HEADLANDER
AIN’T NO BODY! From $ . | PC, PS www.adultswim.com/games/pc-console/headlander
Headlander is one of the most handsome games you’ll play all year. Actually, ‘fabulous’ is probably a better word to describe its sumptuous retrofuturist look, which draws equally from pulp sci- and ’ s disco. All is not well in this future utopia, but to reveal too much would be to spoil the mystery. Su ce to say, you appear to be the last human to exist in physical form, with one minor caveat: you’re just a head. You have a jet thruster where your larynx should be. To navigate, you’ll have to fly your tiny head around until you nd a robot body, whereupon you’ll vacuum its head o and replace it with your own.
You end up inhabiting a variety of bodies to progress and you mostly use your powers to gain clearance to high security areas. That means taking control of the colour-coded Shepherd forces that have been alerted to your presence. It’s easy enough to decapitate the reds, but the violent violets you’ll encounter later are another matter.
The need to assume control of an intact body gives combat a di erent rhythm. Precision should be your rst priority, and even when you’ve got a body to call your own, it’s rarely wise to just blast away: take enough damage and your torso will explode, so it pays to keep at least one potential replacement in good nick. You can take cover behind objects, and ne-tune your aim while doing so, a thin line indicating the trajectory of your shots, including rebounds o walls and scenery. It’s a bit like lining up a trick shot in snooker.
As the game goes on Shepherds become more aggressively keen to hold onto their heads, swiping sharply as you hover above them and ring more powerful weapons. Negotiating a path through the chaos can be tricky, so you’ll need to seek out helmet augmentations to survive.
It’s also a funny game. Beyond the sight gags, there are plenty of zingers and puns in the incidental dialogue. But the jokes don’t always sit easily with a story that takes itself surprisingly seriously. If anything, it’s not quite camp enough, which is a weird thing to say about a game where you play a disembodied head. Regardless, it’s a game that feels comfortable in its own skin.