Introversion, the independent studio once styled as the last of the bedroom coders before bedroom coding became a thing all over again, doesn't tend to rush things. Prison Architect spent some three years in early access before finally crossing the line, and yet Scanner Sombre - remarkably only the studio's sixth title in its 16 year history - is out only a handful of days after being properly announced. A short, sharp experimental adventure built around one devastatingly clever central mechanic, it's a pointed antithesis to its systems-heavy predecessor.
Scanner Sombre feels every inch the Introversion game, though. It's got the same cold, detached beauty of older games like Uplink and DEFCON, and in its blunt minimalism it feels like a throwback to those earlier titles after the cartoon excesses of Prison Architect (a game whose coldness and commentary lay somewhat subversively beneath its surface). You're an unnamed, mute spelunker, navigating a series of caves that are rendered in total darkness as you work your way up to the surface.
Knowingly riffing off the likes of Dear Esther and Gone Home, Scanner Sombre is a 'walking simulator', if you must, but one that cleverly sidesteps much of the dreary debate about the genre by making a virtue of its own exploration. Your only tool is a LIDAR scanner, a device which covers the otherwise invisible scenery in a field of bright dots. To find your way in the dark you must paint each wall and crevice, filling in the void and creating your own abstract of the world around you.
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