Slitterhead Review

There was a point, about 7 hours into Slitterhead where I was staring at the games 2D world map, I had just been informed I had to replay a mission to find a ‘rarity’ – a human with extra powers – to be able to continue the story missions. My partner, who was sitting behind me, asked me what I would score this game, if I stopped playing right now. I pause for a second and then go ‘either 7.5 or 3’.

Slitterhead is a game of cognitive whiplash. One moment it captured my imagination with its game mechanics and world, and in the very next second I just wanted to turn it off and never come back. And yet, I kept going.

Set in the walled city of Kowloon in Hong Kong, the story follows a yellow beam of light known as Hyoki. Immediately, Hyoki possesses one the city’s dogs and tries to figure out what is going. Straight after that the antagonist(s) of the game appear: the Slitterhead. It is an alien species that possesses human hosts and has a craving for human brains. This is conveyed in the most gruesome way, glowing pustules replacing heads in an explosion of blood. That is just the first form of the Slitterhead, many contort and expand into the second form: a towering insect-monstrosity made of bone with the original human body dangling off the back.  

Hyoki proves to be able to defend themselves by possessing humans, on doing that they can make the human generate weapons from their blood. This sets up much of the gameplay, which is akin to Devil May Cry. Hyoki, inside a human host, will line up with Slitterhead enemies and have to block, parry and carve a gory path through them. Parries are communicated onscreen and pushing the right stick in that direction will stagger an enemy, do enough parries successfully and it will trigger a slow down effect that will allow for lots of free hits as the Slitterhead reels from the impact. This is going to be familiar to anyone that has played character action games, the twists are the rarity’s special attacks and the body possession.

Most of the special attacks use health or weapon meters – but provide vital abilities. The standouts for me were: motorcycle driving, tattooed doctor Alex who has a charged blood shotgun that can stagger enemies; homeless, former prize fighter, Edo has one that automatically parries any incoming attack at the expense of his blood-weapon durability; and middle aged, chubby, maid Tris can summon blood turrets. Each of them changes how the player will approach combat, later they can bring two different rarity types into levels that will mix up those skills.

The body possession is much more complicated mechanic. As Hyoki, the player can jump into any non-Slitterhead character in the game and take control of them. This can be triggered at any time and has no cool down, as long as there are humans in range. This leads to wild moments where the player can start a combo then switch to another human and continue attacking. The game casually informs you that if Hyoki is not inside the body when it dies, then you cannot fail, and then gives you a tutorial on how to turn them into biological bombs.

Not content with the body swapping, Slitterhead’s story twists and turns. There are cults that promote friendship between humans and Slitterheads; time travel, which means seeing events from different perspectives and altering the timelines; and then it unravels alternate Universes that break all continuum and Hyoki switches between them.

I’ve gone heavily into spoilers for Slitterhead because I think it is important to convey how nuts the story goes (although that is far from all the plot twists). What is surprising is how grounded some of the writing is. Anita and Tris especially get some very grounded and muted internal monologues with Hyoki in between levels. This juxtaposition helped get me through some of the weaker elements.

The first time I was let loose in Slitterhead’s open areas, I was impressed with the recreation of sweaty Southeast Asian block. A lot of attention had been placed on animation and interactions between the player and NPCs. The lighting and level design oozed atmosphere. The first time I found myself giving chase to a Slitterhead, jumping over blockades, or just warping into a new body, I felt like I was playing something truly special (or, at least, an on-foot version of Driver: San Francisco). The problem was that once I pinned down my combat style, and once I had chased a few enemies through sweaty streets, it all got to be a bit too familiar.

Then there were moments of unlocking new playable characters, story progression is locked behind these characters, and it resulted me having to replay some missions a couple of times to figure out where they were. In some games this hands-off approach can be refreshing, I don’t like when games just put an icon on the screen and be done with it. The problem arises when bugs also get in the way. Anita is an early unlock, and the trigger is some people talking about a dog sniffing around on the main street. When I saw that I figured I beat some of the mission and then come back to find the dog. I returned later and spent 20 minutes running around, only to give up. The game would not let me progress without finding Anita, so I reloaded the level only to go to a spot I had been to previously, but this time the dog was there. This was the fateful moment where I went back and forth between a 7.5 and 3 score.

The thing is, even though the last 3 hours of Slitterhead feel entirely superfluous, the vision for the game remain unique. For every extraneous chase sequence, there is a fascinating beat about someone pursuing their end goals to their most self-destructive ends. Its last-minute reveal is too devious to spoil, but I almost respected the fact that it wanted me to replay a bunch of the levels again.

I have a feeling that this a game that is going to develop a cult following. Slitterhead has a unique outlook on some themes that it is hard for me not to like it. I’ve had better made gaming experiences this year, but few that have held my attention like this has.

Conclusion

Slitterhead is a fascinating game, with an over-the-top plot, routed in strangely grounded characters. The combat is good, with some genuine new additions to the character action genre. However, it goes on for just a bit too long.