Notice: This post contains some spoilers.



I was sorely tempted to title this first impression/non-review as, "Airbrushing: The Game" just for its snark value. But, as a rule, Introversion Software tend not to make shallow games; consequently I have a sneaking suspicion that there's more going on here than I've discovered through a single run-through, which took about four hours.

The premise is exactly as is described in the store page's summary: You're started off in a dimly-lit tent pitched in the midst of pitch darkness. Outside, a small pool of light leads you to a VR headset and a LIDAR scanner, a device which shoots small pinpricks of light in a rough conical pattern and measures the time it takes for the reflected light pulse to return; the resulting 3D point cloud is displayed in the headset. Thus, the headset mediates your entire visual experience of the environment, which turns out to be a naturally-formed cave network. Well, I say network, but really there's only one way to go. Thus, most of your time is spent walking forward a bit, then waving the LIDAR scanner around for a bit to reveal the next section of cave.

However, once you get over being impressed by the technical gimmick and the bright primary colors, you realize that what you're actually doing is painting the entire interior surface of the cave with an airbrush. Later, you pick up enhancements to the electronic airbrush which let you vary the spray aperture size from a tight beam to a wide-angle mist; a "burst" mode which does a fine-resolution grid-style scan of everything in front of you; a scanner resolution enhancement; and a "material" mode, which changes the colors of the point cloud depending on what kind of material the LIDAR pulse hit (green for cave wall, brown for wood, etc.). Thankfully, there is no tedious, irritating resource management with the LIDAR scanner's power source; it's good for your entire journey. Also: Your painted point cloud never decays (which would have been another cheesy resource-management irritant). Cave walls you scanned hours ago are still visible in the distance.

While your visual experience is entirely synthetic, your audio experience of the cave arrives completely unfiltered. This contributes to the spooky atmosphere, particularly when you hear your foot squelch into something wet, but the LIDAR scanner reveals no details other than pure topography. The atmospheric effects and soundtrack also add to one's sense of caution. Eventually you get to some outright unnerving bits. One of the earliest is when your scanner reveals a motionless humanoid outline in the middle of a circle, presumably a statue, presumably harmless -- except when you turn away from it and then look back... and you start to wonder if there's some Weeping Angels stuff going on.

All the while, you're climbing upward, toward the surface. And while it's not really possible to get lost since there's only one path forward, it is possible to die by falling down a deep crevasse, so you can't just lean on the scanner button and lope forward. There's only one walk speed, and I found that fast enough given the circumstances.

There is a narrative of sorts, presented as snippets of text revealing the protagonist's thoughts as you progress through the map. But the narrative seemed to change focus and meaning as I progressed. As I got close to the end of my first run-through, various questions finally bubbled to the surface of my mind: Why was I down here in the first place? Why was all this extremely high-tech LIDAR scanning gear left just laying around for me to stumble over? And most significantly, what am I missing?

As I said at the beginning, Introversion tend not to make shallow games, so I don't think this is simply a Walking Simulator through an airbrushed point cloud. I suspect there's more to it. One hint is that, once I completed a run-through, the game's main menu had a new entry below "New Game" reading "New Game+" suggesting there's more to discover on subsequent runs. As the seemingly inconsistent narrative unfolded, I found myself reminded of the game "Ether: One" where the game turns out not to be The Game at all -- the context completely changes.

If that's the sort of thing that's actually going on, if there are hidden depths still lurking in Scanner Sombre, I haven't yet the faintest idea what they might be. I'll keep looking...

Note: This post contains content that may be regarded as spoilers.



Last night, I completed a second run-through, this time using the scanner primarily in "material" mode, in the hopes new details would be revealed that were invisible the first time around.

Nope. It was pretty much exactly the same experience, only in different colors. The locations where you picked up scanner upgrades in the first run-through are still there and highlighted. However, no new upgrades are available.

I did take one side trip that I hadn't the first time. In the mine area, where you encounter the final set of pre-installed LIDAR scanners, there's a broken bridge off to the right. It turns out you can hop the fence and shimmy down below. I had hoped there would be additional areas to explore that would reveal new details, but all I found were precipices and an insta-kill pit (whose vertical drop wasn't nearly high enough to kill me in other areas). So, no joy there.

I chose not to make a greater exploration of the large lake area, partly because of the growling noise coming from somewhere in the cavern, and partly because the LIDAR scanner glitches out when you get it wet, so if your destination isn't already painted, you'll end up blind and wet. So if there's something in there, I have no idea yet.

I doubt this game will hold my interest through a third walkthrough, so unless someone knows there's something more to be found, I think I'll be setting this one aside.

I'm not sure how you missed this, though maybe an update made it more clear: you were an explorer. You died in the cave. Note how in the beginning you note that no one else ever made it this deep? As the text mentions the local legends say if you die in the cave you can't leave and must relive the end of your life over and over. that's what you're doing in the game.

I eventually got that, yes. Perhaps the word "Sombre" in the title should have been a great big flashing clue, but I found it difficult to believe going in that this was only a very bleak walking simulator with slightly more interactivity than Dear Esther. Like Kirk walking into the Kobayashi Maru scenario for the first time, I expected there to be a way to "win" (I know the analogy is strained, but it's the first thing that came to mind).

I'm late to the game having only recently completed it.

Did you see the figures that rise from the water and run towards you if you linger long enough? That was the creepiest part of the game for me. I never stuck around to see what would happen if they got to you!

I liked what you had to say about the game. Whilst I was playing, I couldn't help but think of Tomb Raider and the way that exploration felt in the original games. They really nailed the atmosphere in that regard.

Edit: typo