I feel like the first character we play as became infected/mutated after the exploision as it was half parasite and half conscious. The parasite's intention was to become another fleshy disaster and remain in the rotting world but the first characters intention was also helping the second character get out of the world while stuck to the parasite. However the first charscter seems to be slowly losing control over his actions and was probably prolonging the second characters consumption, until the ending when he lost all control over his actions. The fact that both faces seem to be in a state of panic at the end lead me to this point.
to complete the process of birth u need the cromosomes of both sexes.Isnt the prarasite the symbolic counter part to complete the process of birth. U can also see at the end that they both turned into an egg.
Good point on the first protag's face also being panicked during the ending. I noticed that too. That brings a whole new depth to the parasite that I need to think on further.
I don't think there's a 1:1 analogy with any one particular thing, because a lot of things in Scorn feel like metaphors for all kinds of different things. The themes of impregnation and birth are obvious, but the parasite almost seems like a toxic partner. When you look down, the way they hold you almost looks like a loving embrace. They even provide you with a weapon and hold your supplies for you. But they hold too tight and refuse to let go, and when your character tries to pull their arms out, they hurt you. It gets to the point where they won't even let you do things for yourself, when those tendrils grow over your hands and you can't switch weapons or interact with anything. When I got in the extraction machine to get rid of the parasite, I was shocked to see that they had a human face, and that they're pressing their head against your back in what looks to be an affectionate way. The game was hella weird, though, I loved it.
It's that old, allegory vs applicability debate. A lot of things in the game are applicable to real-life issues, but are they allegories, or is the connection just there because you see it?
Mutated one represents woman(Eve). The original one represents man(Adam). The world is over, and Adam wanted to go back to paradise. Eve didn't. So Eve took over Adam's body and slowly killed him. Adam's sacrifice is to seek God's forgiveness. Eve killed Adam before the paradise. Eve scorn paradise.
@@dmgroberts5471 In a way I think it's all there because someone sees it. I think it's important to take authorial intent into consideration, but I also tend to consider non-canon interpretations to be just as valid (taken on a case by case basis, of course). So when I say I don't think there's a 1:1 with any one thing, I just mean I think it's even more open to interpretation than most games.
It felt fresh even though flesh was rotting left and right. There were no gaming tropes present, no invizible inventory no console activation without a realistic although disgusting animation. This felt like one of the most realistic games i've ever played, and the lack or dialogue helps with the immersion.
That's an interesting observation and true -- it was realistic in the sense that it didn't have gamified elements to take you away from what was happening immediately in front you. It's a crazy thing to behold.
@@samschreiber1640 It's a lot of money for a game that had a lot of content cut, no story AT ALL unless you invest in the art book (lmao what a scam). The game sold because it dared to get a little icky with the visuals SOMETIMES. After the 5 hours it took me to finish it I was so damn bored of looking at static red matter on walls I was glad it was over. People just praise this game because it is a void of lore so they can put their own in, same thing that happened with Metal Gear and Death Stranding. If you don't tell a story you let peoples minds wander and they make their own. Proof, I think Scorn is about a man that wanted to go to the shop but was accosted on the way and now he is a blob. Nobody can tell me that is wrong because there is no RIGHT ANSWER. The game SUCKED.
I remember reading a story about pacific islanders who basically doomed themselves making large stone statues meant to immortalize themselves or celebrate death in some way. They cut down the last trees on one island to make it happen, but as a result they caged themselves on the island. They soon after celebrated birds, probably as symbols of freedom, probably just as the last parts of their civilization died out or faded into others. Scorn seems to tell the story of a civilization worshipping the attempt to immortalize the self using an eldritch biology that enabled some type of rebirth/reincarnation process. This is likely because they were dealing with some existential crisis of mortality of some kind, or an immense threat of death that made them want to make life and birth a religious ideal.
My theory is he could never die and is constantly reborn on this messed up world , and the light was finally passing on but he’s stopped and trapped in a mutated mess so close to finally achieving his goal of final rest.
I notice how the main character(s) are hurting other creatures to escape through that portal. Our first character who wasn’t able to make it latches onto our second character and they go through this map together having to kill and use other living organisms to get their way, and we can’t forget the title of this game ‘SCORN’. I feel like if this game was about or just about the tragedies that could occur in pregnancy than it wouldn’t be named that.
So I've seen this in a few lore videos, and all of them say that the giant creature seemingly dies when we ascend. However, It doesn't die. You can see for yourself, when exiting the room you ascended in, and before entering the train system(?), when going up the ramp that leads upwards toward the railway system, there will be a window on your right side going up allowing you to see the outside of the room you ascended in. And if you observe it, you'll see the giant creature has been taken with you. you'll see it hanging from the bottom of the room, making noise and moving around. It is very much still alive.
Here's my take on it: It's about the struggle to overcome different obstacles to reach the escape. In the end you're confronted with the harsh reality that fate has the final say and you're not the master of your own destiny. I think the gunplay is intentionally made clunky and semi-effective cuz it replicates the lack of effectiveness found in a dream setting where your means of fighting are way weaker than what you desire.
In the acts 1,2, and a little of 3, I was getting a strong sense of a civilization that fell victim to either an invasion or a ravaging plaque. I supported either of these theories, by the general infection all around, the creatures, and especially the way corpses were massed. In example, in a particular section, they were piled up on this conveyer belt_ it leading into what I suspected as a furnace or a composter, ect. Some sort of mass grave and purification. As the game progressed Act4, I admit, I was starting to get a different vibe. Especially once we got to the city with shrines of reproductivity. Alas, I still support the idea that it was some sort of extinction level of a plaque. The inhabitants growing desperate, as it was reaching the main city, figured the only way to preserve their knowledge and being, was becoming part of a giant network, sheading their individuality and bodies. Their, 'kinks,' if you will, was a way of life. Not shamed, frowned upon, and considered something to be celebrated and advertised. Despite Scorn being WAY TOO short, a bit clunky in moments, feeling a bit familiar as an Indie game, I without a doubt enjoyed it. The biggest thing lacking for me, was world building. Such an interesting, deep lore, and once lived in world, but very little was told about it. This could have been the intention, but in all Acts, I really had the itch to know, WHO where these people. WHAT happened? WHY does the world, infected and non-infected, look the way it does?
I've watched a few different explains and I love how everyone has a different take on the game. In my explanation on my channel I saw it more so as what a civilization left behind and the character trying to catch up with everyone else. I really liked your take on it as well!
From the title itself, *Scorn* , it means meaningless or worthless. The game made players feel helpless in this hellscape. That ending really got me feeling empty.
Actually the art book explains alot of the game . For example when you first start off in the book they call it The Assembly which is a factory plant that recycles only to find out what they are recycling (flesh) When you fall out of the egg in one part of the game and are on the floor facing a dead body when you land. That wall is called the Genisis Wall, not from brick or mortar but Flesh, organs, and uterine lining. The wall gives birth. Scorn isn't set on an alien world. Meaning it could be set in the future. The book is by the creator and I think those who ordered the deluxe version gets a book. awesome video !
IT STARTS WHER GAME ENDS. If you are on operation chair and use camera around character you will notice parasite looks exacly same wAY AS character in the intro of the game. And it free it self from similar root thorns as he is wrapped at the end.
I encourage everyone to at least buy the artbook for Scorn digitally as it clearly states what the developers wanted the game to be and how they wanted the themes to be interpreted. The games director has stated on the creation of the protagonist, “the idea of being reborn is more potent than being born because you change drastically and you are aware of the changes. I wanted to explore losing control over your body. So that’s why the parasite exists, because it’s taking control of you and all your functions”
I read an article about this last friday suggesting the same themes. if anything the idea of the planet being a living organism(host, pregnant parent) as you traverse to be birthed, atleast softens the blow for the ending... if I take it as I see it, it just annoys me to no end... lol
@@streetwisehercules9956 the plot is fairly easy to understand once you've beat the game, they don't tell it to you obviously but I got what was going on in this world once I saw the ending.
@@streetwisehercules9956 spoon-feeding the players make them spoiled and lazy, this kind of leaving things hanging makes the player have his own theories and they don't have to develop extra content. It's a win-win
This game was cosmic horror at its best. My god did I get the creeps as I play through the game and discovered new areas. My mind was filling with more and more questions. Gameplay could've been better yes but this still made me want a sequel.
