Skinfreak PC Review 7/10 “Not so much ‘super freaky’, more ‘slowly freaky’” 🔪 #GameDev #IndieGame #Horror

I have a very simple and happy relationship with Puppet Combo and developer Jordan King; they release games, I really enjoy them - and then I look forward to the next one, Stay Out of the House and Night at the Gates of Hell remain two of my favourite indie horror games, so any time another release from Puppet Combo comes along - I’m excited. I must admit that I am a bit late to this one but was still keen to start my journey running away from a man who looks like Leatherface’s distant cousin.

In Skinfreak you play as Belle, who has been called into the office late at night. you arrive to a very empty office and are to install new software – which is to be delivered later in the night - and yeah …that's mainly it. 

You turn up, wait for a delivery driver and then when he comes install the new software, obviously it doesn't go as planned, as the killer known as Skinfreak lurks in your office building. You spend your time looking around the office building, getting to know every location you have access to. One of the things I love about these games is when you interact with stuff, throughout the environment - from shredders to posters - they either have witty descriptions that make you laugh, or descriptions that are awful jokes that make you groan. 

This game has a real point-and-click feel, get a screwdriver to open a vent, a key is trapped in a location and you have to find how to get it etc. nothing is too irritating, which is good when graphic-adventure style puzzles are involved, although you will press many - and I mean many - a red button, but puzzles are simple enough to get you through the three or so hours that it takes to beat this title. 

I’ve yet to mention mister ‘the man in the skin suit’, he is obviously going to chase you around the office while you work and you need to escape him, but I was shocked when that happens as it comes much later in the game then I had initially expected, Most Puppet Combo developed / published games are quite fast-paced, they are pretty quick off the mark, but here is not the case, this is a slow burn and I mean a slow burn, which I find really admirable. 

Tension is built, but not by the killer chasing you down office hallways jumping out every five seconds, it has a real restraint throughout, using other ways to create tension and scares, such as suggestion and the threat of his presence. Obviously, it does heavily ramp up at the end and Mr Skinfreak is all up in your business ‘til the credits roll, but I enjoyed how the killer is used, less is indeed more. 

I will say that the killers reveal - which I won’t spoil - is funny, as you interact with so few people both in the building and even characters mentioned externally that I don’t think anyone will be to shocked when they see who is behind the fleshy mask, not that I think it is meant to be a grand twist, but you definitely won’t need Sherlock Holmes or Benoit Blanc for this one.

The voice acting throughout was good, it has the typical horror game B movie-ness to it but Belle was enjoyable to listen throughout, and the delivery driver really went for it and had a very creepy unsettling voice. I don’t want him ringing me up anytime soon. I would write about how the game looks but picture any other Puppet Combo game and - bingo - that's what it looks like.

SUMMARY
I really appreciated the slower nature of this title, it caught me off-guard in a good way, it keeps its tension and atmosphere up but does it without having to throw the killer in your face every twenty seconds, it’s a slow burn and I think it is all the better for it.

7/10

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