On October 27, Ebb Software put out Scorn's first major patch since release, version 1.1.8.0. Among a swathe of quality of life changes, Ebb also tweaked Scorn's checkpoint and save system, fixing the biggest flaw of what is otherwise a fantastic survival horror game.
I love Scorn, I really, really dig it, enough to give it an 80% in my review. This body horror adventure makes the most of its advanced graphics tech, looking like no other game I've played, and it manages to tell an unsettling sci-fi story reminiscent of the mid-20th century masters like Philip K. Dick or Harlan Ellison without any words. And yet it almost burnt through all my goodwill with its horrendous checkpoint system.
Scorn doesn't let you save on demand, instead having rolling checkpoints and chapter/half-chapter hard saves. On release, you could only load a checkpoint on death, meaning that if you quit the game and came back, you could only access the far less forgiving chapter saves to get back into things.
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In addition to being pretty user-unfriendly on its own, this system absolutely bit me in the ass when I encountered a progress-blocking bug. I glitched out 3/4s of the way through a particularly climactic chapter with no way of triggering a death and going back to a checkpoint. I had to reload a chapter save (this one didn't have a halfway mark either!) and redo the whole thing from the beginning, leaving one of my last impressions of Scorn a frustrating runback of what was otherwise my favorite part of the game.
Now? No more! The patch allows you to access your latest checkpoint from the load menu. I checked this by hopping back into my endgame save and, wouldn't you know it, my last checkpoint was right before that part I glitched out at in my first run. With this QoL fix secured, I can heartily recommend Scorn for any spooky gaming needs you have this Halloween season.
The patch also includes other bug fixes and QoL changes, and we've got the list in full here:
Fixed Bugs
- A player can get stuck in the hurt machine
- A player can get stuck in the collision after performing a glory kill
- After killing the Boss in Act V, players are unable to pick up the dropped item
- A player might die by falling through the floor at certain positions
Fixed Issues
- German localization issues
- Spanish localization issues
- FOV issues on ultrawide screens
- Position of the ammo/heal container when a player uses heal
- Capsule blockers on a bridge
- Act V loading issue
- Crash when exiting the game
- Occasional NPC freezes
- Various collisions causing issues
Updates and Additions
- Removed the Continue option after a player finishes the game
- Removed the Load and the Quit game options from the death screen
- Added safety check for a corrupted save slot
- Added Load last checkpoint option
- Added Act III-II hard save
- Updated checkpoint positions
- Updated list of the Kickstarter backers
- Updated Credits
- Updated FSR 2.0 label in the Options menu
- Updated positions of certain assets
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