The baby in act I reminded me of children who are born to unloving parents who feel obligated to start a family. The way the PC pushes it around, makes it do things their way, and ONLY their way, and is overall so callous towards it, it’s all so similar to the way these types of parents act. Everything their kid does has to either reaffirm their lifestyle, their ego, or has to further themselves in life, without any care for if their child stays behind, pushing them ahead, unable to act of their own volition
I felt rather let down by the puzzles. Some were pretty good but too many were a case of interacting with a gizmo to then be left wandering around to the previous doodahs, thingmies and widgets until you find one which is now activated. The other issue is there’s only 1 decision to make in the entire game, and that’s right at the beginning (spoon or saw?). It would have been nice to have a handful of choices, perhaps allowing for different endings, as that would have increased the replayability.
Regarding the giant beat in 3:22 , I'm fairly certain is doesn't die but does become displaced and wounded. When you raise to the top at the station you can look out a window and see it pinned.
i love the aesthetic/graphics of this game. I didn't know what to call it until you mentioned H.R. Giger's influence on the game through his "biomechanical" style. It's great and appealing, hardly seen anywhere else.
Absolutely killer analysis! I loved this game so much. I had no issue navigating the maps because just like Carrion, you're meant to progress organically.
3:15 actually the creature is still alive you can see it from a window as you exit the train station, certainly symbolising a child leaving its mother behind
I don't doubt the imargy and themes right before the player, but I feel as though the game devs didn't spend all this time to lack subtly. I feel as though there are just as many reflections of hell and most notibly, torture and pain. Dantes inferno
The developers should be proud because their work has paid off. I just wish the second entry has multiple endings that reflect your actions throughout the game.
Same here. I was hoping that saving the life form, or not, in the first act would be be part of the "your choices determine the ending" design. But, since it was the only player choice in the whole game, and it gets left behind, I guess it wasn't meant to be that kind of game. Would have been neat though, if you saved that guy, that he would have eventually figured out how to follow you and saved you at the very end for saving it before. Or, as a gag, just walks on by you and through the portal.
Towards the end of the game all the flower imagery is very apt as a flower often has both "male" and "female" parts. When you look at the face at 7:07 you see the both genitalia present under the flesh flower.
My interpretation of the game is a surrealistic metaphor on life and existence. I find it more fascinating that way instead of trying to force a coherent and practical narrative to it. The biomechanical art style of HR Giger communicates the essential nature of humans to breed and to create technologies. Or that their mechanical impulse is that to breed. But even so, humans have a tendency to reproduce and build things. While Giger is an objective take on existentialism to communicate humanity through cosmic surrealism, The art of Zdislaw Beksinski is more personal and pessimistic. Its characters are communication of their surrounding world, which is that of decay, misfortune and depression. The characters of Scorn are personalized vehicles used to experience Giger's greater narrative of the Biomechanical art as a civlization trapped in Beksinski's pessimism. Life sucks and the laws of nature is that of chaos. Our discontent with it drives us to rebel against it and others to pursue whatever goals we make for ourselves. But the conjoinment of the two art styles creates a narrative of suffering and misfortune as the primal laws of this universe in which humans exist and go on existing. Happiness is an abstract in us that motivates us to experience life itself, which is hard. This leads us to the premise of the Scorn, which gives us two options related to Giger's & Beksinski's narratives. In the first narrative, we live in a society. Doing menial tasks laid before us, ignorant of the outside world. Our virtues here are our desire for intellect and work-ethic to progress in the facility, as a metaphor for earning your salt to go on living. Do this long enough and you get to the point where facility destructs with you in it. This could be deciphered as an end of things. The end to the world as we know it. The second narrative is that of the wasteland. The Scorn guy this time awakens from his cocoon like in Matrix. The virtues here are curiosity and knowledge. Here we gain some insight as we are no longer being sheltered from the outside world. We have left the Plato's cave and are confronted by the horrible truth of the Beksinki's world. That the world outside of Giger's Biomechanical is no better than the facility that represents the murderous toil of society. But we are out and make the choice to go on seeking something clearly missing from this world. But we can't make far in Beksinski's wasteland and have to venture back into the society for shelter and comfort. So that we can find the answers to our existence. But we can never go back to the way things were. Here we see the sinister underbelly to society. The festering corruption that challenges us to confront our fears in this new world of independence. We contract a parasitic tumor that represents mortality and our time left in this world. Here we still toil to progress but we do it for a new purpose. To escape from the behavioral sink of the mouse utopia. Until we arrive to the dark heart of the "I have no mouth and I must scream!" Here we receive our final test to everything we have learned from our time in society and the tools we picked along the way. Insightful and armed to the teeth, we destroy the Crater mother and thus defy the purpose laid for us. The train has our ticket out of here. But arriving at our destination we are shown the final truth to existence.The mural shows us the essential virtues of the Plato's Cave in HR Giger's mouse utopia. They are work and reproduction that produces ingenuity for the collective. The way of life to many. We have very little time here as the tumor grows. We make the final decision to remove it, but are gravely wounded in the process. Being linked to collective consciousness by the Dr. Satan robot from the House of 1000 Corpses; The sinister nature of the powers that be juxtaposes progress with the end result. We are horrified but linked to the collective we gain the final truth: That whatever goal we set ourselves isn't inherently better than the one laid for us. At the end we are carried by the robot of progress that we use towards our own ends to escape from the mouse utopia, but finally succumb. Our last grasp is of yearning what we rebelled symbolized by the automaton that carries us, now completely dependent on it. The challenges of old age. The parasite that merges with us is the mirror reflection of the corruption in society. We challenged it, now it challenges us. Both fueling the struggle of the two way red-pills of matrix. To try to live a content life or seek something missing from it. Whatever the case, our time is running out. At the end, as mortality overtakes us, we have to reconcile ourselves with our fate. But are left with confusion. Did we make the right choice? At the end, all events lead to the same outcome: Death. Those are our two choices. Both leading to death in a life that is chaos, uncertainty and discontent. By combining them both, we are given a third choice; the essentials of human experience fueling our goals in this life. What matters isn't the end or where we begin. It's what we do with the time given us. The mysterious nature of the game can represent the mystery of the universe and our desire to understand it. But at the end, humans can only understand the simple joys of life. Working for our living and having sex to continue living. And it makes many happy. Is it really coincidence that in both narratives we are born? The result of reproduction. The very virtues we escaped from. The last bit I'm going to leave you with is that there is nothing in the wasteland but the mystery in front of which we die, because we can't understand the mystery beyond our ordinary world. We may choose to pursue it, but without sex, humanity would cease to exist. Without working, society would cease to function. At the palace signifying wealth we take a peek behind the curtain. The machinations of the greater will, which replaces our free-will and reproductions into automatons for the collective, higher purpose. But that's what they are, automatons. Because are we even human when everything that makes us is replaced? What is our purpose? That is yours to make of it. That's why you are here. Life has no answers & offers nothing but hard choices. But you can give your answer for it, which fuels your life, or stop playing. You cease to progress until your time is up. Even so, you are confined to the horrible nature of this reality. There is no escape from it. That is why it's real. You are here. So make your choice.
@@dwayneleadenns9042 Np. I was trying to decipher the various things I saw in the game after beating it, but it all started clicking into place once I saw a comment about the Matrix analog with the eggs in the wasteland.
The first playable character is the father. The large beast is the mother. The second playable character is the child. The father infects the child with himself, a metaphor for our genetics being given to us by our parents. The mother sacrifices herself for her child in an effort to help it grow and accomplish its goals, while the father helps the child defend itself from the dangers in this world by giving it tools to fight back. The father continues to infect the child which cripples them both, slowing the child's progress. The child tries to escape but ends up killing innocent life in the process, a byproduct of living life in a constant state of danger. Before the child can escape it must first separate from the father, and in doing so severely damages itself. The escape at the end is halted by the father, which plants himself onto the child preventing it from growing. The two are forever entangled in grief over the loss of the mother and the child's inability to cope with the father holding it back from growing. This is how I see the story.
