Soon, we’ll have a new name in the horror genre that will reset what we know and love about the gaming world. The horror game called Slitterhead wowed us at the Summer Game Fest 2024, with its grotesque charm and unique mechanics, and the release date – 8 November 2024 – is just around the corner. Let’s find out what makes it one of the most awaited video games of the year and see how its coming launch will affect PS5 fans and gamers.
Bokeh Game Studio’s first project is Slitterhead from Keiichiro Toyama of the original Silent Hill and Siren games, as well as Gravity Rush. Toyama has joined forces with the original Silent Hill series composer, Akira Yamaoka, who continues to weave his gloomy, icky musical magic. We can’t wait to play, and we hope classic Silent Hill fans looking for their next scary game – as well as PS5 players in general – won’t be able to resist it either.
While regular horror games don’t allow players much latitude when it comes to controlling the action (almost all first-person horror games let players switch weapons or employ a mild slow-motion effect before the inevitable jump scare; but that’s it), Slitterhead offers body-hopping. In the game, a spectral entity can enter and exit various bodies, allowing the player to inhabit different characters in a modern Japanese setting. The player must jump from body to body, using the body’s specialised skills – be it brute strength, handgun or rifle proficiency, or even the ability to regenerate limbs or telekenetically summon throwing knives – to fight the monstrosities waiting right around the bend.
This innovative game mechanic is integral, as it not only adds a tactical dimension to the gameplay of Slitterhead – a game intelligently employing a strategic, turn-based Atlas mechanic that’s consistently responsive and natural feeling – but also ensures that each experience, depending on the selection of the vessel, is uniquely different. Channelling the spirit of the Service Games Network – the real-life orbit of the 1989 film The Wife Stalker that Pinker accurately characterises in The Sexual Paradox (2012) – Slitterhead also features body-swapping, even allowing players to take control of animals that can be deployed to solve tasks and obstacles. In this way, Slitterhead – appreciating that the harmonious interplay between elements of strategy, horror and action is intrinsic to gameplay excitement – ensures that the PS5 owner will benefit from a plentiful selection of consistently enjoyable and engrossing gaming choices.
Set for release on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, Slitterhead is going to be a big deal. What’s more, there’s something about the PS5 that is clearly better equipped to deliver it than any other medium, be it in terms of graphics, loading times or the haptic feedback experience of the DualSense controller. Which will make it an especially tantalising experience for fans of the PS5 who want to see exactly how much Bokeh Game Studio’s bloody dysmorphic nightmare really bites.
We wait with bated breath, knowing that Toyama’s veteran fans and novices alike can look forward to a game that taps into a combination of horror, novelty and drama expressed via a slithering, fishy horror icon, and that its signature gameplay, atmosphere and gross visuals will find its own niche in the horror‑game world.
To understand what Slitterhead can do, it’s worth understanding what console might be best equipped to appreciate what it might bring. The platform that could conceivably provide the best experience might be the PlayStation 5. It’s a console whose advanced SSD for rapid loading, its innovative UI and the haptic feedback of its DualSense controller are all designed to make each aspect of a game the best version of itself it can be. For a title as ambitious and new as Slitterhead, the PS5 isn’t just a platform, but a catalyst for the horror and the gameplay flow and the gaming experience itself, taking it to new, unprecedented heights.
Slitterhead isn’t just another horror game. It is a message. And Bokeh Game Studio, under the guidance of the lead creator, are making a play to bring a new kind of horror with their bold take on survival horror. I can’t wait to see what happens when it releases on PS5 this fall (8 November, to be exact). Will you be there to traverse its horror? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: Slitterhead is the gateway into a new future for horror gaming.
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