Doom: The Dark Ages releases next week, and with it the realisation that Doom Guy has come a long way since the murder of his beloved rabbit Daisy at the hands of hell. While FPS Pigface is naturally a genre descendant of Doom, I cannot say for certain if the evil rabbit that commands you to go do sledgehammer murder in its Itch.io combat demo is a descendant of Daisy. Either way, it’s an ominous critter. “You know what you did to deserve this,” says the rabbit. A free sledgehammer? Thanks rabbit! I knew I was good this week.
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Ah, so you’ve actually got a bomb collar around your neck. I knew not to trust a creature who’d so willingly part with quality tools. You’re immediately thrown into ramshackle kill gauntlets, first with the hammer, then with guns. You gobble down morphine syringes to heal. Everyone you fight wears a mask and no shirt, lured here by the promise of a fat payday if they can kill you. Guns feel tight and good to use, but the act of actually shooting people feels oddly guilty.
These sort of snuffy, Manhunt vibes can go either way, but Pigface embracing the bleak cruelty of its premise works, I think, in service of a hopeless, grimy atmosphere. It’s been a while since a game made me feel genuinely nauseous, but art that hits you right in the stomach is effective art all the same. It reminds me, if anything, of a Paratopic that’s decided to wallow in the lethal nastiness of game guns instead of deconstructing them. There’s a little I Am Your Beast in there too.
The combat demo has been floating around for a bit now, but the game recently received full funding from Dread Delusion and White Knuckle publisher DreadXP, and is also coming to Steam at some unspecified point in the future.
