Scanner Sombre

Jump to where you want to be
Controls
Story
Music
Final Thoughts

As an avid fan of Indie games, I couldn’t resist the urge to play something so colourful and yet so dark at the same time. At the start of the game you are in a deep dark cave with only your belongings in sight. A red light blinks in the near distance, beckoning you forward. This is where you find our scanner! From here on, you can press the left mouse button to fire lasers using a technology that I later found out was LIDAR. Doing so will illuminate the world around you, showing you the correct path to take through this maze of rock and water.

Controls

This game is incredibly easy to play, requiring only a few keys and buttons. You are provided with upgrades to your scanner as you move through the caves which can be used with Q, E and Tab – I won’t spoil what the upgrades are.

Story

The story, I’ll admit, while very enjoyable, was a little confusing for me. This is likely to me a ‘me’ problem than a game problem, as I missed a few of the small pieces of information that are given to you in text form on the top-right of the screen when you reach a point of interest. I mostly remember a mining accident, some witch trials and prisons – but I’m not too sure how these related to one another. When I set up OBS to start streaming this game, I set the category as usual and noticed that one of the tags was “horror”. I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to jumpy things (which will be obvious when my Silent Hill 2 streams occur) but I’m pleased to say there was only one area that truly gave me the creeps – and you’ll know which one I mean when you play it.

Music

The soundtrack to the game is absolutely wonderful and sets the ambiance perfectly. It’s a hushed game which further enhances the enjoyment in my opinion as it gives you a chance to focus. There are some blood-curdling screams at one point, so I don’t recommend having the volume to 100%. I was concerned that the sound of using the scanner would eventually grate on me as it’s very high-pitched, but I was grateful to find that I hardly noticed the noise even after 3 hours of consecutive gameplay.

Final thoughts

After a long day at work, this game was the perfect way to feel completely immersed and invested in something else for a few hours. The game isn’t very long, I’ve racked up around 5 hours, but I’ve seen YouTube videos that finish it in only one! The ending I won’t spoil; however, it got me in the feels pretty quickly, considering how much fun I’d just been having playing with a laser gun.

If you like Indie game walkthroughs – you’ll definitely enjoy this Night in the Woods blog.