Slitterhead Reviews
Slitterhead's unique premise and experimental mechanics make it a compelling experience, even if it can feel a bit too rough and low-budget from time to time.
While I’m always thrilled to see more sensibly scoped and budgeted games come along at a lower price point, it’s eminently clear throughout that Slitterhead suffered a messy development. While I’m hugely sympathetic to the situation Toyama’s team found themselves in building the studio and starting production just a few months into the unfolding chaos of 2020, Slitterhead’s realisation just misses the mark in almost every area. It’s an incomprehensible slog to play through and I regret spending so much of my week with it.
Slitterhead offers a refreshing and unique experience that pays homage to Bokeh's pedigree while still establishing its own identity. Despite some minor flaws, the game makes great use of its weird but wonderful narrative and ingenious possession mechanics to bewitch you from the beginning. With such a distinctive sense of direction and style, Slitterhead is an incredibly strong debut that firmly establishes Bokeh as a studio to watch.
Ultimately, Slitterhead serves as a cautionary tale of high expectations meeting harsh realities and a reminder of how even the most anticipated projects can falter in execution.
There's a decent time to be had in Slitterhead as a blood-wielding badass dealing with some dastardly demons in the striking and grungy concrete jungle of Kowlong. The game finds a satisfying balance of empowerment and challenge as you hijack body after body to topple your foes. Similarly, it's exciting to use these supernatural powers to traverse the land and uncover mysteries across the city. The game, however, is held back by an obtuse story, a frustrating lack of apt signposting in some missions, and an adventure you never really wrap your head around in its twelve-hour runtime. It may not make a huge mark on the horror action scene, but to the select few that vibe with its freakishness, it'll be an underrated gem for years to come.
Slitterhead is a fun and satisfying horror combat game. It has a lot of variety in designs with plot twists that will keep you guessing after each chapter.
Slitterhead is a unique blend of horror, action-adventure and time-loop mechanics, showcasing some intriguing concepts. However, it struggles to fully realise its potential due to various limitations. The creativity is commendable, but the execution is poor.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Slitterhead is a graphically and structurally rather old game that fails in any way to approach either modern productions or the other glorious works of the Keiichiro Toyama. The only good cues come in the form of the ability to control different characters through possession, which make the traversal and combat dynamics varied, but the dilution and repetitiveness of certain quests tend to dull enthusiasm soon.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Bokeh Game Studio's debut horror title is a game entirely out of time with its genre contemporaries and all the more wild, compelling, and beautiful for it. Satisfying combat and a generational eye for tone and design collide in the year's strangest beast.
While it is apparent that Bokeh Game Studio was working with a tight budget, they knew how to stretch their dollars. Slitterhead is truly a special horror game that is sure to be a cult classic.
Slitterhead relies on the mechanic of possessing and controlling human bodies, which is not new, but is used to great effect in the game. Once you get past the clunky start and get into it, Slitterhead manages to deliver an impressive experience. Although it would be more spectacular if more things were clearer and better handled.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Although Slitterhead has a nice story, the game makes a generic and crazy mix of Parasyte with a Beyond: Two Souls flavor. With plastered gameplay, half-graphics, a very weak battle system, and poor audio, this game isn't worth your time or your money.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
If you can get past the jankiness, Slitterhead has a certain quality that makes it oddly compelling. Everything from the plot to the gameplay and the graphics is a strange combination of insanely dated and bizarrely structured. It's a bizarre, shambling mess of a game that has a flavor all its own, but it never quite manages to come together into something cohesive.
"I feel extremely conflicted when I think deeply about Slitterhead. On the one hand, it's a return to the side of Toyama's mind that gave us Silent Hill, with Slitterhead presenting players with an otherworldly tale that thrives on surrealism and its gripping central mystery. On the other, it's a sub-par action game that weighs down its novel ideas with combat that feels weightless and unimpactful. Whether the combat is a deal breaker for the average player is going to depend on how much they value everything that Toyama and his team at Bokeh Studios have got right. For this writer, the answer to that conundrum is that on the whole, Slitterhead's positives do outweigh its negatives. It feels like Toyama is untethered again, and while not every design choice has worked out for the best, the fact that we have the horror legend operating independently and willing to create something unlike anything else is something to be celebrated."
Slitterhead exemplifies what an indie developer with ambitious ideas can achieve within limited means. Where one system falters, another aspect of the game steps up, maintaining a balance between innovation and feasibility. While more resources could have enhanced the combat and voice acting, Slitterhead ultimately succeeds as a character-driven horror game with a focus on storytelling and atmosphere. For fans of narrative-driven horror, Slitterhead is a captivating experience that breaks the mold.
Despite its innovative gameplay, its lack of variety and somewhat confounding story hold it back. As an action game, the fast-paced body possession system is addicting, but it doesn't provide as many challenges as you'd expect from its length.
Slitterhead may be a bit rough around the edges, but the core concept and story are intriguing enough to make this worth trying. There really aren’t many games like this, and I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in strange and dark titles.
Slitterhead has a weirdly intriguing plot and cool art design wasted by endless repetition and outdated game design. There’s something here, and I found Slitterhead pulling me in during the first few hours. It was the last 80% of the game that was a dreadful experience.
Slitterhead is a mixed bag at times, but it is an intriguing and enjoyable time for the most part. The combat feels great and utilizing abilities, regular attacks, deflecting, and swapping bodies on the fly makes for a very rewarding experience. The story itself is wonderful, and the visuals exemplify the horrific nature of these monsters and how they form. It can feel a bit stiff at times, and I wasn't a fan of how the backstory was told, but it's still a great time that feels unique against the current lineup of horror games. It is hit or miss on the Steam Deck in some areas, but it will hold for the most part. It feels great on the portable screen, especially with HDR support. Overall, this is a wonderful experience, and I highly recommend it!
Slitterhead delivers an intriguing horror story and fast action, but its exploration sections feel watered down, lacking in player agency.