Storytelling

Xbox exclusive Scorn is coming to PS5 later this year, developer Ebb Software has announced.

The first-person horror adventure game was released on Xbox Series X/S and PC in October 14, 2022, and will now be coming to Sony‘s console.

As we were developing the game for PlayStation 5, we finally had the opportunity to tap into the potential of the DualSense wireless controller to immerse you even further in this twisted world, extending the synesthetic experience of Scorn, technical artist Jovan Vučković wrote on the official PlayStation Blog.

It allows us to deepen the player’s immersion and to let the whole world ‘breathe’ in a new way. Since there is no spoken dialogue in the game, we have put a strong emphasis on environmental storytelling, hence haptics are a great addition to this peculiar audio-visual experience.

The main character in the game interacts with the world mostly by using his hands. Most of these interactions are also painful for the character. That’s where haptics comes into play.

The imagery offered to the player’s eyes is painful by itself, but we wanted to increase this feeling by giving a sensation to the hands holding the controller. Players are also able to feel the directions of haptics (left or right hand), further adding to the experience.

Other DualSense features include using the controller’s adaptive triggers to give each weapon a different feeling of weight, and using the light bar to show the player’s health.

A deluxe physical edition of the game will also be released on PS5, including a steelbook case, a digital artbook and a digital soundtrack.

A release date has yet to be confirmed for the PS5 version of Scorn, but given it will have been subject to an exclusivity period on Xbox it’s unlikely to be any time before October 14, 2023.

Scorn was met with a mixed cricial reception when it was released, with the Xbox and PC versions earning Metacritic scores of 64 and 70 respectively.

AsumeTech’s 2-star Scorn review said: Scorn has one of the most beautiful worlds you’ll see in a game (if you can see beauty in the grotesque). It’s just a shame that world is also home to a frustrating puzzle-heavy adventure filled with aimless wandering.