(Played on Steam Deck with English text. Simply another case of podcast featuring the creator sold me on the game...)
Calling Skin Deep “Die Hard in space” can be somewhat misleading. The game is not exactly a one-location action thrill ride for starter, it is composed of more than a dozen levels. While the 1988 summer blockbuster was seen as anti-Thetis to James Bond, the 2025 game embrace the camp of that franchise’ Roger Moore era to a certain degree. Either way, being an immersive sim, Skin Deep sure provide its players the fantasy of being in those films more than any of those licensed trend chasers in the first-person shooter genre ever could.
One plays Nina Pasadena, an insurance commando, in Skin Deep. Nina would be put in cryo-sleep on spaceships, only to wake up when said ships are boarded by pirates and the crew detained. Then Nina is tasked to repel boarders and rescue the crew (Who are all cats with cube heads like NPC in previous Branden Chen joints. Yep, “save the cat” is not only the saving grace of protagonist here, it’s also the goal of the game.) by any mean necessary.
The player is equipped an inventory of 5, which would not be enough for everything while anything would take up one slot there. Keys for opening doors and liberate the cats both take up a slot. The walkie-talkie for fooling enemies only three times also take up a slot. Suffice to say, this is a resource player got to manage.
The inspirations one Mr. Brandon Chen took from well-acclaimed and more expansive immersive simulators are obvious, though some are reversed. Take the in-game respawn points for player in Bioshock for example, those are for enemies in Skin Deep. The reverse certain added tension since while the enemy is back, the resource player spent on taking them out would not appear again. So, player got to space their enemies’ heads to get rid of them for good, as far as the level is concerned. And one enemy head also takes up one slot in the inventory, by the way. Then there is the save points from Alien Isolation, which would even be shut down during player revisits to the 13 free roam levels after the credits.
For comedic and encouraging stealth reasons, the player is never armed when starting a level. It’s usually about taking out enemies with environment and items or pick their pockets for key item then avoid combat. Improvise when one’s plan goes awry is part of the fun. Taking calculated risk is the way to go, like triggering the alert deliberately, draw a Swordfish drone out and take its blades for combat. Items are either used to whack with the right trigger or throw with left trigger to aim then right trigger. And be care when you got a gun, just point and shoot since hold the left trigger would cause one to throw the gun away…
Vent crawling is a must for anything considered as “Die Hard clone”, but Skin Deep goes the extra mile to not giving player character any shoe. One would snooze if they move for a certain distance in the vents, though I never reached the point to attract enemy attention. I did bleed out once due to glass in the foot though, for such carelessness the game offered one second chance per level since Nina does have an implant in her lung. Used properly, it can be positively shocking to enemy boarders. The same implant also allows Nina to space walk without a space suit, which is useful in the safely spacing some enemies.
After a late card title (3 into a total of 14 levels or about one hour into the game), saving all the cats in a level would reward player with the “Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho!” moment. Why arm Nina then? Well, a Wellerman humming ship would come, not to bring sugar, tea nor rum, but 3 heavily armed and armored hostiles than can only be repelled by the game’s 3 types of firearms (Pistol, automatic rifle and pump-action shotgun) or 3 types of explosives. From there the stage would be over either when by Nina take their key to steal their ship or killing all hostiles on the ship.
The 14 levels do have a nice sense of escalation. As later levels might start with vents, air-locks, garbage dump (For spacing enemy heads repeatedly while not destroying toilets or glass windows on board) and glass windows barred, only through sneaky exploration one can find codes to unlock those again. The final real level can be a pain in the ass with save points too few and far between (Actually “between” with only 2.), though nothing the game threw at me was too frustrating.
Mr. Chen’s signature jump cuts in first person are present in the game, during the game’s tutorial level and pure story sequences. The game does also have flairs Mr. Chen’s joints never had before. Like SAG members’ voice acting thanks to Annapurna Interactive’s conncetion. On the interactive front, environmental hazards caused by the players would be introduced like a cast member with text on screen. This would remind player one enemy is taken out, when that enemy is not in player’s sight.
Powered by id Tech 4, Skin Deep runs mostly fine on Steam Deck, though some lighting effects would slow the game down. Firefights can also drag the framerate, but those are thankfully brief.
As an immersive sim made with much smaller budget, Skin Deep feels unique to its more expansive counterpart. Like the lack of a magical takedown button, the game encourages thinking without emboldening players too much. But it’s only the rough edge one can put up with, while glitches like disappearing key items can frustrate. Overall, with surprisingly good spaceship lay out design and tongue-in-cheek tone, Skin Deep is a ride I found worth taking.