Overall, I felt that the parasitic creature was an unwanted pregnancy, its mother forced to carry it. When it sinks its hands into you, it's like a pregnant women's occasional cramps, but they also strike me as how a women pregnant with an unwanted child might feel its kicks; rather than a gleeful sign of the life inside of them, it's a painful reminder of the generation of a life long tie they don't want. Towards the end of the game, when it starts immobilizing you, it's a clear nudge to slowing down towards the birth of a child, yes, but in this instance it can also symbolize how the child's carrier will be slowed down in life, having to look after a child. I think the saddest part of this way of looking at it, is the parasite's attempts to help you. It'll hold items for you, weapons, healing, because it didn't choose to be born, it isn't malignant by nature, but due to circumstances, its embrace over you isn't seen as a loving relationship, but one that clenches down tight, not allowing for either party to move, forever doomed to see the future that could've been
While it bears little relevance to this game, the explanation always reminds me of the phrase 'Hell hath no fury like a woman SCORNed'. Maybe, just maybe, that's where the game gets its title from, if you couple that with Dan's explanation of the theme behind this game.
my personal opinion, i loved the exploration and subtle threats of danger in acts 1+2. i wish the whole game was like that and abandoned the combat aspect. adding the patrolling enemies just turned it into.... idk. a game. acts 1+2 i think had a perfect succinct purpose and atmosphere and excelled in telling a story of loneliness. the fact that i felt a kinship toward the creature on my back despite it hurting me. it was the only thing i had that was alive, the only other being that could possibly understand how it felt to be abandoned in this desolate place. i just thought the game lost its poetry in act 3. i stopped thinking about it because i was focused on finding ammo and healing nodes, everything just became a nuisance instead of a meaningful piece of the art
You can beat the game without really using the ammo. I only killed one of the larger quadrupeds (bull), one of the winged creatures (chicken), one of the ceiling hangers, and the 2 unavoidable mechs. If you give the creatures some space and avoid their route, they always find a fleshy nook to go into.
To me it felt like an alien civilization made up of mech & flesh that had developed an infection/disease that had spread over time. Like the world was rotten from the inside out and you play the role of a last remaining survivor trying to safe his soul
Its strange that you didnt mention Zdzisław Beksiński he was the second after the Giger whos work inspired the game.Mostly i agree with your interpretation about stroy throght i may add that maybe Scorn civilisation crushed because of the same parasites who killed or consumed almost every survivors cause dont you think its too conviniet that in City almost like the capital theres is two unique device specially made to fight parasites?One to free hands and others to free body... Maybe the resone for weaponse and mechs was exactly the threat of parasites and mutans that scared people? Maybe when they understood that they cannot win they simly escaped to other side or achived trancedence in Hive Mind and because of that the others parts of lands and buldings became abadoned and forgotten giving free way to rotting and decaying?Also it may be a twisted intopritation but that if the idea of scorn not to be born BUT INSTEAD A DESIRE TO COMEBACK TO MOTHERS WOMB?We are the lost child in strange world we are scared and dont know what to do we just want to be back in mothers body to feel the warm of her belly...And it also could represent a lot of vaginas or bellies at mens body, and the idea of little children controling robots from bellies!
This alien civilization seemed very advanced and knowledgeable to have been overthrown by parasites, the parasites could have been genetically programmed to attach to humans as weapons/keys, and be removed from the machines, simply as tools that fullfill a purpose.
I think it's interesting that you found the creature in Act IV to be a helpful one, because I personally saw it as more helpless than anything. To me, it's a mother having to endure the pains of pregnancy, that pain being debilitating for this creature. And then we come along, and exacerbate that pain, turning it into one of birth, while it sits their unable to do anything about it, its life in another's hands. When it looked at me, it felt like a glare of pure contempt, all it could do to help alleviate its anger at me as I forced it through more and more pain
I felt like that was more the case as well. Furthermore, when you unlock the mechanisms, notice that there are very vaginal looking orifices that the machinery rips its way out of, like a violent take on birth. Given the recurrent themes of birth, rebirth, life, death and utter cruelty and lack of empathy, I think that it's fitting that we see imagery of violent and brutal birth, not the magical miracle that some would like to paint it to be. And after all that, you tear through it to ascend, leaving it mangled and in agony, likely to die slowly, again, very much in keeping with the themes.
As a medical student and horror enjoyer scorn was hell of experience and didn't think of vanishing baby syndrome here more If one baby dies in 1st trimester it is completely absorbed but after that it cause a fatal complication known as DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation) which causes both alive baby and mother to die if untreated
I can say that this theory is what that makes sense out of the game, as if the game is not based on action kind game or etc, it now makes sense that why player is not here to experience a shooting and killing gameplay in a hostile world, the game is here to show a theory or maybe a fact from the creators mind. You can see the game moves player around a world not much to play but more to observe the happenings around in the world of the game, Infact that there is no dialogue or text is a challenge for the player to make his own understanding of a game. At the end I think Scorn is a game for a new experience and a game for showing some thing to us, who knows what is going on the creators of the games mind.
Imteresting. When the first protagonist first awakes, the half of his face that is buried is the same half that is skinned to the bone on the parasite. It seems he's awakening in the room that blows up, while remembering how he got therebin first place.
You will have much more knowledge about this world by reading artbook from Deluxe version of the game, but I recommend 2 playthroughs - first one to try to interpret the game by yourself and second with analyzing all the details you missed, that are explained in artbook. For me, it is a GOTY.
@@PBart7 That the world is in fact not alien but an extrapolation of our own world pushed to its boundaries. The game it’s centered around the themes of entropy and existence as well as questions like “are we losing ourselves and our essence?” And “are we being overwhelmed by technology?”. Lot more stuff in there but at its core that’s what the team intended to create
To me the enemies in the middle of the game detracted from it. The game also lingers too long in that part. The gameplay mechanics to combat those enemies felt extremely basic for a FPS. Even having a pistol, shotgun and grenade launcher felt much too human for that setting. It would have felt more integrated and satisfying had they designed the environment to be a bit more hostile, and then be forced to trick the enemies into deadly situations. We had the face-screen thing in the first area, which networked you into a device to control the rails. Why not use it again at other locations to allow the player to control some sort of self defense mechanism to clear the parasites. Of course, make the player spend a bunch of time avoiding the things until that point. This game went so hard on atmosphere and metaphors that it almost forgot it was a game and the whole "give them some standard fps guns" was a quick solution.
I think that giant creature over hundreds or thousands of years ended up growing around that part of the structure which had been long since abandoned and basically someone comes along and uses the escalator or whatever so using the machine after so long kills it
The protagonists mind is connected to the the hivemind but it probably cant merge with it so the body still needs to stay alive in order for him to control the drones, i think the reason they keep stabbing him is to give his body impulses so the body still understands its still alive and doesnt just shut itself down even if his consciousness isnt in his body.
One thing I could infer from the game was that whatever setting it takes place in, it's definitely somewhere that has been long abandoned and/or extinct because of all the fleshy overgrowths on things that would get removed by the player manipulating the mechanisms. That big "mother" creature seemed to me to be something that grew on that mechanical elevator where it didn't necessarily belong. A lot of the setting definitely seemed to be some sort of factory or facility that beings worked in a long time ago. Maybe like some sort of reproduction/birthing facility.
I like that you are the only one that actually explains its own iterpretation of the game, the rest of the shitty videos are just a summarized narrative of the events of the game hah
it´s really interesting the similarity of the motherly giant creature with the protagonist´s bad ending in the "I have no mouth and i must scream" game, just go and look, and sluggish long necked creature, unable to even being compared to an human anymore... the fact is that the end of the game has the exactly same feeling actually, the idea of being in an eternal nightmare, completly unable to do anything anymore, completly alone, in an empty world, slowly losing the notion of time and self, and by "alone", take it as the victim(protagonist), and an opressing force tormeting it for the eternity.... and even the fact that just like the said story, the protgagonists where right about to accomplish their goal, then it all was taken away, just to give this bleak and gloomy ending. I could even say that the creature doesn´t even hurt you because somehow it was just longing for someone end it´s misery... But this is only me doing an even bigger pararell between both narratives....
Hey Dan I noticed live videos of the actors of The Quarry Zach Tinker AKA Jacob Custos Siobhan Williams AKA Laura Kearney and Ted Rami AKA Travis Hackett and last but not least Evan AKA Nick Furclilo
"Life begins with pain, life ends with pain" rings out heavy when hearing you talk about it. Its a soild idea to base a agame around especially if you go so avant-garde as they did. I didnt like the character being forced to watch the pariste escape. In some ways it feels like that was potentially an option given how much it has helped you. Gives away the ending too quickly. If we could've spared or kill it while on the hook, then get an ending. I think that wouldve had more impact and not left a bad taste. Just felt flaccid at the end no pun intended.
