at 4K and 60 FPS. There’s no word yet on what the game will target on the Xbox Series S, but hopefully Ebb Software will be able to get the most out of the machine.

PC REQUIREMENTS

Meanwhile, if you’re planning on playing Scorn on PC, you’re going to need an impressive rig. On minimum settings, you’ll need either a Ryzen 3 3300X or an i5-8400, along with a GeForce GTX 1060 (3 GB), and an 8 GB of RAM. On recommended settings, you’ll need either a Ryzen 5 360 or an i7-8700, along with a GeForce GTX 2070 (8 GB), and 16 GB of RAM. On either setting, you’ll need a PC with a solid state drive, and roughly 50 GB of free storage space.

INCLUDED WITH GAME PASS

It’s abundantly clear even at a glance that Scorn isn’t going to be a game with mass market appeal, so if you’re in the group that’s intrigued by Ebb Software’s promises but isn’t entirely convinced if it’s the sort of experience that’ll gel with you, there’s good news for you. Like a number of other major third party releases in recent (and coming) months, Scorn is going to be available via Game Pass right at launch.

PRICE

Even if you’re planning on purchasing Scorn and not accessing the game via a Game Pass subscription, you’re going to pay less than you ordinarily would for most games. The game will retail for $39.99, which makes sense, considering the small scope of its development (and for many, its length).

Set in a nightmarish world, Scorn is a survival horror title that sees the player exploring a bizarre bio-organic labyrinth. The gameplay is entirely non-linear, and along with various puzzles to solve, there are enemies to fight. Fortunately, you can discover different bio-mechanical tools (lovingly implanted into your flesh) that can turn the tides.

What is this world, and how did it end up this way? Solving that mystery is one of the key plot points. Scorn will be available for PC via Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG, and Xbox Series X/S, along with launching day one for Xbox Game Pass. Head here for more extensive gameplay footage.

A new gameplay video of Scorn has gone live, clocking in at over eight minutes and showing the game’s prologue. From its immaculate focus on wordless and unsettling atmosphere and its alien and eerie aesthetic to its focus on exploration and puzzles and how visually impressive it is, the gameplay footage makes a very strong impression. Check it out below.

Scorn is due out on October 21 for Xbox Series X/S and PC, and will also be available via Game Pass at launch. If you’re planning on playing Ebb Software’s horror title on PC, you’re going to need some impressive hardware to be able to properly run it. Check out its minimum and recommended system requirements through here.