If you rely on influencers, review sites, word of mouth or smoke signals when choosing your next game, let me offer my recommendation and suggest you grab The Skin Stapler. The caveat is a few words of warning: this is a niche recommendation based on the content and its clunky retro 80s cliché vibes, though if you’re even slightly moist from the delectable screenshots or synopsis, you won’t be disappointed. If you do want your money back, expect someone to visit you late in the night…
From solo dev Tainted Pact, this first-person detective horror caper follows Dick by name, dick by profession: detective Dick Slater and his rookie partner, Robbie Knox. An initial curveball puts you in the skin of another character, not too dissimilar to the original Scream, where our short-lived protagonist soon becomes a statistic and narrative thread for our hero to pull at the seams.
Y’see, there’s a serial killer on the loose, and unsurprisingly, that killer is The Skin Stapler. This isn’t some incompetent nincompoop who doesn’t know how to operate office equipment, but an evil mastermind who thinks outside the box on preps for his next victim, going to elaborate and disgustingly good setpieces in assisting them vacate their fleshy vessel. Though I love horror films, I’m not too fond of the gaming side of things and am a bit of a wuss, but this is exceedingly good, and the humour in it is spot on.
A lot of it is tongue-in-cheek and often delivered by campy voiceovers that wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of Mask, He-Man or 80s shlock straight-to-video titles. It’s over the top and perfectly delivered. The art style is a highlight, taking its inspiration from PSX days, though for a modern audience with slightly better controls. I say slightly better, as the game isn’t without a few technical niggles, but nothing major.
Set in Carrion City in the early 80s, Dick has the misfortune of being cast in a buddy-buddy cop film. An obvious outsider, he’s reluctantly partnered with eager-to-please Robbie, who will help him track down the Skin Stapler. However, this isn’t your conventional detective experience as The Skin Stapler is separated into chapters and you continue the momentum of playing the victims of the game. Like a good, fun but equally monotonous simulator, you act out the jarring jobs of the victims that lead up to their monstrous death. The minigame-type controls follow on from those simulation conventions like the House Flipper equivalent of a paint-by-numbers.
The actual steps you have to take aren’t particularly exciting, but the world-building and vulgar (heh!) humour is an absolute belter. This couldn’t be more ridiculous as it hits on point through every chapter and is thoroughly moreish. In many respects, it reminded me of a demo I played called Massacre at the Mirage, which had a very similiar aesthetic: beautifully grotesque, over-the-top blood and guts, and plenty of innuendo. Memory doesn’t always serve me well and couldn’t remember the name of the game besides ‘creepy clown guy’ and ‘80s cinema usher’, though had an inkling it was the same publisher (Assemble Entertainment – Leisure Suit Larry, Grind Survivors, Between Horizons et al). Lo and behold, my inkling was on point, and it just so happens that it was developed by Tainted Pact, too.
Anyhoo, if you played that, you will love The Skin Stapler. I don’t think I can get enough of their work, which is unfortunate as the game isn’t that long – like an extended feature length of the 80s slashers it emulates. The game is on rails, so don’t expect much in the way of freedom, but it’s a rollercoaster you’ll want to stay on as it hits most of the beats. My only reservation was with some of the minigames, as my Steam Deck wasn’t so responsive with some of the aspects and ended up being as clunky as the graphics.
As for the presentation, I can’t fault it. Much like my regular go-to aestheric preference, Paratopic or even Mouthwashing, the graphics are superb, the voice acting throughout is mostly excellent with a few intentional exceptions, the dialogue is brilliant – if you like a good ol’ Kevin Smith dick and fart joke, or ‘Out of two, I’d give her one’ crass which, given the context of the world this successfully portrays, is spot-on and a deviant’s delight. So yes, I highly recommend The Skin Stapler. It was everything I want in a serial killer game that does wonders on double entredres and is great for skin.
