Back before I had a right gambling personal computer or even a Steam write up , I remember a friend at the time sending over some games that would run on my MacBook at the time . That was well over a decade ago , but I still commend the very first game I boot up from that peck . It was an oddball game calledThirty Flights of Lovingby developer Blendo , a studio apartment I ’d never heard of . I was bowl over by its experimental structure and closure - headed characters ab initio , but it stuck with me . secret plan come and go , falling into a store hole to make more brainpower space for new ones , but you never forget a Blendo game .
Well over a decennary later on , I ’m happy to see that Blendo is still making unforgettable games . Its latest isSkin cryptical , which will launch on April 30 for PC . The labor perked my ears when it was first announced three age ago , but I ’ve been in the wickedness about what it actually is until now . Ahead of its discharge date let on during today’sAnnapurna Interactive Showcase , I examine its new Steam Next Fest demonstration out . I ’m pleased to report thatSkin Deepis already every chip as strange and beguiling as the Blendo game that still stick around with me today .
Flush the heads
Skin Deepis a first - person stealth action secret plan ( if Ihadto sort it ) starring Nina Pasadena , a once great bounty hunter who now collects insurance debt . She come up herself back in action mechanism when her company ’s ship are take by space pirates . Now , she must use her particular solidifying of skills to take out her enemies , pop their heads off , blush them down the toilet , and spare a gang of peach cats trammel in deposit box .
Yep , it ’s a Blendo game all right .
rent ’s back up and start with the simple stuff . I get the BASIC down in a quick tutorial that teaches me how to navigate the ship and habituate my scanner to read fine print book of instructions on every point I can interact with . Soon enough , I learn how to pick up and hive away a smattering of object that I can swap between with my shiner bike . I can pick up anything from books , to Malus pumila cores , to keycards . My best offense , at least in this brief demo , is my throwing branch rather than a accelerator pedal .
After watch how to cure up and apply a defibrillator to resume my heart when I pass away , I enter a bathroom where a sea robber has his back turn to me . A package of black pepper sit down on a countertop next to me . I seize it , draw a bead on with one mouse come home , and toss it with the other . The poor guy is daze , leaving me just enough time to pounce onto his back and direct him into objects around the elbow room like soap dispensers . He ’s not exactly dead once his health overlook , though . When these pirates drop dead , their heads pop off and sail back to a respawn point , reconstruct their bodies . To finish the job , I belt down his head off , put it in a toilet , and transmit it off into the vacuum of space . I root for a keycard off his corpse and open up a box to free a kitty crewmate , who I have a schmooze with after .
That all might voice eldritch , but Skin Deep is easier to understand than you ’d expect . It ’s basically split up into a serial of bite - sized rescue mission where I need to take care of pirates swan around a few elbow room , free the cats , and take an escape pod to safety . What makes that loop interesting is thatSkin Deepis essentially a miniatureimmersive simbuilt around slapstick drollery .
In one elbow room , I take a pirate out by throwing a banana tree in front of him . He slip on the Robert Peel , of course of instruction , and I wrestle him while he ’s vulnerable before dump his heading in a methamphetamine slideway . In another foreign mission , I get on a pirate ’s back and ram him into a glass windowpane until it shatters , send him into space ( luckily , I have a protective courting and can freely fly out of doors ) . The encounters I played are forgetful and only have me navigate a few rooms , but they are n’t elongate set man that I ’m meant to nail in one optimal way . or else , I can grovel through blowhole to sneak my way through different parts of the ship , grab whatever items I can find oneself , and use them to take out the wandering pirates any fashion I see set . The ships are designed to be a death playground too , with fuel melodic line that can be ignite or style to lure enemies into impact traps . It would be morbid if it all was n’t rendered with Blendo ’s signature blocky visuals .
I ’ve only go a very small perceptiveness of what ’s to hail inSkin Deep , but I ’m beaming to see another delightfully eccentric plot that gets originative with genre . It ’s almost like Blendo is stimulate its “ mainstream ” crossover game here , getting off from the hacking complexity ofQuadrilateral Cowboyand contribute its style to a stealth activity secret plan . The end result is some indescribable crossing betweenHotline MiamiandPreythat ’s filled with cats and pratfalls . Just asThirty Flights of Lovingstill lives rent free in my headspring , I can already state thatSkin Deepis going to move into the condominium next to it .
cutis Deeplaunches on April 30 for PC .
