(some mild spoilers in this review)
i do want to preface that this isnt a hard 'no' to this game, it was just that the cons ended up outweighing the pros for me, personally. i definitely think there are people who would get enjoyment out of this game (especially streamers), but not everyone, and i was in that latter group. a shame, as i was really looking forward to this game, but ended up finding it to be rather disappointing, and by the last hour i just wanted it to be over.
i'll start with the pros: this game is very well put together, has fantastic artwork and art direction, a killer soundtrack, memorable character designs, and some fun moments.
but, the cons:
the pacing was a major issue. by the time you play as the third or second victim, you realize there's a pattern: play as a victim, do some mundane task at their home/job, then die, then play as the detective, do a very simple puzzle, then move on to play as the next victim to do the same ♥♥♥♥, to still die, to play as the detective, then the next victim, ad nauseum. it got *incredibly* repetitive and removed any sense of tension, as you already knew what was going to happen. you had no threat of dying before the scripted events, and the game only tried to kinda shake up its formula once, when you play as the guy at the gas station, but...there was also no point to his segment. all it really did was introduce the next victim who you went on to play as anyway. you could've cut out his part entirely and nothing would have changed narratively. hell, you could cut out *half* of these segments and the game's pacing and story would probably have benefitted greatly. i really cant emphasize how repetitive this game got, to the point i was genuinely tired by the end, and it's not even a long game! i really think the game could have been shortened, or cut out some segments and instead fleshed out the remaining few.
and this might have been fine if the writing was fun, but it really wasn't. it very, very quickly got old with its childish toilet humor and overt sexual vulgarity to a point that it stopped being shocking and just started being eye-roll inducing. not many of the jokes were very original, either, as a lot of it felt very trite, with no genuine attempts at doing something actually clever. even worse, the attempts at campiness fell flat because you could tell they were trying so, *so* hard, while also being a wink-wink nudge-nudge irony-pilled 'isnt this sooo stupid?' kind of tone that i feel like only ever neuters genuine attempts at camp or heart. this game is, really, just streamer-bait: made to be as crudely outlandish as possible to elicit as strong of a comedic reaction as possible from over-active streamers. and that's not necessarily a *bad* thing per-se, it *can* work, but didn't work for me. instead it just left the game feeling kind of...hollow. and annoying. the only times i laughed was when it leaned more into absurdist black comedy. and, unfortunately, i think the writer got so caught up in trying to make the game so goofy that they kind of forgot to write, like, an actually solid story. sure, it's a riff on classic, campy slasher/giallo flicks, so im not expecting silent hill 2 level of narrative depth, but it still felt boringly predictable, with a big exposition dump near the end, and an "oh, that's it?" ending and a whatever sequel hook. there were some moments where i thought the writing was going to do something kinda interesting or thematically cohesive, for example, i at first i thought the killer was targeting people with tattoos, because of links to skin and potential sin, and that seemed interesting! and would explain why most of the victims are goths/punks but, no that wasn't the case, and i found that kind of disappointing.
also, man, the streamer stuff got *really* distracting. i went into this game not knowing how involved streamers were in its development, and i kinda wish i did, as it would have helped me adjust my expectations. the involvement of streamers isn't inherently a bad thing, as things like them being face models and VAs is fine, and little easter eggs can be cute. but it was like the streamer equivalent of overt product-placement, and kind of reinforced the idea that this was a game made with them in mind to play and react to, while normal players came second. of course, YMMV on how much you think the streamer stuff brings down the game, but as someone who's pretty divorced from streamer culture and was just interested in playing a cool new campy horror game, i found it incredibly distracting. (that said, i did think there were *some* good implementations of the streamer shout-outs. i liked the little live-action episode segment for Scaroline's show, as it was small and cute and felt like a fun Elvira homage, which, as a big Elvira fan, i'll always appreciate).
the performances were alright. i dont think they particularly brought down the game, but there were definitely some characters where i could tell the VA was trying *way* too hard to put on a certain voice, which was also distracting. the titular skin stapler's performance was definitely the strongest, and the most memorable. but i cant really put this down as a proper mark against it, since choppy voice acting is basically a staple in these types of horror games. but i think there's a difference between good-bad acting and "trying to hard to *be* bad"-bad acting, if you know what i mean.
despite all of this, i do think there is the foundations of a really cool game, and it's clear the developer is quite skilled. the game itself ran well, looked good, and sounded good. there's definitely something here that others would like but, unfortunately, it wasnt for me, and because of that, i just cant really give it a thumbs up, especially considering how genuinely fed up i got near the end of the game. i'd say that, if you're interested, it's still worth checking out, especially for such a cheap price, and i encourage you to come to your own conclusions about the game. i'll probably still check out some of the devs other works to see if, hopefully, any of them resonate with me better.
A serial killer stalks the streets, and you’re on their trail. Investigate the murders, descend into the city’s rotten underbelly, and uncover its buried secrets. Will you find the truth before The Skin Stapler finds you?Play as burned-out detective Dick Slater, hunting a serial killer known as the Skin Stapler. Take control of other characters as they are stalked through homes, workplaces, and dark city streets.