I agree with your ideas. Also I recommend looking at the art book for this game. It has some interesting stuff to help your argument. Also Another Creator pointed out that alot of the puzzles involve guiding something usually an object (Usually spherical) to another place like Insemination of an egg to form an embryo. (This could be a stretch)
My interpretation is far more literal than metaphorical but, in some ways, makes more sense to me than one of the metaphorical. To me it looks like a dark dystopian future where scientific pragmatism has driven reproduction and gotten lost in itself over time. A possible future where the necessity of women carrying children inside them has been replaced with artificial means and by losing that important connection between a woman and her child, all natural emotions of nurture and love have been doused and replaced with unfeeling robotic beings of blind progress (potentially reshaping what progress even looks like). The furthering of science and scientific discovery in this world became the direct cause of human extinction because they removed themselves from what being human really means and left only suffering in its wake, possibly leading to a societal apathy and cruelty, even destroying their own will to survive and inflicting a deliberate cruelty upon itself (possibly a punishment upon self-reflection of what the species has done. Maybe at some point they even tried to turn back and create women again to naturally carry infants or a creature that emulated a mother's love or embrace. The top of the tower could have been a shrine of worship or forgiveness to mothers of the past. Just a fun all round concept and something one could spend months getting lost in. Thanks a lot for your video it was a great read of what this game/world is trying to tell us without telling us. Amazing concept game and amazing video, thanks again :)
I saw it as the same interpretation as you are. That explains the mass grave dump sites in the towers. They are so disconnected morally, and perhaps the flesh that riddles the land are cancers done by their scientific research. (Perhaps a vain and delusional attempt to restore the "woman" or an attempt to ascend pass their current extinction. *which explains the neurolink mechanics in that tower.)
I'm sorry to say this but I've always believed that after we die there is no heaven or hell. There is only a place like this... Not exactly like this, but its essence in concept. That after we die, whatever that is 'us' will be transported to a plane that is completely incomprehensible. With no memory of our past life and no clue about our current surroundings. We either live through the confusion or we die immediately, and with either experience we will be again transported to another plane, repeating the cycle of confusion for all eternity. Our time here on Earth is just another confusing plane, albeit a less confusing one for some, but just as confusing as this Scorn plane for others.
I could bet that everything that is a wall and such, is both flesh and some sort of stone-like material, like the creture's shell that we can either free or kill
I think we are meant to take the word scorn literally. Scorn to me is about transcendence above flesh. A lot of the game shows ways of transforming one thing to another. A process of birth. I believe these “people” disowned natural birth for transcendence, becoming more than flesh. At the end, we can see torture is at play to ground them in reality before finally being birthed to their new world. Beyond this “portal.” Also, every human is birthed from an egg attached to a wall in the womb. I would not be surprised if this is all about birth, in the form of transcendence.
I feel there is no salvation and no answers on the other side of the portal. The character is on a journey of confusion and pain, with no understanding of his purpose or destination. Only a sense that moving forward is somehow progressing towards something. It's just going through life, and even though the builders created all these places and machines to accomplish something, all existence ultimately ends without salvation or answers.
I have experienced this story/ world way more positive... Little sad to see that it may not be that way. I liked the fusion of life and death, Biological and Mechanical and the irrelevance of an individual "hero". Maybe after all the things we separate so much, aren't that different.
I personally think Scorn is a great game and a work of art I mean not many games still have me thinking about them once I've completed them and one other thing I'm impressed with how polished this game is the fact that it got an early release in this day an age of gaming with no bugs, glitches or performance issues at least on Xbox Series X.
To be honest, I took this as, felt, that it’s the evolving stages of diverticulitis, through infection to pain, eating away inside, trying to find a cure yet uncurable, in the end the disease took control. Anyone with this symptom will know where I’m coming from.
i watched a stream of this while falling asleep and it looks really creative. I didnt see everythiing of the story but I thought it was like.. aliens using mankind as a birthing vessel (because of unexplained reasons) and the parasite things are like their way of producing soldiers, workers, vessels. SO they're trying to set this thing up to bring some vessel through the portal and are ultimately undone by their own parasites, Idk.. thats my interpretation of being half asleep and watching a stream Because the blue pregnant ladies are infected right? that's why there's skulls on the back of their head? like the human is long dead but the parastite took over and absorbed the womb for that ritual? I felt like the ending was intelligent but not dramatic enough to feel satisfying. still really good and intersting.
I really liked what they have created and seeing there's so many ways to interperet the deeper meaning. it's just the ending I'm struggling with. all these "freedom" and choices all ending with a crushing defeat on the finish line. not looking for a happy ending per say, just alternatives.
I came to similar interpretations. This civilization seems to have run a path of development of biomechanical technology to enhance and strengthen their bodies. Also, they looks like have no mouth so they can't speak like us humans, so they must communicate in other ways, telepathy maybe. There's the chance they have a sort of "hive mind" like the bees. That will explain why there's no knowledge about the world or this character at all in the game. Maybe this civilization have no reached their ambitious goal of transcence? Maybe that parasite is something they have made to try to achieve that goal and failed? Maybe that parasite infected their whole planet dooming their civilization? Maybe. That would not explain why this character woke up and started its journey to find salvation. Why or who woke him up? That's a big answer.
I really loved the game. I hate puzzle games but the atmosphere, environment and lore heavy details kept me playing, and the puzzles in the game aren't really puzzles, they are more like sequential areas with "buttons" to press. It's weird how you interpret the game, while I do in one sense agree I got the feeling of unawareness and disorientation. The protagonist seemingly can interface with the technology but something has gone terrible wrong, maybe a biological experiment. The three eggs placed in the exoskeletons are of an aggressive state right from the start, implying they know who the enemy is. Even if the complex seem to have been built by the protagonists species as they farm the the other, the parasitic species is a third party that dominated both, the parasite origin looks to be part of the infested tissue all over the place. I think the complex was built by the parasites to farm hosts after having dominated the protagonist species. I would have loved to know how long time passed between 1 and 2, after the rebirth, as the room with the big opened wall is completely ingrown and covered in sand.
I think the bodies scattered everywhere are "sperm" that didn't make it to the egg while we are the fertilized egg going through the "pregnancy" I love games that make me think THINK!!
You could draw as many parallels to stillborn as you could with abortion to this ending, from what I’ve seen I personally see it as abortion I haven’t mentioned politics and you don’t have to either
I feel like the first character we play as became infected/mutated after the exploision as it was half parasite and half conscious. The parasite's intention was to become another fleshy disaster and remain in the rotting world but the first characters intention was also helping the second character get out of the world while stuck to the parasite. However the first charscter seems to be slowly losing control over his actions and was probably prolonging the second characters consumption, until the ending when he lost all control over his actions. The fact that both faces seem to be in a state of panic at the end lead me to this point.
This was my interpretation as well.
to complete the process of birth u need the cromosomes of both sexes.Isnt the prarasite the symbolic counter part to complete the process of birth. U can also see at the end that they both turned into an egg.
tho on very end looks like parasitic part (subconcious) wins and forcebly penetrates another one...like rape.
Good point on the first protag's face also being panicked during the ending. I noticed that too. That brings a whole new depth to the parasite that I need to think on further.
I don't think there's a 1:1 analogy with any one particular thing, because a lot of things in Scorn feel like metaphors for all kinds of different things. The themes of impregnation and birth are obvious, but the parasite almost seems like a toxic partner. When you look down, the way they hold you almost looks like a loving embrace. They even provide you with a weapon and hold your supplies for you. But they hold too tight and refuse to let go, and when your character tries to pull their arms out, they hurt you. It gets to the point where they won't even let you do things for yourself, when those tendrils grow over your hands and you can't switch weapons or interact with anything. When I got in the extraction machine to get rid of the parasite, I was shocked to see that they had a human face, and that they're pressing their head against your back in what looks to be an affectionate way.
The game was hella weird, though, I loved it.
It's that old, allegory vs applicability debate. A lot of things in the game are applicable to real-life issues, but are they allegories, or is the connection just there because you see it?
Mutated one represents woman(Eve). The original one represents man(Adam). The world is over, and Adam wanted to go back to paradise. Eve didn't. So Eve took over Adam's body and slowly killed him. Adam's sacrifice is to seek God's forgiveness. Eve killed Adam before the paradise. Eve scorn paradise.
@@dmgroberts5471 In a way I think it's all there because someone sees it. I think it's important to take authorial intent into consideration, but I also tend to consider non-canon interpretations to be just as valid (taken on a case by case basis, of course). So when I say I don't think there's a 1:1 with any one thing, I just mean I think it's even more open to interpretation than most games.
@@AmpluexCompressa I agree with your first reply.
Great insight
The ending of Scorn is a tragic one that actually made me actually hate it and love it weirdly
would you say that you scorn its ending?
