Slitterhead seems like a PS3 recreation that by no means existed. It’s so profoundly unusual in so some ways, and irritating in others, however you’ll be able to by no means accuse it of being something aside from 100% honest.
It’s awkward to regulate, it doesn’t look nice visually, and it’s profoundly low-budget in a number of methods, however nonetheless, we’re completely satisfied it exists. It’s the sort of recreation that wouldn’t have gotten a Western launch 20 years in the past. Fodder for a “most costly PS2 video games” checklist after a brief print run. It’s, in any case, from director Keiichiro Toyama, the person behind cult classics Silent Hill, Gravity Rush, and Siren.
In Slitterhead, gamers embody a shapeless, bodiless entity that may possess people. Set in a fictional ’90s Hong Kong-style metropolis, our bodies are piling excessive after repulsive monsters, often called Slitterheads, quietly start killing residents. The participant, named Evening Owl, alongside Familiars, that are individuals that may be possessed however nonetheless keep bodily autonomy, should unravel the thriller of the Slitterheads.
The sport’s foremost mechanic sees gamers possess people as a way to both clear up puzzles or combat Slitterheads. Puzzles will be issues like accessing locked areas of buildings by possessing a physique by a window or taking up the physique of somebody who’s permitted to entry that restricted zone.
These puzzles are by no means troublesome to finish, however there’s an occasional novelty to them. An early puzzle sees the participant attempting to entry a brothel as a way to discover a intercourse employee the participant believes to be a Slitterhead. Whereas the proprietor of the brothel gained’t converse to Julee since she’s a younger lady, they’ll converse to a sweaty outdated man that the brothel thinks they’ll make some cash from.
Equally, when the sport’s actually turgid stealth sequences crop up, considered one of them is solved by possessing a person coated in his personal sick from ingesting a lot that he can cross by a bar undetected. The stealth sequences are significantly contrived. There are in-universe causes as to why some individuals can’t be possessed, however they’re paper skinny and really feel extra like a gameplay roadblock than the rest.
Slitterhead is mission-based. You’re dropped into the town the place invariably, you’ll both comply with a path of Slitterheads by a again alley, have interaction in some shaky stealth, or combat a number of Slitterheads directly. These missions are brief and bookended with stilted, largely un-voice-acted cutscenes. What makes these cutscenes disappointing is the presence of the sport’s most distracting subject.
Just about each NPC within the recreation will be possessed. As such, if you happen to full a combat or enter a cutscene as a possessed human, that human is current within the cutscene relatively than the well-designed foremost characters. The sport’s NPCs have Lego hair, melted pores and skin, and soulless eyes. They’d be tremendous if their solely operate have been set dressing that you simply ran previous, however the give attention to them, sadly, implies that their low high quality comes entrance and middle.
This determination isn’t solely baffling because it robs time spent with the extra fascinating foremost characters, however the NPC character fashions are so low high quality that it makes the entire recreation really feel even cheaper than it already does. It’s unbelievably distracting.
The sport’s fight is purposeful however by no means feels significantly rewarding. Every NPC you possess can use blood weapons, that are usually melee weapons and some talents. The thought is that ordinary NPCs can solely take one or two hits earlier than they die, so your aim is to do some harm to an enemy, after which swap out to a different NPC earlier than the primary one is killed. Familiars have expanded transfer units and might take extra harm.
“The sport’s NPCs have Lego hair, melted pores and skin, and soulless eyes. They’d be tremendous if their solely operate have been set dressing that you simply ran previous, however the give attention to them, sadly, implies that their low high quality comes entrance and middle.”
This makes for clumsy fights whereby NPCs seem out of nowhere to facilitate the swapping of our bodies. We’d have most well-liked a way more fleshed-out Acquainted fight system, as some talents just like the Blood Blade are literally fairly cool. It’s only a disgrace they’re in service of a fight system that’s so fundamental.
The place Slitterhead will get completely high marks is in monster design. The Slitterheads themselves are disgusting, and followers of physique horror, or a few of Toyama’s earlier work can be proper at dwelling. There’s maybe an argument that the less-than-realistic human NPCs are literally very important in making the sport playable with out regurgitating your lunch.
The town streets make for a compelling setting for Slitterhead. The winding alleys and precarious rooftops create an atmosphere that has much more to it than it could initially appear. These environments facilitate issues like chasing Slitterheads by the streets, however additionally they make the world really feel much less like a online game atmosphere and extra naturalistic.
You do spend an enormous period of time in the identical space, however the recreation does at the least attempt to gown it up barely otherwise every time. It’s nearly like a film set the place you’ll be able to inform that the structure is all the time the identical, however props and store fronts have been dressed as much as painting a unique scene.
We loved occupied with Slitterhead much more than we preferred enjoying it. It kicks off with a compelling idea, and whereas the monster designs are horrific, and the town streets make for an fascinating location, it’s weak in a number of areas. Exterior of some good lighting, it’s a profoundly ugly recreation, with NPCs that look jarringly misplaced. That wouldn’t be an excessive amount of of a deal breaker if the sport’s central conceit didn’t imply that just about each cutscene stars their soulless, plasticine faces of horror.
There’s each likelihood that Slitterhead will develop into a cult traditional, however in actuality, it’s not an excellent recreation. It’s fascinating, and we love that video games like this will nonetheless get made, however it’s an expertise that’s higher appreciated than it’s performed. Uncompromisingly bizarre and ingenious, the precise gameplay a part of Slitterhead is under par.
