contempt is a tough game so far. It’s slow, sends you through tortuous mazes with little guidance, offers no narrative comfort (at least initially), and is set in a dramatically awkward and grotesque world clearly inspired by the works of The Swiss artist HR Giger. I found it unfunny and painful Experience. But if I’m being honest, I think the discomfort is the point. And thereby contempt could be a successful game.
Developed by Ebb Software and as of yesterday on PC and Xbox – I’m on PC –contempt has been in development since 2014. After a failed Kickstarter campaign and a since scrapped plan to release the game in two installments, it reappeared on Kickstarter in 2017 to successfully secure its funding and is now playable. It bills itself as “an atmospheric first-person horror-adventure game set in a nightmarish universe of strange shapes and somber tapestries” and also draws inspiration from the Heideggeran philosophy.
I’ll leave the philosophical angle to you, the reader, as that’s not my specialty and I don’t feel like commenting on Martin Heidegger’s work or its application to this game. I’m approaching contempt from the perspective of someone deeply moved by the works of HR Giger; I often appreciate art that isn’t fun, difficult, and, intentionally or not, aggressive. I’m not an expert on Giger’s biography or his intentions behind his work, but I do know how I reacted to his art. And that’s how I approach this game.
contempt, in the five hours I spent on it, excites me because it gives the player so much friction. I’m not necessarily having a good time, but I’m still drawn through the corridors of this macabre trotfest, which is more of an adventure game than a first-person shooter because the extremely Giger-like art touches me so deeply.
As a trans woman who has lived in obscurity for most of her life, I have found H.R. Giger’s work to convey a sense of doomed sex, sexuality and physical form, a general sense of unease and confusion that aligns with my view of the World resonates for most of my life. His images offer meditative spaces that are far more cerebral and in tune with my feelings about the world than the simpler, g ory tool Hollywood has often reduced it to. That’s why I’m drawn to this game. And while contempt
There is no holding hands. No map. No objective marking. The HUD elements are confusing (to a bug actually), and the puzzles take a little time to figure out. You can’t jump. You can’t squat. Invisible walls are everywhere and make contempt feels more like a museum. The first “weapon” you get is almost useless against the early enemies, and once you’ve finally acquired a firearm, it’s shockingly inaccurate. This game has one of the worst instances of where the hell am I supposed to go now it’s I’ve seen in years. And yet I want to keep playing it to the end.
contempt manages to communicate and leverage what I love about the work of HR Giger in two key ways. But it fails in a third, perhaps fatal.
His first success is in nailing confusion and surrealism. I don’t know what will do everything. As a player, I’m frustrated by that. But as myself, Claire, I rejoice at being so lost and forced into a place of not knowing.
The way it plays out is that you come across strange rooms and devices whose purpose is unclear. You try to activate these in some way, either using the weird objects you pick up or by pressing the A button, only to be frustrated when the animation dies to no effect. Then you trudge down the corridors, touching and touching gross things over and over again, until you finally figure out where to go or which piece of dirt is interacting with which vibrant organelle.
That’s annoying, no doubt, but I’d argue that’s the way Giger intended it to be. If this game were to assign random lore words and catchphrases to objects and rooms around you, or otherwise make itself friendlier, it would disrupt the natural flow of bizarre bullshit you have to deal with. The protagonist (so far) is silent and lets my own thoughts tell what I’m experiencing. contempt becomes very personal in this vacuum of character and voice.
A game that borrows so directly from Giger should be inherently surreal and confusing. However, many of these puzzles are of the type we’ve seen before in other games. What makes them work for me, at least, makes me do them contemptThe second major success of : It brings to life the “mechanical” of the “biomechanical” source material. Seeing this type of art style flex and slide through my manipulations conveys a sense of movement that Giger’s work still doesn’t typically have.
Combined, these two strengths grant me a gaming experience similar to what I experience when I lose myself in a Giger character. Had it played smoother, softer, it would have been a lot more Prometheus as “brain salad surgery.” contemptby itself, is not “brain salad surgery,””Necronome IV,” or “birth machine‘ but I find that as a video game it fits what I’m going to these works for.
Continue reading: When obnoxious sexual art and adventure games came together
contemptThe ultimate failure of has little to do with its clunkiness as a game, in my opinion. Sure, the protagonist walks way too slowly (get used to holding down “Sprint”) and you really should turn off the motion blur and crank up the field of view by at least a notch or two. The game also suffers from a type of stuttering that I’ve noticed more and more with Unreal Engine games. These are all valid reasons for players to bounce this game.
But for me the main flaw is the almost shocking (given the source material) lack of engagement with human sexuality. I find contempt could have learned more from the eroticism of Giger’s work. There’s certainly gory body horror here, but the dilution robs it of its erotic motives contempt‘s art of human emotion, twisted and distorted as it may appear, is present in Giger.
I understand why this is likely the case. Any game that followed HR Giger’s depictions of distorted genitals, monstrous penises and vaginas would likely end up in the adult-only section. There are enough “inserts,” phallic imagery, and gaping openings to point in the right direction, though contempt suffers from not going all the way.
Honestly, more penises and vulvas and body parts would make this game a whole lot better. The fingerprints of Giger-like biomechanical sexuality are present in the design of their various tunnels and ascending phallic objects, but lack the clear details of actual human anatomy. On this one key path contempt is almost like a radio-friendly version of an otherwise explicit song. To be fair, I don’t know if I trust a modern video game to even work tastefully with such themes, but the mix of horror, confusion, and eroticism is one of the great appeals of this art style to me, and it’s a shame it well, to see neutered Contempt. Raw, hauntingly surrealistic eroticism is what so often draws me to Giger, and its omission here saps the game of potential vitality.
contempt is not a fun game. It’s confusing and painful to play. It’s like listening Dillinger escape plan in reverse. But for those reasons, I’ll keep trudging through these corridors as long as the sloppy combat doesn’t spoil the experience too much.
