{"id":1132488,"date":"2026-02-03T14:58:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/v6DaWu5nm9VLAtinp8pWTW"},"modified":"2026-02-03T14:58:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:58:51","slug":"immersive-sci-fi-fps-skin-deep-feels-like-prey-by-way-of-looney-tunes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/immersive-sci-fi-fps-skin-deep-feels-like-prey-by-way-of-looney-tunes\/","title":{"rendered":"Immersive sci-fi FPS Skin Deep feels like Prey by way of Looney Tunes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I see my quarry across the laundry room: two armed guards ready to put this whole place on high alert if they see me. I slip behind the out-of-order soap dispenser and unscrew the back. There\u2019s four bars of soap. Jackpot.<\/p>\n

Along the first patrol route, I slide a bar of soap. He slips and falls. I climb onto his back and smash his head into the glass washing machine doors until he\u2019s out cold. I decapitate him. The other guard sees it all and starts firing. I run at her poised to throw a can of black pepper\u2014it\u2019ll make her sneeze. But I forgot one thing: the soap. I slip and fall into my own trap. It seems like all is lost. But earlier, I dispensed some flammable hand sanitizer; in the chaos, a spark flies from the guard\u2019s gun and ignites it. She immediately explodes.<\/p>\n

That sort of chaos welled up every few minutes in Skin Deep, an open-ended, immersive sim-inspired FPS by Blendo Games, creators of Quadrilateral Cowboy<\/a> and similarly offbeat games.<\/p>\n

But while great imsims like Deus Ex and the recent Fallen Aces tend to focus on dynamic, high-octane gunfights and stealthy assassinations, Skin Deep drops the grit and embraces a more absurd sort of violence. While the game clearly has them, I never picked up a single gun in my time playing the game\u2019s demo, getting most of my kills by tripping enemies up on banana peels, throwing empty tuna cans at them, and bashing their heads into the nearest soap dispenser. This is all running on a port of id Tech 4, the engine used for Doom 3 and the original Prey, but I assume this is what John Carmack really had in mind all those years ago.<\/p>\n

When a fight breaks out, you have to successfully daze an enemy before they can be dispatched. You can just toss a bunch of space trash at them, but unless you have a good vantage point, you\u2019ll just be gunned down. The environment is your friend, and it\u2019s littered with objects that pack novel interactions with enemies or other objects.<\/p>\n

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\"Fighting<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Blendo Games)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You can scan an environment to highlight any interactables and read their fine print, describing whether they\u2019re prone to exploding, sneeze-inducing, flammable, and so on. This particular mechanic immediately highlights the game\u2019s appeal, transforming every mundane room into an arsenal of junk and cleaning materials.<\/p>\n

This will all help incapacitate an enemy, after which point you climb onto their back and violently ram them into the environment until they die. Their heads are automatically scooped into a device called a Skullsaver, which enemies can use to revive their allies\u2014assuming you don\u2019t dump it into a trash compactor, throw it into space, or flush it down the toilet first.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more up your own sleeves, though, if you\u2019re completely unarmed. You can peer around corners to map a sneaky route, snap your fingers to attract enemies to a particular area, go prone and hide, and even cough blood on command when injured. I didn\u2019t find a use for this, but it\u2019s more expectorating than I get done in a traditional FPS. The game is pretty clear that you\u2019re unarmored and barefoot, too, so watch your step for broken glass and be ready to pick bullets out of your flesh in a firefight. No one said insurance work was easy.<\/p>\n

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\"Fighting<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Blendo Games)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, this is all about insurance. You play as Nina Pasadena, a secret operative acting on behalf of an intergalactic insurance company, saving cube-headed talking cats from space pirates. It\u2019s all very grungy and eccentric, leaning as much on its derelict space cruisers as it does on visual gags and neon purple. The humor is never obnoxious, though, despite the over-the-top bent; a scene where a patrol of guards repeatedly walk into a wall of fire, respawn, and walk into it again during the tutorial, all the while remarking how late they\u2019ll be to this whole space piracy thing, was pretty funny. Frankly, Nina Pasadena\u2019s quips and feline friends are a nice break from the gruff, scowling, didn\u2019t-ask-for-this of it all with protagonists like Adam Jensen and Garrett.<\/p>\n

And given the average imsim\u2019s penchant for ridiculous interactions, like Deus Ex\u2019s LAM ladders or Prey\u2019s mug transformations, Skin Deep\u2019s cheeky, colorful style fits like a glove. When you\u2019re saving secret agent cats in space, it\u2019s hard to picture a combat solution so absurd that it\u2019d feel out of place. I was glad I wasn\u2019t able to shoot or sneak my way through the demo\u2019s setpieces like I might in a similar FPS. It feels like a game where desperate improvised solutions are the meat and potatoes, and a calculated assault that goes exactly as intended should be a pleasant surprise.<\/p>\n

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