Necrophosis - first person horror inspired by Zdzislaw Beksinski

[Monk]

Necrophosis inspired by Zdzislaw Beksinski is a chilling first-person horror adventure, plunging you into a nightmarish realm teeming with grotesque forms and ominous visuals. Delve into eerie landscapes and uncover secrets in this atmospheric journey through the macabre."

 

[v1c70r14]

I also got this in my feed but to be honest I can't get very hyped for it. If you asked digital artists for the last four decades or so who inspired them many would be likely to cite Beksiński, along with the usual crowd of Giger and Barlowe for their nightmare motifs. At this point it's very played out already and you'll find visual references to his paintings even in indie games like EYE: Divine Cybermancy, but typically they'd do their own thing with it. These days it seems that it has become less inspiration or even a homage but a ripoff, like with Bloober's The Medium that heavily leaned into Beksiński when it came to the otherworld instead of designing their own aesthetic for it. For comparison Team Silent used a variety of artists as reference point and Itō Masahiro cited Francis Bacon as one of them, but what they made with it was wholly unique.

People might accuse Scorn of doing the same rote copycatting as Bloober but I don't think it was, because it only took some of the general texture from Beksiński, the bio-machine aspect from Giger and blended it into its own creative impulse which was much stronger than either. Just by reading the artbook of Scorn you'll find that Ebb began with a clear vision and then used lessons learned from Beksiński as a vehicle to get there, it's not overly referential to anything that came before it.

Necrophosis on the other hand seem like a vignette of different pieces by Beksiński, haphazardly thrown together with Beksiński-esque 3D models strewn about in something that would be ignored as just another cheap asset-flip otherwise. I think it will be a counterpoint to a game like Scorn, showing you what a game without anything to say of its own looks like, without any meaning or coherence. It also feels exploitative and cynical when there is nothing else to the game than the highway robbery of a dead artist.

 

[Jaesun]

I like the art style, it's great. Is this going to be a well done/designed adventure game? No idea. Will wait and see.

 

[Sweeper]

Whenever a game leads with the artstyle instead of gameplay, that's a redflag.

 

[fuzz]

Looks great but that comes granted from the source. Distant voxelized pieces of paintings looked fine, though when done lazily the objects give an off vibe - especially when viewed close by. Don't know how to describe it but auto-generated voxels without enough after cleaning look wrong, like from some angles the object's too bulky than it should. Animations looked hilarious, especially humanoids, heck any object in movement had no weight. I liked the ambient track.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I also got this in my feed but to be honest I can't get very hyped for it. If you asked digital artists for the last four decades or so who inspired them many would be likely to cite Beksiński, along with the usual crowd of Giger and Barlowe for their nightmare motifs. At this point it's very played out already and you'll find visual references to his paintings even in indie games like EYE: Divine Cybermancy, but typically they'd do their own thing with it. These days it seems that it has become less inspiration or even a homage but a ripoff, like with Bloober's The Medium that heavily leaned into Beksiński when it came to the otherworld instead of designing their own aesthetic for it. For comparison Team Silent used a variety of artists as reference point and Itō Masahiro cited Francis Bacon as one of them, but what they made with it was wholly unique.

People might accuse Scorn of doing the same rote copycatting as Bloober but I don't think it was, because it only took some of the general texture from Beksiński, the bio-machine aspect from Giger and blended it into its own creative impulse which was much stronger than either. Just by reading the artbook of Scorn you'll find that Ebb began with a clear vision and then used lessons learned from Beksiński as a vehicle to get there, it's not overly referential to anything that came before it.

Necrophosis on the other hand seem like a vignette of different pieces by Beksiński, haphazardly thrown together with Beksiński-esque 3D models strewn about in something that would be ignored as just another cheap asset-flip otherwise. I think it will be a counterpoint to a game like Scorn, showing you what a game without anything to say of its own looks like, without any meaning or coherence. It also feels exploitative and cynical when there is nothing else to the game than the highway robbery of a dead artist.