That part when John Scorn said "its Scorning time" and scorned all over place.
@@skullknight0024 what is the some kind of scorn?
I almost cried
@@skullknight0024 Thank you man you made my day LMAO
It felt fresh even though flesh was rotting left and right. There were no gaming tropes present, no invizible inventory no console activation without a realistic although disgusting animation. This felt like one of the most realistic games i've ever played, and the lack or dialogue helps with the immersion.
That's an interesting observation and true -- it was realistic in the sense that it didn't have gamified elements to take you away from what was happening immediately in front you. It's a crazy thing to behold.
The game was lame AF get real that trash was boring af
@@fartzhapy4165 pretty good for their first game and most just got it with game pass
@@samschreiber1640 It's a lot of money for a game that had a lot of content cut, no story AT ALL unless you invest in the art book (lmao what a scam). The game sold because it dared to get a little icky with the visuals SOMETIMES. After the 5 hours it took me to finish it I was so damn bored of looking at static red matter on walls I was glad it was over. People just praise this game because it is a void of lore so they can put their own in, same thing that happened with Metal Gear and Death Stranding. If you don't tell a story you let peoples minds wander and they make their own. Proof, I think Scorn is about a man that wanted to go to the shop but was accosted on the way and now he is a blob. Nobody can tell me that is wrong because there is no RIGHT ANSWER. The game SUCKED.
@@fish5645 jesus im not reading all that but i agree with you
I remember reading a story about pacific islanders who basically doomed themselves making large stone statues meant to immortalize themselves or celebrate death in some way. They cut down the last trees on one island to make it happen, but as a result they caged themselves on the island. They soon after celebrated birds, probably as symbols of freedom, probably just as the last parts of their civilization died out or faded into others.
Scorn seems to tell the story of a civilization worshipping the attempt to immortalize the self using an eldritch biology that enabled some type of rebirth/reincarnation process. This is likely because they were dealing with some existential crisis of mortality of some kind, or an immense threat of death that made them want to make life and birth a religious ideal.
My theory is he could never die and is constantly reborn on this messed up world , and the light was finally passing on but he’s stopped and trapped in a mutated mess so close to finally achieving his goal of final rest.
His own failures, not allowing anyone to progress, as they would probably fade
@@crewman6141no. Litterally nothing like undertale.
I think your take on the game is coherent, eloquent and beautifully spoken.
Yes I agree! Couln't have said it better!
I notice how the main character(s) are hurting other creatures to escape through that portal. Our first character who wasn’t able to make it latches onto our second character and they go through this map together having to kill and use other living organisms to get their way, and we can’t forget the title of this game ‘SCORN’. I feel like if this game was about or just about the tragedies that could occur in pregnancy than it wouldn’t be named that.
So I've seen this in a few lore videos, and all of them say that the giant creature seemingly dies when we ascend. However, It doesn't die. You can see for yourself, when exiting the room you ascended in, and before entering the train system(?), when going up the ramp that leads upwards toward the railway system, there will be a window on your right side going up allowing you to see the outside of the room you ascended in. And if you observe it, you'll see the giant creature has been taken with you. you'll see it hanging from the bottom of the room, making noise and moving around. It is very much still alive.
Here's my take on it:
It's about the struggle to overcome different obstacles to reach the escape. In the end you're confronted with the harsh reality that fate has the final say and you're not the master of your own destiny.
I think the gunplay is intentionally made clunky and semi-effective cuz it replicates the lack of effectiveness found in a dream setting where your means of fighting are way weaker than what you desire.
In the acts 1,2, and a little of 3, I was getting a strong sense of a civilization that fell victim to either an invasion or a ravaging plaque. I supported either of these theories, by the general infection all around, the creatures, and especially the way corpses were massed. In example, in a particular section, they were piled up on this conveyer belt_ it leading into what I suspected as a furnace or a composter, ect. Some sort of mass grave and purification.
As the game progressed Act4, I admit, I was starting to get a different vibe. Especially once we got to the city with shrines of reproductivity. Alas, I still support the idea that it was some sort of extinction level of a plaque. The inhabitants growing desperate, as it was reaching the main city, figured the only way to preserve their knowledge and being, was becoming part of a giant network, sheading their individuality and bodies. Their, 'kinks,' if you will, was a way of life. Not shamed, frowned upon, and considered something to be celebrated and advertised.
Despite Scorn being WAY TOO short, a bit clunky in moments, feeling a bit familiar as an Indie game, I without a doubt enjoyed it. The biggest thing lacking for me, was world building. Such an interesting, deep lore, and once lived in world, but very little was told about it. This could have been the intention, but in all Acts, I really had the itch to know, WHO where these people. WHAT happened? WHY does the world, infected and non-infected, look the way it does?
I've watched a few different explains and I love how everyone has a different take on the game. In my explanation on my channel I saw it more so as what a civilization left behind and the character trying to catch up with everyone else. I really liked your take on it as well!
Thanks man, I will definitely check out your video later today
From the title itself, *Scorn* , it means meaningless or worthless. The game made players feel helpless in this hellscape. That ending really got me feeling empty.
Actually the art book explains alot of the game . For example when you first start off in the book they call it The Assembly which is a factory plant that recycles only to find out what they are recycling (flesh)
When you fall out of the egg in one part of the game and are on the floor facing a dead body when you land. That wall is called the Genisis Wall, not from brick or mortar but Flesh, organs, and uterine lining. The wall gives birth. Scorn isn't set on an alien world. Meaning it could be set in the future. The book is by the creator and I think those who ordered the deluxe version gets a book. awesome video !
Nothing has come closer to stepping into an H.R. Giger painting. Mesmerising from start to finish.
Dam
IT STARTS WHER GAME ENDS. If you are on operation chair and use camera around character you will notice parasite looks exacly same wAY AS character in the intro of the game. And it free it self from similar root thorns as he is wrapped at the end.
I encourage everyone to at least buy the artbook for Scorn digitally as it clearly states what the developers wanted the game to be and how they wanted the themes to be interpreted. The games director has stated on the creation of the protagonist, “the idea of being reborn is more potent than being born because you change drastically and you are aware of the changes. I wanted to explore losing control over your body. So that’s why the parasite exists, because it’s taking control of you and all your functions”
This game is a great example of why some things are better left to the imagination
It felt unfinished. For me personally it needs more. Absolutely incredible design though, never seen anything quite like it.
hope they make another game similar to it
@@JudeTheRUclipsPoopersubscribe I've heard that this is considered part 1
@@thepreacher7399 they apparently decided to just merge part 1 and 2 together which is why it was delayed from 2021 to 2022.
@@JudeTheRUclipsPoopersubscribe Oh.. Never mind then.
Yours is a very interesting take, the devs definitely left this mysterious world up for discussion
I read an article about this last friday suggesting the same themes. if anything the idea of the planet being a living organism(host, pregnant parent) as you traverse to be birthed, atleast softens the blow for the ending... if I take it as I see it, it just annoys me to no end... lol
hope they make a sequel with all our feedback took into play. the world is so good I've never seen anything like it
Seems more like they didn’t bother making an actual plot
@@streetwisehercules9956 the plot is fairly easy to understand once you've beat the game, they don't tell it to you obviously but I got what was going on in this world once I saw the ending.
@@streetwisehercules9956 spoon-feeding the players make them spoiled and lazy, this kind of leaving things hanging makes the player have his own theories and they don't have to develop extra content. It's a win-win
This game was cosmic horror at its best. My god did I get the creeps as I play through the game and discovered new areas. My mind was filling with more and more questions. Gameplay could've been better yes but this still made me want a sequel.
The baby in act I reminded me of children who are born to unloving parents who feel obligated to start a family. The way the PC pushes it around, makes it do things their way, and ONLY their way, and is overall so callous towards it, it’s all so similar to the way these types of parents act. Everything their kid does has to either reaffirm their lifestyle, their ego, or has to further themselves in life, without any care for if their child stays behind, pushing them ahead, unable to act of their own volition
Great to see some more 🔥 content. Happy to see you back Legend. 🙌
I felt rather let down by the puzzles. Some were pretty good but too many were a case of interacting with a gizmo to then be left wandering around to the previous doodahs, thingmies and widgets until you find one which is now activated.
The other issue is there’s only 1 decision to make in the entire game, and that’s right at the beginning (spoon or saw?).
It would have been nice to have a handful of choices, perhaps allowing for different endings, as that would have increased the replayability.
