Slitterhead review: hole in the head

Given its founders have an impressive horror lineage including the original Silent Hill, you’d be forgiven for thinking you knew what to expect from Bokeh Game Studio’s debut release. Instead, Slitterhead is something very different: you’re not cowering from monstrous threats, but fighting back with a diverse cast – an equally diverse choices of weaponry.

Its ensemble cast has much in common with the PS2’s Forbidden Siren (also just recently added to the PS5 digital store), but instead of creepy isolated locations, you’re exploring the dense urban environment of a fictionalised 1990s Hong Kong. Some wild swings in terms of premise and gameplay are also quite refreshing given the glut of horror remakes we’ve seen lately. The question is whether those swings all land; the answer is a little complicated.

Meat puppets

The eponymous slitterheads are mysterious monsters which, when not eating their brains, are hiding amongst the human population like an Asian Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Victims are none the wiser until someone’s head bursts open and its grotesque buglike form is revealed.

Your protagonist, a mysterious spirit known as the Night Owl and on a mission to exterminate the slitterheads, is also hiding in plain sight. They can possess anyone, amusingly starting off with a dog, which almost turns the opening into the good boy’s version of Stray. You can target someone else nearby by holding the left bumper, and you move from one body to another in quick succession.

It seems intentional that you’re basically using and discarding humans with little care (even most character models have the look of meat puppets, dulling the impact when things get gory), although you do eventually start encountering select individuals called Rarities who form a special bond with Night Owl. Possessed but still conscious, these characters can actually put up a proper fight with unique blood weapons and abilities.

Your first Rarity is a young woman called Julee who sprouts blood versions of Wolverine’s claws. The ensemble opens up to people from all walks of life, such as a sex worker who fights with a giant mascara brush, a South Asian house maid who fights with oven mitts, or a homeless man who knows martial arts. In between missions your spirit will also have occasional one-to-one conversations with each Rarity, sometimes uncovering backstory or a clue that unlocks the next mission. Yet while you can technically pick who you take on many of the missions, only the initial Rarities get a decent introduction, and as the story goes on, it becomes apparent there’s just a couple main characters while the rest of the ensemble is diminished.

Hack and possess

Although the minor character models look unintentionally comical, the presentation of Kowlong city – seen exclusively at night – is superb. Exploring these urban environments, from street markets to seedy nightclubs, is a treat, especially when you’re using possessions as a means of traversal. A brilliantly offbeat score from legendary composer Akira Yamaoka further adds to the noir-ish allure.

There’s even a Sightjacking mechanic taken straight from Forbidden Siren where you can see through the eyes of a slitterhead, making a note of their vision to parse their location before cornering and exposing them. The first time you encounter a slitterhead you’re powerless and forced to run away, so when the tables start to turn it’s quite exhilarating as you become the hunter.

Unfortunately, it’s when you have to actually fight these monsters that things trip up. Having an ensemble adds some variety, but the combat just isn’t much fun. Attacks feel basic, with annoying wind-up animations that often get interrupted, while useful abilities have long cooldowns (and an annoying error sound if you try to use them again too early). Grimly, blood doesn’t just dictate your health but also powers your weapon and abilities; your supply is refilled by absorbing the pools of blood left by defeated enemies or other fallen humans.

Most irritating is the game’s parry mechanic. Instead of reading the enemy’s animation, you’ve got to flick the right stick in the direction of a glowing UI symbol that pops up. It’s all too easy to flick the stick prematurely, as you actually have to wait for another very hard-to-read signal afterwards. Parrying enough times slows time to get in free combo hits, but I only managed it once, during the tutorial; U quickly abandoned it in favour of just hopping between bodies. As boss fights end with the camera dramatically freezing on a close-up of your possessed character, for me it was often not of the main cast but some random’s gormless face.

A bit loopy

For those who enjoyed the urban exploration of Ghostwire: Tokyo or Sleeping Dogs, Slitterhead’s Kowlong is unfortunately mission-based rather than open-world. To its credit the levels have a claustrophobic design, from cramped corridors to alleys, which feels fitting with the Kowloon Walled City that served as the main inspiration. Nothing is necessarily lost by not having a seamless city to roam around in.

The issue is how many missions return to the same handful of locations. Given they already incentivise replays, with collectibles and memories that increase your skill points, forcing you to go back because something needs doing to unlock a new story path feels repetitive. Some Rarities are unlocked through clues so obtuse I had to replay the same tedious mission multiple times, with the only consolation being you can quit out early and carry over any new discoveries. These characters also feel ancillary to ones you learn about over the course of multiple missions.

This repetitive looping structure is partly lifted from Forbidden Siren, back when game design was frustratingly opaque. The plot might go places from its initial body snatching premise, but when seeing it means replaying missions that also increasingly drag out or recycle mission objectives, unlocking the good ending just doesn’t seem worth the effort.

Slitterhead verdict

Slitterhead might not be a horror game that cranks up the fear factor, but it’s nonetheless an atmospheric one, with some wild ideas in a genre that often plays it safe. It’s refreshing to play an action horror that’s not just about blasting zombies, while its fictional take on Hong Kong succeeds in being both a dreamlike and nightmarish memory.

Unfortunately, to appreciate its quirks is to also endure its janky, tedious execution and stubbornly old-school design. I’m at once glad that it exists so that we’re not stuck in a cycle of Resident Evil and Silent Hill remakes, and just as with Forbidden Siren before it, it undeniably oozes cult appeal. But much like the curios of old, it’s also difficult to recommend.