I agree for the most part. In general I’ve noticed that creativity, intelligence and media literacy has been steadily declining for decades. Everything is is either a stagnant rotting corpse of an 80s franchise or a soulless and derivative “original” work.

However, I disagree about Scorn. The game sucked ass, has no plot, and has absolutely nothing to say. I later learned the dev scrapped 90% of the finished levels (including the plot that would’ve made sense of the derivative imagery) to rush it to release. I backed the kickstarter, so I’m really bitter about that.

To add insult to injury, the devs released an artbook explaining the intended plot, then removed it from Steam libraries after we paid for it. The devs are now on my blacklist and I wish them nothing but eternal torment.

Necrophosis looks like garbage, but at least it’s up front about that and doesn’t lie to me for years before running off with my money. So I’m gonna buy it as a middle finger to Scorn.

 

[v1c70r14]

However, I disagree about Scorn. The game sucked ass, has no plot, and has absolutely nothing to say. I later learned the dev scrapped 90% of the finished levels (including the plot that would’ve made sense of the derivative imagery) to rush it to release. I backed the kickstarter, so I’m really bitter about that.

I'm sorry you feel that way, and although we could agree to disagree about the game I want to convince you to feel at least slightly less bitter about it, because you shouldn't. What people online told you is a lie and misconstruing normal game development. They had to scrap old content, meaning textures, models and animations, this is true, and it does happen, but they rebuilt just about all of it into the more impressive final version you got to play. The very few levels they did cut they had good reason to and gave those reasons in the artbook. There were also things mentioned in there that were ever only ideas in the concept stage and having read it I think they made the right decision for the ending of the game.

But let's not kid ourselves here, if you think the game was bad then would adding more of the same to it really do much for you? I don't think it really is about more levels, more guns, or more enemies or more gameplay mechanics. The reason why you were so disappointed is right there in your post, you thought it was a game about plot or perhaps worldbuilding, when it leans much more towards art and truth. Perhaps it sounds pretentious but it isn't, and if you approached the game from this direction you might start to appreciate it for what it is rather than being bitter about what it isn't and was never intended to be. The following quote is from the art book and it is something of a mission statement.

Scorn's genesis isn't one of meticulously mapped out plans, the, but of themes that Peklar wanted to express and experiment with. "There wasn't a well-defined story," says Acovic. "It was a thing of pure inspiration: he presented ideas to me, and then we started talking. I made a few early pieces to get a feel of what the world would be like and how it would look."

Those themes number in the dozens. Many are only apparent in certain locations or items or creatures, but three of the core themes that act as umbrellas over the whole project are ones of existence, entropy, and the relationship between human beings and technology.

"You are just born into this conundrum, like we all are," says Peklar of that initial theme of existence. "And everything is related to our own existence," This tether to our own existence is crucial. In the years since Scorn was first unveiled, many people have suggested its world is alien. "It's not," confirms Peklar. "It's an extrapolation of our world, we just push it to the limits."

I didn't look at any promotional material or read the artbook before playing the game and it was one of very few highlights for me in video games in a long time. Maybe you are too used to be beaten over the head with a political club and think that is what it means to say something. There you are, bound up in flesh and blood, fated to decay and wither, and merging with the technology you are using to read this. Perhaps you feel alienated from this existence, perhaps you don't, in either case maybe you ought to take a step back or two to examine that reality to get reacquainted with what is before you. That is what Scorn is, that is what Francis Bacon painted with violence, and the same might be said of Beksiński and his decay and desolation. In that regard Scorn is a triumph and I hope that you might at some point be able to meet it on those terms. It's a game that is felt, experienced, and understood. It's something real, not a hackneyed science fiction loredump nor a cheap thing thrown together according to the plotter's trade formulas and structures to deliver your usual conventional and commercial story.

You wrote about media literacy being in decline, but what about the literacy of the soul and of the heart?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[RaggleFraggle]

However, I disagree about Scorn. The game sucked ass, has no plot, and has absolutely nothing to say. I later learned the dev scrapped 90% of the finished levels (including the plot that would’ve made sense of the derivative imagery) to rush it to release. I backed the kickstarter, so I’m really bitter about that.

