My time with Slitterhead started with roaming the narrow alleyways of a fictional Asian city as a stray dog. I was instructed to follow red swishes on-screen that visualize a trail of scent to get to the next destination, but I preferred to just look around and savor every detail of this masterfully crafted urban environment.
Hailing from the creator of the original Silent HiIll, Siren and Gravity Rush games, in many ways Slitterhead feels like a culmination of legendary developer Keiichiro Toyama’s legacy. While going back to Toyama’s horror roots and implementing an Asian setting once again, Slitterhead also succeeds in portraying a city that – while much more grounded – feels just as inspiring as Gravity Rush’s Hekseville. The dirty alleyways of Kowlong are so detailed and realistic that it was easy for me to believe that I was actually wandering through a foreign city, yet so eerie that if a scary creature would suddenly appear I would have totally believed it.
Slitterhead is an action adventure game with a horror setting that involves possessing victims as its key gameplay mechanic. Before playing, I was told that the game is focused mainly on action. While indeed most of my playtime involved melee combat, I found Slitterhead’s environments so appealing that I often ended up just aimlessly wandering the city.
The dreamy Cantonese pop song that plays during the game’s opening scene invited me straight into Slitterhead’s setting, and Cantonese chatter on the streets makes the city feel even more lived in, but it is the attention to the environment’s details that really did it for me. Bright neon sign boards, graffiti, signs and flyers on the wall, dirty air conditioner outlets, laundry hanging on balconies, local eateries serving fried noodles or hotpot, cozy mom-and-pop stores – you name it. Everything I saw made the city feel believable and lived in. It reminded me of walking Tokyo’s famous Shibuya scramble crossing in Ghostwire: Tokyo for the first time.
That said, Slitterhead is not an open world game; it unfolds in stages, with the early stages I played feeling spacious enough to be considered a wide-linear area. Above all, though, the streets of Slitterhead’s city prove that density can be more important than scale when it comes to delivering a believable environment.
In 2020, Toyama left Sony’s now defunct Japan Studio to become independent, opening Bokeh Game Studio. Now, four years later, Slitterhead is set for release in November as the studio’s first title. As an independent game, Slitterhead may have a smaller budget when compared with Toyama’s previous games, but clever choices have allowed his team to deliver a game that looks impressive nonetheless.
Similar to Ghostwire: Tokyo, Slitterhead plays out entirely in the nighttime, a great match for the game’s horror setting that simultaneously allowed the team to skip the hassle of also creating daytime environments. While the same craftsmanship as Gravity Rush can be felt when it comes to designing a believable cityscape, Slitterhead is a more focused experience that mostly skips side quests and other arbitrary activities.
One area in which the development team have gone full-on is Slitterhead’s NPCs. The city’s streets are constantly filled with detailed characters that perfectly match the Asian cityscape. A city without people could have worked for a game with a horror setting, but the city’s people play a key role in Slitterhead’s game design.
After wandering the streets as a stray dog for some time, a tall fence was now blocking my way. However, I could see a person standing on the other side of the fence. At this point, the ability to possess other characters was unlocked, which is Slitterhead’s key mechanic. After moving the camera with the right analog stick to find a target, you can possess a different character with the press of a button. No longer confined to the body of a stray dog, now I was walking the streets as a human inhabitant of the city.
However, at the next corner a woman who appeared to be a sex worker was standing in front of me. She seemed to be trying to seduce me, but I soon realized something was off. By the time she had transformed into a worm-like monster, it was already too late. Before I could run away, she had knocked me to the ground.
But while in most games that would mean game over, Slitterhead allowed me to find a new target to possess while lying on the ground. I quickly realized that serially possessing far-off targets was a more effective strategy than running with my own feet, and I transferred myself from one body to the next. From a young guy with bleached hair to a middle-aged lady with an off-trend blouse and then a topless pot-bellied man, each of the bodies I possessed on the way became prey for the creature that was hunting me. But as long as my spirit was safe, their individual lives didn’t seem to matter.
