Scanner Sombre

in library

3.7/5

( 30 Reviews )

3.7

30 Reviews

English & 25 more

Posted on: June 25, 2018

ecamber

Verified owner

Games: 347 Reviews: 31

Most boring caves ever

I love exploring caves in real life, it's very exciting, interesting and challenging. From the other reviews I understood that there wasn't much in the way of story or combat, and I was okay with that. But at a bare minimum I expected the game to recreate the awesome experience of exploring a subterranean world in a brand new way. Unfortunately it does not do this. The game is totally unrealistic, and makes exploring a cave seem like a walk in the park. I can think of so many ways they could have made the game a lot more interesting (without involving combat), but they didn't do any of it. Normally games try to be MORE interesting than reality, but I was shocked to find the caves in this game are much LESS interesting than most in the real world! Not to mention the other problems, such as the inexplicably lit-up pickups which seem to negate the game's central premise. I really regret buying this game, there's just nothing to it aside from a cashgrab.

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Posted on: May 3, 2017

iofhua

Verified owner

Games: 182 Reviews: 13

Good overall

The game is short, I finished it in just under 3 hours. However I enjoyed the experience and I appreciate that the devs were trying something new. I think the price is a little steep for a 3 hour game, but I got a bunch of other games for free when I bought it, and the pack of games was worth the price. There is literally no combat. This isn't a shooter. It's a pure exploration experience. So if your looking for action look elsewhere. It was relaxing to play for the most part (there were a couple jump scares, but nothing major).

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Posted on: February 25, 2024

hhyuk

Verified owner

Games: 47 Reviews: 2

Fun and interesting for about 15 minutes

(No spoilers) The concept and story was interesting, and had me intruiged in the beginning. Very atmospheric. I couldn't wait to learn more about the game world. But instead of further building on what it tries to do in the beginning, the story/narrative drastically changes direction about midway through, and therefore the ending fell completely flat. The novelty of the LIDAR mechanic quickly wears off, with pretty uninteresting upgrades, and it starts to get pretty tedious. I just wanted to be done with it for about the last 40% of the game. The sound design is very good. Extremely atmospheric, and really does a lot of the heavy lifting to create an eerie feeling and immersion. Lastly, the game automatically has "anonymized sharing of game data" enabled. I chose to leave it on, but it's not very good mannered to have it enabled by default IMO. However I do appreciate the DRM-free approach. I paid just over a dollar for the game on sale, and wouldn't pay much more. I think it has some great ideas, but ultimately it feels like a prototype or proof of concept more than anything else.

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Posted on: January 26, 2020

Megacyclo

Verified owner

Games: 3297 Reviews: 30

Visual exploration

Scanner Sombre is something of an artistic experiment by Introversion. Instead of being a story-driven tactical game or a simulation, it's a game that toys around with underground LIDAR exploration. The story is extremely light and while the general mood feels creepy, there are no real hazards, just "surprises" to make you feel unsafe. In the end you just walk around trying to escape the cave while painting it with pretty colors to see your surroundings an discovering strange stuff (like giant stone totems that look quite cool I might say). The LIDAR scanner itself is very well made and an interesting mechaninc I'd like to see in more games, with an adjustable span that allows you to scan wide for general recon and then fine scan to see more"details". the mood and graphics felt great to me and I really had the feeling I was lost in a weird place I could only see through a visor and not wih my own eyes, which makes for an interesting alien feeling. It's a very short game, as everyone said, and for some reasons the game demands you allows it though your firewall at launch (you can then turn off the tracking option in the options menu). I suppose the devs wanted to learn how people approach this (like a scanning ratio or how fast people breeze through or try to light up everything) but it's slightly strange that they don't outright tell you about this. I got the game on sale for 79c so I can't really complain, but I'll agree that for the full asking price, stealth tracking and a short experience can negatively impact the experience. However I still think everyone should try it. It may be a walking simulator, but at least it doesn't veer off into a preachy one-sided story of stupid jumpscares, God forbid long, boring, unskippable spoken rambling where you just wait for the interlocutor to shut up. It's a visual trip, and I'd say you could give it a try if on sale, I think it's the upper tier of walking simulators.

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Posted on: January 15, 2023

fsmcas

Verified owner

Games: 772 Reviews: 14

Great VR game

First and foremost: This is a game meant to be played in VR. Not necessarily by the developers, I don't know - but it is made vor VR, it is made for simulated depth and free hand controls. On a flat screen you play a gimmicky game in total darkness while creating your environment by painting dots onto the walls. Which is nice for some time, but won't be fun for endless hours. But once you start to play in VR, suddenly the dots are not just colored but you can see how far they are away, you get a real feeling of your surroundings. Having the ability to control your pointing device independently from your viewing direction also ehnaces the game greatly. It's less then 2 hours from start to finish, way less if you hurry. But in all honesty, this is one of the games I use to showcase VR. It really is that good ----- as a VR tech demo. DonÄt expect a huge AAA title, but a really unique experience.

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