I'm sorry you feel that way, and although we could agree to disagree about the game I want to convince you to feel at least slightly less bitter about it, because you shouldn't. What people online told you is a lie and misconstruing normal game development. They had to scrap old content, meaning textures, models and animations, this is true, and it does happen, but they rebuilt just about all of it into the more impressive final version you got to play. The very few levels they did cut they had good reason to and gave those reasons in the artbook. There were also things mentioned in there that were ever only ideas in the concept stage and having read it I think they made the right decision for the ending of the game.

But let's not kid ourselves here, if you think the game was bad then would adding more of the same to it really do much for you? I don't think it really is about more levels, more guns, or more enemies or more gameplay mechanics. The reason why you were so disappointed is right there in your post, you thought it was a game about plot or perhaps worldbuilding, when it leans much more towards art and truth. Perhaps it sounds pretentious but it isn't, and if you approached the game from this direction you might start to appreciate it for what it is rather than being bitter about what it isn't and was never intended to be. The following quote is from the art book and it is something of a mission statement.

Scorn's genesis isn't one of meticulously mapped out plans, the, but of themes that Peklar wanted to express and experiment with. "There wasn't a well-defined story," says Acovic. "It was a thing of pure inspiration: he presented ideas to me, and then we started talking. I made a few early pieces to get a feel of what the world would be like and how it would look."

Those themes number in the dozens. Many are only apparent in certain locations or items or creatures, but three of the core themes that act as umbrellas over the whole project are ones of existence, entropy, and the relationship between human beings and technology.

"You are just born into this conundrum, like we all are," says Peklar of that initial theme of existence. "And everything is related to our own existence," This tether to our own existence is crucial. In the years since Scorn was first unveiled, many people have suggested its world is alien. "It's not," confirms Peklar. "It's an extrapolation of our world, we just push it to the limits."

I didn't look at any promotional material or read the artbook before playing the game and it was one of very few highlights for me in video games in a long time. Maybe you are too used to be beaten over the head with a political club and think that is what it means to say something. There you are, bound up in flesh and blood, fated to decay and wither, and merging with the technology you are using to read this. Perhaps you feel alienated from this existence, perhaps you don't, in either case maybe you ought to take a step back or two to examine that reality to get reacquainted with what is before you. That is what Scorn is, that is what Francis Bacon painted with violence, and the same might be said of Beksiński and his decay and desolation. In that regard Scorn is a triumph and I hope that you might at some point be able to meet it on those terms. It's a game that is felt, experienced, and understood. It's something real, not a hackneyed science fiction loredump nor a cheap thing thrown together according to the plotter's trade formulas and structures to deliver your usual conventional and commercial story.

You wrote about media literacy being in decline, but what about the literacy of the soul and of the heart?

I waited 8 years for nothing. Watch this dedicated fan’s vlog on the development process: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_RLU92At-4RZpY7rk_gC-5TYO-BkiAHw

The angry letter sent to insult backers is probably the high point. Kotaku wrote an article where they agreed with the angry screed.

 

[Tyranicon]

I like the visuals.

And let's face it, these games are 99% about the visuals. Expecting good gamplay, or writing, or whatever else is just wishful thinking.

This is basically some 3D modeller displaying some cool creepy shit, with probably a few lame puzzles because that's the minimum required.

 

[Spukrian]

Necrophosis? Moar liek Necrophimosis amirite?!

On a serious note it looks like this might be enjoyable, but the puzzles seems a bit easy and I thought some things were just silly (screaming baby, whining beetle).

Anyone play their earlier game, The Shore?

 

[RaggleFraggle]

And let's face it, these games are 99% about the visuals. Expecting good gamplay, or writing, or whatever else is just wishful thinking.

I knew that to some degree going into Scorn, I backed it solely based on the visuals despite it being from a first time dev, but led dev Peklar was very opaque and dishonest about his intent for 8 years. He let the hype build and did nothing to tamp it down.