This escape sequence functions as a tutorial for quickly switching from one body to another. Later I would learn that this skill can be applied to both Slitterhead’s combat and exploration.
During exploration, possessing a fresh body can be used as a way to pass through walls, gates or fences, and also to reach higher places. You could for example possess someone standing on a balcony, transfer to someone walking the corridor of a high-rise apartment building, then switch to someone standing on the roof of a skyscraper. With Slitterhead’s possession mechanic, you’ll be looking down at the bustling city in no time. This vertical exploration again reminded me of Ghostwire: Tokyo, which has you reach the top of Tokyo’s skyscrapers by grappling the claws of flying Tengu demons.
Possessing and walking the city as different people is even fun when there’s no real purpose to it. Anyone who has played Watch Dogs: Legion probably remembers how funny it can be to run around as an old lady or any other type of character that normally wouldn’t be the most obvious pick for a playable character in a videogame. Movement and control feels different from character to character, too. I was also surprised that when a cut scene began mid-level, it would show whichever random dude you just happened to be possessing at that point in the game.
Not every single character walking the streets can be possessed, though. Targets who can be possessed are indicated by a blue light. The amount of characters you can possess is still staggering, though, especially in more crowded areas. Sometimes, it can actually become a bit difficult to choose which character you want to become next. Luckily, while you hold down the possession button, everything slows down, giving you time to choose. While holding down the button, you can leave the body you’re currently possessing and freely move around in first person to look for a new target. This feature not only allows you to choose at ease, but also makes it possible to find targets that were out of sight from where you were standing. It also comes in handy when you have to jump off a skyscraper, giving you time to find a new target to possess before your previous possessed body splats on the ground.
As someone who enjoys observing environment details in games, I also found myself using the feature to zoom in on objects, to read the menu of a restaurant, or to take a better look at the Kowlong souvenir T-shirts for sale on a market stall.
With the necessary tools to observe things from a closer angle, exploring this Asian urban environment became even more rewarding for me. That being said, there’s not really a whole lot to do when it comes to Slitterhead’s exploration. In the beginning of the game, I was tasked to find memories of my spirit that were scattered throughout the city, but there were no side objectives to enjoy along the way. While there are some hidden secrets, Slitterhead has no side quests, no shops that allow you to purchase items and no characters to engage in conversation. Unless simply observing the environment is enough for you, you might find this action adventure game leans more toward action than adventure. I found Slitterhead enjoyable as it is, but its environments are so well crafted that I couldn’t help but hope that Bokeh Game Studio will someday reuse the city to create a game with more adventure elements.
While horror games traditionally have you shoot at enemies from a distance, Slitterhead incorporates a melee combat system. You can attack, block, dodge and deflect, covering all the standard bases for a modern action game. It has a weapon durability system that reminded me of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, while the heavy emphasis on deflecting is something many games have done since Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Deflecting is made a bit more interesting by demanding the player flick the right analog stick up, down, left or right to match the direction of an incoming attack. This system as well as the UI that indicates the direction of enemy attacks reminded me of Ubisoft’s For Honor.
For the rest, most of Slitterhead’s combat itself felt pretty standard. There’s not a wide array of attack patterns to choose from, and while it gets the job done, there are plenty of action games that feel smoother.
Luckily, the possession mechanic brings something unique to Slitterhead’s combat as well. You can freely possess nearby bodies during battle, and choosing when to switch to what body makes battles more strategically interesting. For example, it is probably for the better to quickly transfer to a different body when an enemy is about to unleash a heavy attack or when you’re cornered against a wall. If the body you switch to happens to be just behind your enemy, you can quickly attack from behind. While Slitterhead’s enemy variety and attack patterns might be pretty standard, creating a favorable situation by possessing the right body makes Slitterhead’s battles feel interesting nonetheless.