Regarding the giant beat in 3:22 , I'm fairly certain is doesn't die but does become displaced and wounded. When you raise to the top at the station you can look out a window and see it pinned.
i love the aesthetic/graphics of this game. I didn't know what to call it until you mentioned H.R. Giger's influence on the game through his "biomechanical" style. It's great and appealing, hardly seen anywhere else.
Absolutely killer analysis! I loved this game so much. I had no issue navigating the maps because just like Carrion, you're meant to progress organically.
3:15 actually the creature is still alive you can see it from a window as you exit the train station, certainly symbolising a child leaving its mother behind
I don't doubt the imargy and themes right before the player, but I feel as though the game devs didn't spend all this time to lack subtly. I feel as though there are just as many reflections of hell and most notibly, torture and pain. Dantes inferno
The developers should be proud because their work has paid off. I just wish the second entry has multiple endings that reflect your actions throughout the game.
Same here. I was hoping that saving the life form, or not, in the first act would be be part of the "your choices determine the ending" design.
But, since it was the only player choice in the whole game, and it gets left behind, I guess it wasn't meant to be that kind of game.
Would have been neat though, if you saved that guy, that he would have eventually figured out how to follow you and saved you at the very end for saving it before.
Or, as a gag, just walks on by you and through the portal.
Towards the end of the game all the flower imagery is very apt as a flower often has both "male" and "female" parts. When you look at the face at 7:07 you see the both genitalia present under the flesh flower.
You know, just by saying "giger" correctly you earned a like.
My interpretation of the game is a surrealistic metaphor on life and existence. I find it more fascinating that way instead of trying to force a coherent and practical narrative to it.
The biomechanical art style of HR Giger communicates the essential nature of humans to breed and to create technologies. Or that their mechanical impulse is that to breed. But even so, humans have a tendency to reproduce and build things.
While Giger is an objective take on existentialism to communicate humanity through cosmic surrealism, The art of Zdislaw Beksinski is more personal and pessimistic. Its characters are communication of their surrounding world, which is that of decay, misfortune and depression.
The characters of Scorn are personalized vehicles used to experience Giger's greater narrative of the Biomechanical art as a civlization trapped in Beksinski's pessimism. Life sucks and the laws of nature is that of chaos. Our discontent with it drives us to rebel against it and others to pursue whatever goals we make for ourselves. But the conjoinment of the two art styles creates a narrative of suffering and misfortune as the primal laws of this universe in which humans exist and go on existing. Happiness is an abstract in us that motivates us to experience life itself, which is hard.
This leads us to the premise of the Scorn, which gives us two options related to Giger's & Beksinski's narratives. In the first narrative, we live in a society. Doing menial tasks laid before us, ignorant of the outside world. Our virtues here are our desire for intellect and work-ethic to progress in the facility, as a metaphor for earning your salt to go on living. Do this long enough and you get to the point where facility destructs with you in it. This could be deciphered as an end of things. The end to the world as we know it.
The second narrative is that of the wasteland. The Scorn guy this time awakens from his cocoon like in Matrix. The virtues here are curiosity and knowledge. Here we gain some insight as we are no longer being sheltered from the outside world. We have left the Plato's cave and are confronted by the horrible truth of the Beksinki's world. That the world outside of Giger's Biomechanical is no better than the facility that represents the murderous toil of society.
But we are out and make the choice to go on seeking something clearly missing from this world. But we can't make far in Beksinski's wasteland and have to venture back into the society for shelter and comfort. So that we can find the answers to our existence. But we can never go back to the way things were. Here we see the sinister underbelly to society. The festering corruption that challenges us to confront our fears in this new world of independence. We contract a parasitic tumor that represents mortality and our time left in this world. Here we still toil to progress but we do it for a new purpose. To escape from the behavioral sink of the mouse utopia. Until we arrive to the dark heart of the "I have no mouth and I must scream!" Here we receive our final test to everything we have learned from our time in society and the tools we picked along the way. Insightful and armed to the teeth, we destroy the Crater mother and thus defy the purpose laid for us. The train has our ticket out of here.
But arriving at our destination we are shown the final truth to existence.The mural shows us the essential virtues of the Plato's Cave in HR Giger's mouse utopia. They are work and reproduction that produces ingenuity for the collective. The way of life to many. We have very little time here as the tumor grows. We make the final decision to remove it, but are gravely wounded in the process. Being linked to collective consciousness by the Dr. Satan robot from the House of 1000 Corpses; The sinister nature of the powers that be juxtaposes progress with the end result. We are horrified but linked to the collective we gain the final truth: That whatever goal we set ourselves isn't inherently better than the one laid for us. At the end we are carried by the robot of progress that we use towards our own ends to escape from the mouse utopia, but finally succumb. Our last grasp is of yearning what we rebelled symbolized by the automaton that carries us, now completely dependent on it. The challenges of old age.
The parasite that merges with us is the mirror reflection of the corruption in society. We challenged it, now it challenges us. Both fueling the struggle of the two way red-pills of matrix. To try to live a content life or seek something missing from it. Whatever the case, our time is running out.
At the end, as mortality overtakes us, we have to reconcile ourselves with our fate. But are left with confusion. Did we make the right choice? At the end, all events lead to the same outcome: Death. Those are our two choices. Both leading to death in a life that is chaos, uncertainty and discontent.
By combining them both, we are given a third choice; the essentials of human experience fueling our goals in this life. What matters isn't the end or where we begin. It's what we do with the time given us. The mysterious nature of the game can represent the mystery of the universe and our desire to understand it. But at the end, humans can only understand the simple joys of life. Working for our living and having sex to continue living. And it makes many happy. Is it really coincidence that in both narratives we are born? The result of reproduction. The very virtues we escaped from.
The last bit I'm going to leave you with is that there is nothing in the wasteland but the mystery in front of which we die, because we can't understand the mystery beyond our ordinary world. We may choose to pursue it, but without sex, humanity would cease to exist. Without working, society would cease to function. At the palace signifying wealth we take a peek behind the curtain. The machinations of the greater will, which replaces our free-will and reproductions into automatons for the collective, higher purpose. But that's what they are, automatons. Because are we even human when everything that makes us is replaced? What is our purpose? That is yours to make of it. That's why you are here. Life has no answers & offers nothing but hard choices. But you can give your answer for it, which fuels your life, or stop playing. You cease to progress until your time is up. Even so, you are confined to the horrible nature of this reality. There is no escape from it. That is why it's real. You are here. So make your choice.
A Master have spoken.
Thank you for writing this comment.
🤝
@@dwayneleadenns9042 Np. I was trying to decipher the various things I saw in the game after beating it, but it all started clicking into place once I saw a comment about the Matrix analog with the eggs in the wasteland.
It's Scorn, a big lump of knobs... its got the juice. Can't imagine a more beautiful thing!
The first playable character is the father. The large beast is the mother. The second playable character is the child. The father infects the child with himself, a metaphor for our genetics being given to us by our parents. The mother sacrifices herself for her child in an effort to help it grow and accomplish its goals, while the father helps the child defend itself from the dangers in this world by giving it tools to fight back. The father continues to infect the child which cripples them both, slowing the child's progress. The child tries to escape but ends up killing innocent life in the process, a byproduct of living life in a constant state of danger. Before the child can escape it must first separate from the father, and in doing so severely damages itself. The escape at the end is halted by the father, which plants himself onto the child preventing it from growing. The two are forever entangled in grief over the loss of the mother and the child's inability to cope with the father holding it back from growing. This is how I see the story.
