Slitterhead transforms players into pawns in a parasitic proxy war

Keiichirō Toyama is a developer’s developer. He will not be a reputation you realize off the highest of your head, like Shigeru Miyamoto or Hideo Kojima, however you’re most likely acquainted with one of many many video games he’s directed, equivalent to Silent Hill, Siren, or Gravity Rush. His newest recreation, Slitterhead, looks like a end result of his almost 30-year profession up to now: an action-horror stealth thriller about two warring factions of parasitic creatures vying for management over the destiny of humanity. Furthermore, it’s a recreation the place fact actually is only a matter of perspective, as you soar between a number of totally different characters in your seek for each an understanding of and determination to the sport’s ongoing battle.

In Slitterhead, gamers assume the function of a Hyoki, a anonymous, disembodied entity with the ability to own unsuspecting residing creatures and management their our bodies at will. On the recreation’s outset, you end up within the physique of a stray canine wandering the again alleys of Kowlong, a fictional neon-bathed metropolis impressed by ’90s Hong Kong, particularly the densely populated enclave often called Kowloon Walled Metropolis. You haven’t any reminiscence of who you’re, what you’re, and the way you bought right here.

For all of the belongings you don’t know, there but stays one proven fact that burns with certainty in your thoughts: Humanity has been infiltrated by a parasitic species of physique snatching creatures often called “Slitterheads,” who devour the brains of their victims earlier than assuming their identities. The Slitterheads are your pure enemy, so it falls to you to seek out and kill each one that you will discover all through the town till humanity is saved.

To efficiently navigate the town and monitor down the Slitterheads, who’re masquerading utilizing the our bodies of their prey, the participant should soar between totally different people, possessing their our bodies and repressing their consciousness within the course of. When combating, you possibly can manipulate the blood and bones of your human hosts to create weapons to pummel your enemies and block oncoming assaults. In case you handle to dam an assault proper as an on-screen icon pops up, you’ll be capable to deflect the assault and your weapon will regain its sturdiness. Likewise, in case you fail to dam an assault in time, or in case you take too many successive hits whereas blocking, you’ll lose well being and your weapon would possibly shatter, leaving you momentarily unable to counterattack.

You’re not alone in your battle towards the Slitterheads, nevertheless. Over the course of the sport, you acquire allies often called “Rarities” — people who not solely are in a position to retain their consciousness and personalities whereas possessed by the participant, however who boast particular blood-based talents that may help them whereas combating towards a Slitterhead. The primary Rarity you encounter and recruit within the recreation, an aspiring actress named Julee who works at a comfort retailer, bears a putting resemblance to Faye Wong’s character in Wong Kar-wai’s 1994 movie Chungking Categorical; Toyama has cited Wong’s movies as one of many principal inspirations for Slitterhead’s setting. Hyoki’s talents when possessing Julee vary from offensive powers, like sprouting bloody talon-like claws or flinging daggers made out of blood, to defensive talents, equivalent to regaining well being or attracting close by people to supply the participant a possibility to outnumber and overpower their opponents. Later within the recreation, you’ll purchase the power to assign two Rarities to the identical mission as an alternative of just one, forcing you to assume strategically as to the way you need every specific means to enrich one other whereas in battle.

All of the fight encounters in Slitterhead roughly resemble each other: You encounter a Slitterhead, alternate between dodging and blocking towards assaults, pummel your enemy when their very own guard is down, and frantically leap between the human whose physique you’ve gotten possessed in the meanwhile and different close by human hosts to get the drop in your opponent and ship a killing blow.

There are a bunch of different subordinate mechanics that blossom out of Slitterhead’s core gameplay loop, equivalent to the power to sever your enemy’s limbs to regain well being, or being quickly disabled when your individual limbs are severed. Backside line: You’ll be doing a number of leaping forwards and backwards between our bodies in the midst of fights if you wish to survive.

You don’t simply change between our bodies throughout battles, nevertheless. You’ll have to make use of the Hyoki’s means to own others to traverse Kowlong and its many sides, adopting the our bodies and personas of harmless bystanders and Rarities alike if you wish to uncover all of Kowlong’s secrets and techniques and put an finish to the Slitterheads’ marketing campaign towards humanity.

One of many stranger and arguably defining mechanics of Slitterhead is “sight jacking,” which permits the participant to see via the eyes of a Slitterhead in hiding proper earlier than they’re about to assault somebody. By switching forwards and backwards between your character’s perspective and the Slitterhead’s, you’ll should intuit the place a Slitterhead is positioned utilizing context clues seen of their vary of sight.

In case you’re acquainted with Toyama’s work as a developer, you’ll acknowledge that sight jacking was first launched in 2003’s Siren and have become a staple all through the Siren franchise. It’s via the lens of Slitterhead’s incorporation of sight jacking by which the sport’s ethos as complete change into clear. It’s the end result of Toyama’s profession up till this level, in addition to his first unbiased recreation since leaving Sony Interactive Leisure following the closure of Japan Studio in 2021. Understanding that, it is sensible that Slitterhead comes throughout as such a chaotic but entertaining mix of a number of totally different mechanics stacked and tied collectively by the ability to see via the eyes of different folks: The sport finally reads as an expression of Toyama taking inventory of his profession up till this level, in addition to his alternative to experiment with new concepts and mechanics he would possibly in any other case have been unable to whereas working at Sony.

Slitterhead is a really peculiar recreation, one which throws a dozen or so totally different concepts on the wall, and, to the sport’s credit score, most of them handle to stay over time. Except for some sometimes finicky platforming, an inherently chaotic fight system, and near-constant drip feed of tutorials introducing new mechanics as the sport progresses, the sport is a compelling hodgepodge of concepts that feels just like the survival horror equal of the multi-perspective gameplay of Watch Canines: Legion. Its eccentricities could also be a turn-off for some gamers, however on a complete, Slitterhead is an entertaining and experimental expertise that solely will get higher because it goes on.

Slitterhead will probably be launched Nov. 8 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Sequence X. The sport was reviewed on PC utilizing a pre-release obtain code supplied by Bokeh Recreation Studio. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. Yow will discover extra details about epicgamejourney’s ethics coverage right here.