It feels like somewhat of a missed opportunity. It’s a little disappointing that the scanner mechanic isn’t leveraged into more complex physics puzzles in the style of Portal or Magnetic: Cage Closed.
I completed it in just under a couple hours, even though I’d gotten lost at least a couple times in the cavernous depths. This is the one potential let-down of Scanner Sombre: the very brisk playtime. The reason why Scanner Sombre isn’t as mechanically deep as you might expect from its unique premise is because it’s a bit on the short side. There are some some very simple puzzles (and using the term “puzzle” is generous) involving switches to unlock doors, but beyond that, don’t expect Scanner Sombre to test your wits too much. Having said that, of course, it’s important to underline that Scanner Sombre is not about challenging you, it’s about exploring. This gives you a better read on the difference between metal walkways and stony pathways, allowing you to more quickly find where you have to go. There’s also an ability which gives you “material vision”, differentiating objects around you by their composition rather than a thermal signature. This produces some truly stunning landscapes, particularly in one section where you’re riding a boat down an underground river. You unlock new upgrades for your scanner as you explore, including a handy “burst” scan, which floods the area you’re standing in with illuminating rays. Scanner Sombre has some truly beautiful scenes. The most thrilling parts of the game involve anxiously paddling through pools of water as you hear the telltale screams of nearby ghosts awakening, trying to get to shore in the nick of time.
Thoroughly scanning each cavernous chamber and planning the route which involves crossing as little water as possible proves essential to proceed. I can’t recall feeling such a fright since the first time an abomination burst through a door in Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I saw a flickering figure emerge from the lake, at first assuming it was a flashback, but then heard a deafening roar as it came hurtling towards me. Are these flickering humanoid forms that sometimes appear – depicting scenes of slavery and human sacrifice – glitches in your scanner, visions of the protagonist’s unstable mind or are they real? This uncertainty was dancing around my mind when I first time I ventured into an underground lake. This is what really ramps up the creepiness for when you first see visions of the past.
Their full nature is left to your imagination. As you venture further into the depths, the arcane statues and prison cells are all the more cryptic for how you can’t see any detail on them beyond their coloured shape. It’s deeply atmospheric gameplay loop effortlessly creates a haunting atmosphere – as you’re only ever seeing an afterimage of what’s actually there. Scanning allows you to find the outlines of rickety wooden bridges and narrow ledges to shimmy along and jump over. Scanning bathes your surroundings with imaging rays, creating red, yellow and blue silhouettes of everything you encounter. Right from the moment I first left the starting tent and put on the scanner visor, Scanner Sombre awed me with its utterly unique aesthetic. As you explore deeper though, the protagonist starts to see mysterious echoes of the past as well. But you never see any of it, only multi-coloured signatures painting the surface of the terrain around you – thermal echoes of the present. In it, you play as an explorer journeying deep into the depths of some ancient caverns, with millennia-old ruins suggesting a history of pagan beliefs and human sacrifice. Scanner Sombre is also about seeing in the darkness, but with thermal imaging. Last year, I reviewed a quirky walking-simulator-cum-platformer called Pulse, which was about a blind girl who sees with sound.