Xbox Series X & S Exclusive Scorn Shows Off 14 Minutes of Gameplay
The developer behind Xbox Series X horror shooter Scorn released a lengthy gameplay trailer that lets players know exactly what fleshy terror awaits.
The team behind Xbox Series X horror shooter Scorn recently unveiled a lengthy new trailer showcasing a game that looks like nothing that has come before. Ebb Software, a development house in Serbia, originally unveiled Scorn in 2013 before an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign. The game received investor funding in 2014 and succeeded in a second Kickstarter in 2017, which set the development in motion toward its new release date. It's due out in 2021 for Xbox Series X|S and PC, but it has already drawn a lot of attention due to its primo placement in Microsoft's console pre-release digital events.
The initial trailer for Scorn failed to reveal exactly what type of game it was, nonetheless attracting horror fans looking for something new on next-gen hardware. The design of the game's world takes obvious inspiration from H.R. Giger, the creator of the Xenomorph from the Alien movies. Everything in the environments looks to be organic, with many of the elements easily comparable to human bodily functions in a way that only adds to the creepy and out-of-place atmosphere. There's certainly a survival horror game to be made in this style, but that's not exactly what Ebb Software has been working on.
Rather than a survival horror game, Scorn is a first-person shooter, as seen in the gameplay trailer released this week. Players start off with a six-shot pistol and eventually get a shotgun attachment that fires spikes. Later in the trailer, there's a showcase for a grenade launcher attachment that blows apart an entire environment with a forceful blast. The enemies aren't aggressive soldiers or zombies, but instead bizarre creatures that spit goo at the player as they slowly creep forward. Hallways of stark gray and brown give way to fleshy flourishes of red, accented by the blood that comes off foes as they're gunned down.
The gameplay shown in the trailer features the player traveling through corridors, dispatching enemies, and unlocking doors, but every one of those common activities comes with bizarre stylistic touches thanks to the game's otherworldly environments. From the way the gun barrels attach onto the trigger to the various tubes the player attaches and detaches from their character and the environment, it's unquestionably a lot to take in, and that's all from a YouTube video. On Xbox Series X, the game will hopefully shine brighter, even if it's mostly covered in shadow.
While Scorn might not be a pure horror game, it certainly captures the creepy essence of games like Dead Space and The Evil Within. Bringing in a wider audience with gunplay without making a pure action game could help Scorn stand out amongst a limited field of Xbox Series X exclusives in its first months on the market. While there isn't a release date set in stone as of yet, an early release in 2021 could give it the same momentum as something like Dead Rising or Lost Planet from the Xbox 360 days. It certainly has the same technical chops to turn heads as those two Capcom classics did at the time.
Scorn is set for release on Xbox Series X|S and PC in 2021.
Source: Ebb Software