(Mission Ridiculous) Skin Deep
Once in a while, some indie developer out there comes out with a very esoteric type of game. The very game based on something called Prey, an immersive sim that has you playing as a commando to rescue cats, hide in weird corner spaces, and somehow move in zero gravity.
Yeah, it's a lot, in fact the opening in Skin Deep is pretty intense. Though, after thinking more like a Tinker Tailor Soldier Astronaut, I was in full espionage mode. Well, albeit with some trial and error here and there. The best part, it's an easy game to experiment once the tutorial is said and done with. I love games like these, even crazier is it's made using id Tech 4.
- The premise
Our commando has quite the challenge ahead of her, space pirates are kidnapping crew cats, and the insurance company that is watching over them now dispatches you on the job. But things get more harrowing as the pirate commander somehow wants you dead.
My girl is quick, can fit in vents like a mouse, has the best agility to hide above ground better than Sam Fisher himself, and is dextrous enough to unscrew things, mess with computers, pickpocketing, and capable of holding arms. So she goes to every pirate ship, lickity split, and save the cat crews. While also having to dispose the pirates with unique methods.
- Nitty gritty
You have to read notes, some leave crucial details on the ship so that you can pick up on something, others are part of the charm. You have to read item description before using them. Parts of the ship have odors, inflammatory or stuff that can kill the guards.
Sadly, there are respawn pods where their floating heads will fly to, and you have to dispose them quick through the garbage chute, airlock, or toilets. You can take damage in multiple ways, which is why it's imperative you hide, and manually heal your wounds. You start bleeding to death, you can defibrillate yourself. Just ah, plan well ahead, these guys don't let up.
I'm throwing peppers, bananas, then hopping on to them to slam them till dead. Sometimes they'll spawn swordfish drones, and if those misses me, I can fling the knife back at them for an easy kill. There are no checkpoints, each ship has terminal maps, which easily draws out everything including the objects, enemies, and the cats, it's where you also save. I would highly suggest doing that before experimenting. Like, you get the gist of how this sim works.
- Wait, my clone hates me?
So, terrible news, everything I played in the hour was the intro sequence, and after using my telescope to peep on Numbunch's base, I found out that the big baddie is my clone, and it's not known why. This is also where the game gets challenging, even frustratingly.
Remember the ship windows? Vents? Trash, and all that other stuff I told you could use? Well, they've smartened up, and found ways to lock them out. I just need to find keycodes and get them unlocked. Easy right? Remember, I can't kill these guys with brute force, I have to fool them, or use whatever I can use including the environment to get rid of. Not easy like before.
Each mission on each ship has a lot of hidden areas, things you can do to improvise, unlike me who keeps sucking at this stuff. It also seemed unfair till I've looked around a lot of those small spaces. Trust me, these guys are dumber than bricks once I've gotten the gist of everything. If you're into the save scumming trial and error stuff, I won't judge you. No worries.
- Worth checking it out
It has issues, specifically the interface, like I have to remind myself I'm not playing an FPS RPG like Thief, Deus Ex, Prey, and so on. It's very specific to its distinctive game mechanics. But it's tons of fun, I love the 70s goofy aesthetics, color palette, and man, for a short ride, it's really fun.
Later missions need me to summon the evac pods using mouse click based morse code, and then take care of the enemy reinforcement by killing them all or stealing their ship. Look at all the arsenal I get access to, finally guns, and throwables. Now we're talking.
