I have been fumbling for a grasp on Bokeh’s skull-splitting horror sport Slitterhead since I first heard the phrases „dropped at you by Keiichiro Toyama, former designer of Silent Hill, Siren and Gravity Rush“. Because of a brand new interview, I now have a correct description of the connection between protagonist and antagonist. Buddies, Romans and countrymen: this can be a sport a couple of warfare between two units of body-stealing monsters, waged within the neon shadows of a fictional East Asian metropolis. All of it places me strongly in thoughts of a sure John Carpenter film about squelchy goings-on in Antarctica.
By no means seen The Factor? A fast abstract: it is a creature function through which a bunch of scientists close to the South Pole discover that their base has been invaded by an alien monster that may assume the type of no matter it eats, prompting a right away spiral into foam latex and KY jelly-flavoured chaos. Slitterhead takes the concept, shifts it a number of thousand miles north, and swaps out Kurt Russel for a bodiless power, the Hyoki, with the power to own human beings and improve their abilities.
You play the Hyoki, and your job is to chase down the Slitterheads – nasty bugs who’re additionally in a position to possess and rework human our bodies, however moderately extra messily. In a demo attended by the active and avid folk of VGC, the participant begins as a stray canine, recalling the opening scenes of The Thing, with maybe a contact of commentary on real-life zoonotic diseases. Are you able to pet the canine? Presumably, however I strongly advise that you simply keep away from canines within the context of something remotely influenced by The Factor.
Every hapless host has completely different capabilities. Some are armed. VGC feels that Slitterhead’s fight is not something to write down dwelling about, regardless of the power to warp right into a bystander’s head for a cheeky backstab, however there are some amusingly grisly mechanics involving traversal and exploration. For instance, you possibly can portal via a fence hole to a physique on the opposite facet, or leap your present host off a roof so that you could bounce to a different on the street beneath. Toyama says the builders have leaned into the concept of civilians as disposable fodder. „Initially, they have been purported to be highly effective, however that proved to be not entertaining,“ he instructed the positioning. Please say that once more, Toyama, with a drawn-out, sinister pause between „not“ and „entertaining“.
My ideas gravitate instantly and predictably to stealth gameplay. I like the concept of posing as a shopkeeper, eyeing up the clientele for wriggling temples and different signs of infestation. Maybe it’s going to be like Murderer’s Creed’s outdated PvP modes. That stated, I am unsure how amenable Slitterhead shall be to such foetid, forensic sandboxing in observe. „One resolution we made early within the sport was that we initially wished an open-world setting for the sport, nevertheless it wasn’t affordable with the finances,“ Toyama instructed VGC. „That call labored effectively, boxing within the missions and progressing via the storyline.“
This is hoping the neighbourhoods are properly crowded, no less than, as a result of I’ve seen extra Stop/Restart screens than you have had sizzling dinners, and as such, I’ll burn via loads of hosts in my time with Slitterhead, which is out on November 8th. Take a number of cues from Warren Spector’s legendary single city block RPG pitch, possibly?