Are you suggesting scorn has a pro-life undertone and theme? Genuinely curious
Overall, I felt that the parasitic creature was an unwanted pregnancy, its mother forced to carry it. When it sinks its hands into you, it's like a pregnant women's occasional cramps, but they also strike me as how a women pregnant with an unwanted child might feel its kicks; rather than a gleeful sign of the life inside of them, it's a painful reminder of the generation of a life long tie they don't want. Towards the end of the game, when it starts immobilizing you, it's a clear nudge to slowing down towards the birth of a child, yes, but in this instance it can also symbolize how the child's carrier will be slowed down in life, having to look after a child. I think the saddest part of this way of looking at it, is the parasite's attempts to help you. It'll hold items for you, weapons, healing, because it didn't choose to be born, it isn't malignant by nature, but due to circumstances, its embrace over you isn't seen as a loving relationship, but one that clenches down tight, not allowing for either party to move, forever doomed to see the future that could've been
While it bears little relevance to this game, the explanation always reminds me of the phrase 'Hell hath no fury like a woman SCORNed'. Maybe, just maybe, that's where the game gets its title from, if you couple that with Dan's explanation of the theme behind this game.
the parasite tries to escape with the protagonist but instead dooms them both… you can’t save everyone or else everyone dies
my personal opinion, i loved the exploration and subtle threats of danger in acts 1+2. i wish the whole game was like that and abandoned the combat aspect. adding the patrolling enemies just turned it into.... idk. a game. acts 1+2 i think had a perfect succinct purpose and atmosphere and excelled in telling a story of loneliness. the fact that i felt a kinship toward the creature on my back despite it hurting me. it was the only thing i had that was alive, the only other being that could possibly understand how it felt to be abandoned in this desolate place. i just thought the game lost its poetry in act 3. i stopped thinking about it because i was focused on finding ammo and healing nodes, everything just became a nuisance instead of a meaningful piece of the art
You can beat the game without really using the ammo. I only killed one of the larger quadrupeds (bull), one of the winged creatures (chicken), one of the ceiling hangers, and the 2 unavoidable mechs. If you give the creatures some space and avoid their route, they always find a fleshy nook to go into.
To me it felt like an alien civilization made up of mech & flesh that had developed an infection/disease that had spread over time. Like the world was rotten from the inside out and you play the role of a last remaining survivor trying to safe his soul
Someone said in the comments that based on the artbook this is on earth
Its strange that you didnt mention Zdzisław Beksiński he was the second after the Giger whos work inspired the game.Mostly i agree with your interpretation about stroy throght i may add that maybe Scorn civilisation crushed because of the same parasites who killed or consumed almost every survivors cause dont you think its too conviniet that in City almost like the capital theres is two unique device specially made to fight parasites?One to free hands and others to free body... Maybe the resone for weaponse and mechs was exactly the threat of parasites and mutans that scared people? Maybe when they understood that they cannot win they simly escaped to other side or achived trancedence in Hive Mind and because of that the others parts of lands and buldings became abadoned and forgotten giving free way to rotting and decaying?Also it may be a twisted intopritation but that if the idea of scorn not to be born BUT INSTEAD A DESIRE TO COMEBACK TO MOTHERS WOMB?We are the lost child in strange world we are scared and dont know what to do we just want to be back in mothers body to feel the warm of her belly...And it also could represent a lot of vaginas or bellies at mens body, and the idea of little children controling robots from bellies!
This alien civilization seemed very advanced and knowledgeable to have been overthrown by parasites, the parasites could have been genetically programmed to attach to humans as weapons/keys, and be removed from the machines, simply as tools that fullfill a purpose.
I think it's interesting that you found the creature in Act IV to be a helpful one, because I personally saw it as more helpless than anything. To me, it's a mother having to endure the pains of pregnancy, that pain being debilitating for this creature. And then we come along, and exacerbate that pain, turning it into one of birth, while it sits their unable to do anything about it, its life in another's hands. When it looked at me, it felt like a glare of pure contempt, all it could do to help alleviate its anger at me as I forced it through more and more pain
I felt like that was more the case as well.
Furthermore, when you unlock the mechanisms, notice that there are very vaginal looking orifices that the machinery rips its way out of, like a violent take on birth.
Given the recurrent themes of birth, rebirth, life, death and utter cruelty and lack of empathy, I think that it's fitting that we see imagery of violent and brutal birth, not the magical miracle that some would like to paint it to be.
And after all that, you tear through it to ascend, leaving it mangled and in agony, likely to die slowly, again, very much in keeping with the themes.
The developers released an art book that actually explains the world. It's so fascinating.
Should there be a sequel?
im not sold
I could see a sequel about humans finding the planet akin to alien but idk if it would work
I doubt there ever will be.
Masterpiece like that dont need a sequel.... BUT i would be curious about one when you play as the creature you left (if you did) at the start.
@@spriteking3944 this game takes place on earth
As a medical student and horror enjoyer scorn was hell of experience and didn't think of vanishing baby syndrome here more
If one baby dies in 1st trimester it is completely absorbed but after that it cause a fatal complication known as DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation) which causes both alive baby and mother to die if untreated
Zdzisław Beksiński was a massive inspiration to this game too I believe. especially with the parasites and corruption of the game
This game was too gruesome for me to play - thanks for breaking down the lore buddy!
I can say that this theory is what that makes sense out of the game, as if the game is not based on action kind game or etc, it now makes sense that why player is not here to experience a shooting and killing gameplay in a hostile world, the game is here to show a theory or maybe a fact from the creators mind. You can see the game moves player around a world not much to play but more to observe the happenings around in the world of the game, Infact that there is no dialogue or text is a challenge for the player to make his own understanding of a game. At the end I think Scorn is a game for a new experience and a game for showing some thing to us, who knows what is going on the creators of the games mind.
“When a pregnancy involving twins becomes a pregnancy involving one baby”
The eloquence is chefs kiss
Imteresting. When the first protagonist first awakes, the half of his face that is buried is the same half that is skinned to the bone on the parasite. It seems he's awakening in the room that blows up, while remembering how he got therebin first place.
This game took me to a world I have dreamed of visiting since first seeing H.R Giger's artwork!
You will have much more knowledge about this world by reading artbook from Deluxe version of the game, but I recommend 2 playthroughs - first one to try to interpret the game by yourself and second with analyzing all the details you missed, that are explained in artbook. For me, it is a GOTY.
Elden ring imo was much better
Far from a goty lmao
@@iabuseartemis too hard, unfortunately.
what's it say in the art book??
@@PBart7 That the world is in fact not alien but an extrapolation of our own world pushed to its boundaries. The game it’s centered around the themes of entropy and existence as well as questions like “are we losing ourselves and our essence?” And “are we being overwhelmed by technology?”. Lot more stuff in there but at its core that’s what the team intended to create
To me the enemies in the middle of the game detracted from it. The game also lingers too long in that part.
The gameplay mechanics to combat those enemies felt extremely basic for a FPS. Even having a pistol, shotgun and grenade launcher felt much too human for that setting. It would have felt more integrated and satisfying had they designed the environment to be a bit more hostile, and then be forced to trick the enemies into deadly situations.
We had the face-screen thing in the first area, which networked you into a device to control the rails. Why not use it again at other locations to allow the player to control some sort of self defense mechanism to clear the parasites. Of course, make the player spend a bunch of time avoiding the things until that point. This game went so hard on atmosphere and metaphors that it almost forgot it was a game and the whole "give them some standard fps guns" was a quick solution.
I found it a bit jarring how conventional all the weapon sounds were. Probably the only part that felt like a normal game.
yassssssss
I think that giant creature over hundreds or thousands of years ended up growing around that part of the structure which had been long since abandoned and basically someone comes along and uses the escalator or whatever so using the machine after so long kills it
Just One question. Why the protagonist's chest gets cut in the game finale? What does It mean? 🤔
The protagonists mind is connected to the the hivemind but it probably cant merge with it so the body still needs to stay alive in order for him to control the drones, i think the reason they keep stabbing him is to give his body impulses so the body still understands its still alive and doesnt just shut itself down even if his consciousness isnt in his body.
One thing I could infer from the game was that whatever setting it takes place in, it's definitely somewhere that has been long abandoned and/or extinct because of all the fleshy overgrowths on things that would get removed by the player manipulating the mechanisms. That big "mother" creature seemed to me to be something that grew on that mechanical elevator where it didn't necessarily belong. A lot of the setting definitely seemed to be some sort of factory or facility that beings worked in a long time ago. Maybe like some sort of reproduction/birthing facility.
This is one of the best game i've played in my life and the best looking game overall. Simply incredible experience and i mean it.
If you like the game Inside you you feel the same with Scorn
Inside was incedible. Looking forward to Playdead's next game!
I love games that makes my mind say (???? wtf just happened)
I like that you are the only one that actually explains its own iterpretation of the game, the rest of the shitty videos are just a summarized narrative of the events of the game hah
To me I feel Like the parasite is a representation of r*pe since it gives you no choice at all and takes the players body for itself
I like to think that the ending is possibly a good ending and building off of that idea to find other possible allegories.
it´s really interesting the similarity of the motherly giant creature with the protagonist´s bad ending in the "I have no mouth and i must scream" game, just go and look, and sluggish long necked creature, unable to even being compared to an human anymore... the fact is that the end of the game has the exactly same feeling actually, the idea of being in an eternal nightmare, completly unable to do anything anymore, completly alone, in an empty world, slowly losing the notion of time and self, and by "alone", take it as the victim(protagonist), and an opressing force tormeting it for the eternity.... and even the fact that just like the said story, the protgagonists where right about to accomplish their goal, then it all was taken away, just to give this bleak and gloomy ending.
