Scanner Sombre

Very unique game that's concept is very interesting. Worth the money if your looking for a small game to beat in one evening. Music is captivating as well.

I don't remember buying this game, but I think it came as part of an Introversion bundle. I noticed it in my library yesterday and thought I'd give it a go. It started out as very promising. Using the LIDAR scanner to reveal your surroundings in the complete darkness of the cave is a unique mechanic, and I was enjoying all the pretty colours it generated. However, I kept hitting a problem where I would start spinning slowly and movement became like walking through treacle. Perhaps the graphics were too stressful for my graphics card, which admittedly is getting on a bit now. I had to abandon the game, which was a shame as I was enjoying the exploration. The music and sounds were also very atmospheric.

Gameplay Genre: Walking simulator- or rather, hold left click simulator Story Genre: Tragedy/mystery/atmospheric horror Story/Gameplay Ratio: 5:1, unless you count holding left click and W as gameplay **Gameplay** Ideas: 2/10 | Hold left click and walk. Sometimes jump. Execution: 5/10 | Hold left click and walk. Sometimes jump. Often get confused. **Story** Ideas: 7/10 | Plenty of interesting concepts at play here. Execution: 3/10 | Boring at first, with all of the interesting parts being introduced late in the game with no hints to keep you engaged. **Characters** Ideas: 1/10 | Imagine, if you would, the nuclear family. That's it. Execution: 1/10 | Nothing. Just nothing. **Visuals & Sounds** Ideas: 8/10 | An extremely striking visual gimmick (in fact, the only interesting thing about the game) and a reasonably decent concept of integrated sound design to assist it. Execution: 2/10 | Extremely loud and harsh sounds, with the visuals being difficult to differentiate in many sections of the game. Cohesiveness: 9/10 | It's coherent, at least! Personal Favor: 3/10 | Boring game. I was excited, but it's just.... nothingburger. **OVERALL RATING:** 4/10

A great and interesting game mechanic to enjoy for about 2.5 hours of exploring a cave system with a story to tell.

Introversion's shot at making a first person horror doesn't disappoint. The game is beatable in under 2 hours, meaning you can refund it after beating it. However, Introversion ought to receive every dollar, because they never stop making amazing games.

Some kind of weird audio-visual acid trip that makes no sense to me at least