Switching bodies puts the player in a more advantageous position, but leaving a body unattended in a dangerous situation often means sacrificing it. This makes switching bodies during battle a high-risk high-return strategy, although it has to be said that continuously swapping bodies almost always felt safer than facing an enemy head-on while trying to evade or deflect its attacks. Possessing bodies during battle does feel a bit chaotic at times, especially in confined spaces. The body you switch to might not be facing the enemy you are fighting, and the camera can get in the way when you switch to a body close to the wall. But even with those inconveniences, the possession mechanic makes Slitterhead’s combat feel more unique.
Each character you can possess has their own health bar. It is nearly impossible to remember the remaining health of every single body laying around, so sometimes it may happen that you accidentally switch to a character that is almost out of health. If a character you’re not currently controlling is killed, there is no penalty except for the fact that there’s one less body to transfer to. However, if the character you are currently controlling gets killed it’s game over, no matter how many possessable bodies were left.
During the early sections of the game I played, there were always plenty of bodies to switch to. It seemed that the game expected me to continuously possess new bodies and sacrifice the old ones instead, rather than taking the life of each individual seriously.
Once you’ve eliminated the enemies in an area, you can regain health by standing on the pool of blood they left behind. But keeping the characters you possess alive isn’t all that important. Slitterhead’s gameplay loop of possessing and mercilessly sacrificing people delivers the message that human lives don’t mean much anyway. When the game design itself tells a creepier story than most horror game narratives, you must be doing something right as a developer. However, from a gameplay standpoint it remains to be seen if the possession mechanic can actually provide enough depth and variety throughout the campaign.
Skills allow you to heal nearby characters or even summon new bodies to possess, but at least during the beginning of the game I never felt the need to do so. I was instructed to play the game on Easy mode (there are four difficulty modes in total to choose from). I played through the beginning of the game and one other stage without ever being at a serious risk. By exploring, I found a shrine that led me to an optional boss challenge. I was killed once during this challenge, but I managed to overcome it during my second try without much trouble. As long as you keep swapping bodies, it seems that Slitterhead won’t challenge you too much in Easy mode. According to the developers, the other difficulty modes aren’t overly challenging either, as they see Slitterhead as an action adventure game that can be casually enjoyed by a wide array of players.
What makes Slitterhead more interesting as a casual action game is the wide variety of skills and hero characters you get to control. Hero characters are a lot stronger than normal characters, and each has unique movesets and skills. During my time with the game, I got to play as a female character equipped with Wolverine-like claws as well as a character with a kickboxer-like moveset.
The second stage I got to play was set inside a condominium building. While not quite as exciting as walking around in the city itself, the dim rooms of the building are always moody and atmospheric, decorated with mahjong tables and cigarette packs. I advanced by taking the stairs and elevators while eliminating enemies along the way to ultimately make it to the top floor, where of course a boss was awaiting me.
At this point I had already mastered the art of switching bodies, so the boss fight itself wasn’t much of a challenge. However, after receiving a certain amount of damage the boss started to flee in a similar vein as prey in Monster Hunter games, over the rooftops of the city. I was now climbing air conditioner outlets and bamboo scaffoldings as I tried to catch the boss hopping from one building to the other. On my way, I transferred to an old man standing on a balcony, and was able to soar above the city by tethering to pools of blood spattered around the scenery and swinging between them like Spider-Man. While not every single moment necessarily felt great to play, it was an enjoyable set piece to take part in.
If you’re looking for the tightest or smoothest action game available, there are better options. However, just like Siren and Gravity Dash, Slitterhead is a game that masterfully sets the mood. A wide array of different stages and situations will undoubtedly create an unforgettable experience with a unique flavor.
Slitterhead is set to release on PS5PS4Xbox Series X|S/PC (Steam/Epic Games) on November 8, 2024.
Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan. If you want to know what it feels like to work at IGN Japan, try possessing his body.
