It's tough to name a game that players will either love or hate as much as Scorn. It's a game that will say a lot about the players who love it and the players who hate it. Even those with mixed feelings can find out a lot about what they do and don't appreciate from the experience.
Nobody should tell players what they do or don't like. Ultimately, personal taste and opinion rule the day. However, there is a place to recognize what worked and did not work from technical and observant perspectives regarding Scorn. There are a few of the successes and failures of the game.
10 Liked - Art Direction
The artwork of H.R. Giger is unlike any other artist on the planet. When a team says they're trying to be inspired by his work, that invites skepticism. Many have tried to match the tone of his pieces, but they either copy Aliens without any creative thought or fail to live up to the bar Giger has set.
Scorn successfully captures this style without duplicating anything from before. It's got its own style and art direction. Its inspirations are obvious, yet it clearly has its own identity. Even the creepy custom controller has a personality horror genre fans with love.
9 Didn't Like - Pacing & Movement
For a game as short as Scorn, the pacing is in unbelievably slow. The art, while unique, doesn't necessarily demand long hallways where the player slowly progresses forward. There are only a couple of puzzles in each act. Mentally, players can figure them out in a few minutes, but executing the actions takes hours.
Even the space between areas would be more tolerable if players were permitted to move quickly. Many (perhaps most) of Scorn's puzzles demand going back and revisiting previous rooms. That's bad enough, but the crawl it takes to go from one to the other is absurd.
8 Liked - Puzzles
Puzzle games often have the reputation of being too simple. The "match three" style of game has not done the genre any service. Still other games make the process too complicated. So much so that players essentially play the game on a second screen so they can read a guide off of the first one.
There is a good balance in Scorn. Opening the very first door is a process where players will need to try and fail a few times, but they're never truly lost. There is just enough to challenge the mind, not so much that it is overwhelming.
7 Didn't Like - Bugs
Scorn, while visually complex, is a rather simple game. There are enemies to attack, but they are slow, almost presenting puzzles in themselves more than combat. Other that these few combat encounters, it's just pressing buttons for a standard puzzle game.
So how did so many bugs creep into the game? Every reviewer runs into a different problem, but they do reliably run into a problem. Some issues even make the game unbeatable. There are also massive framerate drops and crashes. That's completely unacceptable for a game with low hardware demands.
6 Liked - Controls
Fighting, as mentioned, does pop up at one point, which can worry gamers who are more into the puzzle element than the battle features. However, the controls start simple and stay simple. At no point should any gamer worry if they have the buttons down.
Keeping it simple is a big success in Scorn. It requires confidence in knowing the game is not going to be boring by giving players too little to do with their hands. There is enough to do visually, there isn't a need to overwhelm players with needlessly confusing buttons.
5 Didn't Like - Replayability
Those who have beaten Scorn are likely not going to play it again. Because the game is so linear, all but one achievement can be done in a single playthrough (and the last one can be done by doing the first act alone one more time).
Classic horror games can be even more complicated than modern games due to their demands on the player. However, the challenges in Scorn, once solved, aren't going to be something players need to do again. Outside of what would amount to slow-motion speedrunning, Scorn is not a game anyone can obsess over for more than a few hours.
4 Liked - Body Horror
Body horror is a kind of horror unto itself. Most horror games play cheap tricks with bad lighting and loud music to get easy jump scares. Body horror is more sophisticated. It's not aiming to make players scream, it's aiming to make them gasp.
There are great horror games for both crowds on Game Pass, but it should be appreciated when a team aims to do the more challenging option and succeed. The game makes players feel squeamish as they gain and lose body parts, sometimes without intending to do so.
3 Didn't Like - Reloading
Even if the game is short, most gamers will still only be able to play for an hour or two at a time. No big deal, just save and reload, right? Wrong. Very wrong. Saving and loading give players inconsistent results that the community still doesn't quite understand. There are times death can occur and these same problems creep up again and again.
Sometimes reloading a save file starts the player at the beginning of the act with all of their work undone. Sometimes they start at the beginning of an act with their work partially or fully done. Other times, they start from an area of the act they haven't gotten to yet without knowing which parts of the puzzle have or haven't been completed.
2 Liked - Tone & Ambiance
Beyond just the great visuals, it's important for them to work in an atmosphere that respects them. Seeing a wild animal at the zoo versus seeing one at home instills the audience with a much different perspective on the same animal.
There isn't music in Scorn, but there are sounds. In large rooms, the cavernous echoes of a water droplet convey a feeling of being isolated. In tight hallways, the slithering under the character's feet makes players with they were alone. These situations create a dynamic environment to showcase the art design.
1 Didn't Like - Story
From beginning to end, players can no reason to care about the character they play as. There is a door that needs to be opened, but no tangible reason to open it. There are enemies, but no real reason to fight them. If the character dies, nothing is lost; it almost feels merciful.
As much as the graphics attempt to compensate for this shortcoming, many great horror games with old-school graphics are out there doing just fine because they have suspense. A strong plot gives players a sense of direction. When that direction gets knocked off course, it adds to the terror of the experience. Scorn has no reason to care and, as a result, no reason to fear.