SLITTERHEAD
Nomad soul-jack
You’d expect a certain kind of survival horror from a studio whose founding members have Silent Hill and Forbidden Siren on their resumés. Slitterhead is similar up to a point, in Akira Yamaoka’s unnerving sound design, the grotesque design of the monsters that disguise themselves as humans, and even one early homage to sightjacking. However, it quickly becomes clear that it’s very different in scope and tone – and rather reminiscent of Quantic Dream’s The Nomad Soul.
Your protagonist is an amnesiac lacking not only memories but also a body. Unable to amble around on their own two feet, they instead have the power to possess people. You can ping between bodies to reach otherwise-inaccessible places or bypass obstructions – this becomes essential for surviving any gory encounter with a slitterhead, a properly gnarly beastie that can kill you where you stand in a number of winceworthy ways. Still, if the host you possessed dies, you can hop into another bystander and continue legging it. (That said, get ‘killed’ three times and it’s Game Over.)
While it becomes apparent in a darkly comical way that most of the humans are pretty disposable, there are also special humans called ‘rarities’ who resonate strongly with your mysterious possessing entity and are able to fight back, with one memorable standout being a girl who grows Wolverine-like claws.
Steering this action girl, Slitterhead becomes less about running away and more about pulse-pounding combat – albeit with a fair bit of jank and a tricky parry system. Yet the atmosphere of this neon-lit Kowloon-inspired location, as you travel through street markets and mahjong parlours, makes this game as intoxicating as it is bizarre.