Smart upscaling to 4K for the top-tier Xbox - but what about Series S?
Scorn is one of the most visually distinctive games released in recent times.
And on Xbox Series X, just how good is AMD’s FSR 2 image reconstruction?
Scorn’s visual design is pitch-perfect from the moment you look at the title screen.
The environments are highly ambiguous - vaguely mechanical, but ribbed with bone-like arches and inlaid with vascular tubing.
Everything is dilapidated, worn and glistening with moisture.
But some mechanisms still seem to work, and hint at some larger, unknown purpose.
As you progress, the organic elements take over, with guts and veins splayed out all around.
Humanoid creatures can be found, fused into bizarre arrangements or discarded like trash.
The game’s style is strange, uncomfortable, and wholly unique in gaming.
Expect to see unique and breathtaking artwork for every location in the game.
So much care and attention to detail has been packed into every space.
There’s a ton of geometry carved into every surface, for instance.
The level of consistency is really something here, particularly for a smaller-budget game.
Maps are ornate and detail-rich in a way that few other games can match.
But that’s not to say that everything is perfect.
The first, most obvious clue is the difference in resolved detail between the two machines.
Typically FSR 2 presents with a sort of fizzling artifact pattern when certain screen elements are uncovered.
There is some disocclusion artifacting on Xbox Series X, but it tends to be pretty mild.
It’s a straight 1080p, with no obvious upsampling.
Performance-wise, Series S offers a virtually locked 60fps update throughout the run of play.
Combat, cutscenes, exploration - it all runs without issue.
Series X is largely the same - a generally solid 60fps with the odd duplicate frame.
But there are a few areas where the game suffers from more serious frame-rate issues.
Combat can sometimes provoke a momentary frame-rate drop, particularly when alpha effects are onscreen.
Well, upsampling techniques do have a frame-time cost, and more advanced methods take more time to compute.
Returning to the game itself, Scorn isn’t for everyone.
It’s cryptic, slow-paced, and very hard.
It bears some similarity to old-school adventure games, and is deliberately obtuse in much the same way.
Plus there’s no text, no dialogue, and a nearly non-existent plot.
Scorn delivers a dense, beautifully designed world that often looks remarkable.