Furthermore, Peklar was trying to impress deep themes as stated in the artbook (it's a commentary on industry dehumanizing us, tech moguls being drug addicted lunatics who will kills us all, etc, you know timely stuff like that), but completely failed in his execution. The first level is supposed to be a factory farm, but there's no possible way for a human being to figure this out. The entire game is like that: every theory vid is 100% wrong and to this day people keep posting disproved theories on reddit when recaps and analyses of the artbook are on youtube. Peklar is the artist equivalent of that scene where Homer Simpson tries to make cereal and the bowl spontaneously bursts into flames.

If I had known it would be a dud in advance, then I never would've spent money on it or invested emotionally in the development process. I want my time and money back.

I originally wrote a long rant, but cut it because it doesn't accomplish anything to cry about spilled milk and this isn't really the right thread anyway. Sorry. Just watch that playlist I posted a while back. TH goes into everything I could possibly say about this.

---

By contrast, Necrophosis is made by an established developer with several games already released. Also, they aren't pointlessly cryptic and opaque about what the game experience entails to kickstarter backers who spent 8 years waiting, nor do they send angry letters insulting their customers, etc. The demo is also much more illustrative: it beats you over the head with exposition and bad poetry. Does this explain the weird stuff you see? No, but it doesn't even have a pretense of pretending to make sense.

Scorn took place in a seemingly post-apocalyptic setting that implied some kind of advanced biotech civilization and the protagonist is trying to accomplish... something. Things seem like they're supposed to make a kind of sense, but then there are various oddities that break your suspension of disbelief (e.g. most of the puzzles are nonsensical and have no business being there). Peklar intended to say deep things with this depiction, but shat the bed as we know now.

Necrophosis outright tells you that it's the afterlife, the end of the universe, the gods are dead, blah blah blah. The protagonist is just thrown into it, stumbling around blindly, trying to accomplish... something. Weird creatures spout bad poetry at you as if it means something, some dead gods tell you to do stuff in exchange for unspecified "help", and you're not sure what the point is beyond pretension and delusions of grandeur. There isn't even a pretension of the world making sense: you're in the afterlife with dead gods and physics has gone out to lunch.

I'm biased because I backed the Scorn kickstarter and wasted 8 years waiting for it, so I'm probably looking at Necrophosis with rose-tinted glasses. And by that, I mean my expectations are in the toilet anyway.

 

[luj1]

I like the art style, it's great.

I like the visuals.

Looks too much like Scorn, immediate turnoff

 

[Tyranicon]

If I had known it would be a dud in advance, then I never would've spent money on it or invested emotionally in the development process. I want my time and money back.

I found personally that the best way to consume media is really to not have high hopes. It's only human, but also detrimental in so many ways.

You can try to mitigate this by thoroughly researching a creative, what they worked on previously, their personal thoughts, etc. This helps. First-timer creatives are basically a bad gamble. I find that most of the time they just hype themselves up as the next coming of [insert creative you like] and when they release their shit, it's just amateur garbage that looked really nice. But I don't blame them for that.

Art is hard to make. In this business, you only burn your goodwill with your audience by being a dick and or a greedy scumbag. And even then, there'll still be plenty of tasteless motherfuckers who'll want to give you a second chance.

I'm starting to think there's a reason why good artists don't come to video games anymore.

 

[v1c70r14]

Anyone play their earlier game, The Shore?

I did actually. It was a walking sim of amateurish quality, typically you get voiced narration or dialogue in those, but The Shore followed the zero budget horror genre convention instead and you spend most of the game collecting badly written notes on an Unreal Engine coast level. It had that student project look to it too without being as derivative of a specific artist as this project is. Mostly unremarkable game, other than that most developers hand these out for free on itch.io instead of asking for money for it. Don't remember a thing about the story.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I watched a lets play of the shore a few years ago. It was weird, but didn’t leave an impression.

In any case, it probably can’t be worse than Scorn.

 

[Maxie]

Necrophosis? Moar liek Necrophimosis amirite?!

bastard. i thought up this joke before entering this thread and felt really good about myself