I could even say that the creature doesn´t even hurt you because somehow it was just longing for someone end it´s misery... But this is only me doing an even bigger pararell between both narratives....
My worst decision was eating while watching this
such a tease this came , we need more of it :)
Hey Dan I noticed live videos of the actors of The Quarry Zach Tinker AKA Jacob Custos Siobhan Williams AKA Laura Kearney and Ted Rami AKA Travis Hackett and last but not least Evan AKA Nick Furclilo
A story game where ive come to find a video explaining it has failed
Wow, did u figured it out yourself??
If so, its so amazing..
U r brilliant..
Thx mate
Well…that’s 5 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.
Really great theory here,this game got it's hooks into me,doc would be great
"Life begins with pain, life ends with pain" rings out heavy when hearing you talk about it. Its a soild idea to base a agame around especially if you go so avant-garde as they did.
I didnt like the character being forced to watch the pariste escape. In some ways it feels like that was potentially an option given how much it has helped you. Gives away the ending too quickly. If we could've spared or kill it while on the hook, then get an ending. I think that wouldve had more impact and not left a bad taste. Just felt flaccid at the end no pun intended.
i like the idea of the parasite symbolizing a twin
I agree with your ideas. Also I recommend looking at the art book for this game. It has some interesting stuff to help your argument.
Also Another Creator pointed out that alot of the puzzles involve guiding something usually an object (Usually spherical) to another place like Insemination of an egg to form an embryo. (This could be a stretch)
My interpretation is far more literal than metaphorical but, in some ways, makes more sense to me than one of the metaphorical. To me it looks like a dark dystopian future where scientific pragmatism has driven reproduction and gotten lost in itself over time. A possible future where the necessity of women carrying children inside them has been replaced with artificial means and by losing that important connection between a woman and her child, all natural emotions of nurture and love have been doused and replaced with unfeeling robotic beings of blind progress (potentially reshaping what progress even looks like). The furthering of science and scientific discovery in this world became the direct cause of human extinction because they removed themselves from what being human really means and left only suffering in its wake, possibly leading to a societal apathy and cruelty, even destroying their own will to survive and inflicting a deliberate cruelty upon itself (possibly a punishment upon self-reflection of what the species has done. Maybe at some point they even tried to turn back and create women again to naturally carry infants or a creature that emulated a mother's love or embrace. The top of the tower could have been a shrine of worship or forgiveness to mothers of the past.
Just a fun all round concept and something one could spend months getting lost in. Thanks a lot for your video it was a great read of what this game/world is trying to tell us without telling us. Amazing concept game and amazing video, thanks again :)
I saw it as the same interpretation as you are. That explains the mass grave dump sites in the towers. They are so disconnected morally, and perhaps the flesh that riddles the land are cancers done by their scientific research. (Perhaps a vain and delusional attempt to restore the "woman" or an attempt to ascend pass their current extinction. *which explains the neurolink mechanics in that tower.)
I'm sorry to say this but I've always believed that after we die there is no heaven or hell. There is only a place like this... Not exactly like this, but its essence in concept. That after we die, whatever that is 'us' will be transported to a plane that is completely incomprehensible. With no memory of our past life and no clue about our current surroundings. We either live through the confusion or we die immediately, and with either experience we will be again transported to another plane, repeating the cycle of confusion for all eternity. Our time here on Earth is just another confusing plane, albeit a less confusing one for some, but just as confusing as this Scorn plane for others.
I could bet that everything that is a wall and such, is both flesh and some sort of stone-like material, like the creture's shell that we can either free or kill
WE NEED A SCORN 2 NOW
If only the gameplay was better
Welcome to the GULAG.
The GULAG:
I think we are meant to take the word scorn literally. Scorn to me is about transcendence above flesh.
A lot of the game shows ways of transforming one thing to another. A process of birth. I believe these “people” disowned natural birth for transcendence, becoming more than flesh.
At the end, we can see torture is at play to ground them in reality before finally being birthed to their new world. Beyond this “portal.”
Also, every human is birthed from an egg attached to a wall in the womb. I would not be surprised if this is all about birth, in the form of transcendence.
To me, it's clearly a different planet that was infected by the black goo. In Alien movies we have the face huggers, these are the back huggers.
I feel there is no salvation and no answers on the other side of the portal.
The character is on a journey of confusion and pain, with no understanding of his purpose or destination. Only a sense that moving forward is somehow progressing towards something. It's just going through life, and even though the builders created all these places and machines to accomplish something, all existence ultimately ends without salvation or answers.
Between Agony and Scorn, I can't decide which is the most disturbing game.
The huge creature in Act 4 looks like a uterus (the creature could be the tube connected to it?)
That parasite that killed him in the end. It looks like a uterus. Just wanted to point that out.
Dan! This is 🔥
I have experienced this story/ world way more positive... Little sad to see that it may not be that way. I liked the fusion of life and death, Biological and Mechanical and the irrelevance of an individual "hero". Maybe after all the things we separate so much, aren't that different.
I personally think Scorn is a great game and a work of art I mean not many games still have me thinking about them once I've completed them and one other thing I'm impressed with how polished this game is the fact that it got an early release in this day an age of gaming with no bugs, glitches or performance issues at least on Xbox Series X.
To be honest, I took this as, felt, that it’s the evolving stages of diverticulitis, through infection to pain, eating away inside, trying to find a cure yet uncurable, in the end the disease took control.
Anyone with this symptom will know where I’m coming from.
As someone who developed diverticulitis after a colon surgery I agree more with the videos explanation
i watched a stream of this while falling asleep and it looks really creative. I didnt see everythiing of the story but I thought it was like.. aliens using mankind as a birthing vessel (because of unexplained reasons) and the parasite things are like their way of producing soldiers, workers, vessels. SO they're trying to set this thing up to bring some vessel through the portal and are ultimately undone by their own parasites, Idk.. thats my interpretation of being half asleep and watching a stream
Because the blue pregnant ladies are infected right? that's why there's skulls on the back of their head? like the human is long dead but the parastite took over and absorbed the womb for that ritual?
I felt like the ending was intelligent but not dramatic enough to feel satisfying. still really good and intersting.
I really liked what they have created and seeing there's so many ways to interperet the deeper meaning. it's just the ending I'm struggling with. all these "freedom" and choices all ending with a crushing defeat on the finish line. not looking for a happy ending per say, just alternatives.
I came to similar interpretations.
This civilization seems to have run a path of development of biomechanical technology to enhance and strengthen their bodies.
Also, they looks like have no mouth so they can't speak like us humans, so they must communicate in other ways, telepathy maybe.
There's the chance they have a sort of "hive mind" like the bees. That will explain why there's no knowledge about the world or this character at all in the game.
Maybe this civilization have no reached their ambitious goal of transcence? Maybe that parasite is something they have made to try to achieve that goal and failed? Maybe that parasite infected their whole planet dooming their civilization? Maybe.
That would not explain why this character woke up and started its journey to find salvation. Why or who woke him up? That's a big answer.
ah yes ultrakill gluttony: the game
I don't care about symbolism. 🙄
I just want to know the story.
Idk why but this game reminds me a lot of soma
I really loved the game. I hate puzzle games but the atmosphere, environment and lore heavy details kept me playing, and the puzzles in the game aren't really puzzles, they are more like sequential areas with "buttons" to press.
It's weird how you interpret the game, while I do in one sense agree I got the feeling of unawareness and disorientation. The protagonist seemingly can interface with the technology but something has gone terrible wrong, maybe a biological experiment. The three eggs placed in the exoskeletons are of an aggressive state right from the start, implying they know who the enemy is. Even if the complex seem to have been built by the protagonists species as they farm the the other, the parasitic species is a third party that dominated both, the parasite origin looks to be part of the infested tissue all over the place. I think the complex was built by the parasites to farm hosts after having dominated the protagonist species.
I would have loved to know how long time passed between 1 and 2, after the rebirth, as the room with the big opened wall is completely ingrown and covered in sand.
2:19 never thought of that way... goddamn...
I think the bodies scattered everywhere are "sperm" that didn't make it to the egg while we are the fertilized egg going through the "pregnancy"
I love games that make me think THINK!!
You could draw as many parallels to stillborn as you could with abortion to this ending, from what I’ve seen
I personally see it as abortion
I haven’t mentioned politics and you don’t have to either