Scanner Sombre

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.

I expected this to be a short little trip around a single gimmick, but I had hoped there was more to it somehow. I can't say I'm disappointed since I knew all along it was going to be a rather short tech demo. Impressive visuals, good music at times, novel mechanic that becomes tiresome quickly. However, too many missed opportunities to make a deeper, scarier and more satisfying game to beat. I understand that is maybe not what the devs intended with their story, however the trailer is expertly crafted to make you think there is a mystery to solve, that you are trying to survive. Tiny spoiler: you aren't, there isn't. After everything's said and done, I would consider it worth the experience for the current summer sale price, I just feel that I would have gotten more out of buying a book ten times the length for the same money.

You would not expect a such a simple modern game to be much good, but it really is. What the game lacks in enemies or even challenge, it makes up for in visual style and a truly unique exploration mechanic you will likely not find anywhere else. This game will wow you while playing and stay just long enough to enjoy what you are doing. If you are looking for something different, especially as a quick break between other titles, you would do very well giving this a try.

Great game i just wish there were more like it, look forward to seeing another if ever

Wandering through a cave underground with only a laser mapping tool.