After a seven-year hiatus, Blendo Games has returned with Skin Deep, a masterful immersive sim that strips away the genre’s typically serious facade to reveal what truly makes these games special: the freedom to be a complete goofball.
Beyond the hallmarks of player choice and non-linear level design lies the real appeal—creating chaos and pulling pranks on unsuspecting NPCs without consequences. Skin Deep embraces this philosophy wholeheartedly, becoming the ultimate celebration of videogame mischief.
Barefoot Commando
In Skin Deep, players step into the role of Nina Passedena, a MIAO Corp deep freeze insurance commando. Her mission: rescue crews of cats from invading pirates. Despite being the company’s top agent, Nina begins each mission without shoes, weapons, or equipment due to “complications of the deep freeze process.”
This Die Hard-inspired setup forces players to scavenge through intricate sandboxes, consistently outnumbered and outgunned yet somehow maintaining the upper hand. The game runs on the 21-year-old id Tech 4 engine, lending it a distinctive visual charm.
Creative Problem-Solving
What makes Skin Deep stand out is Blendo’s decision to start players with empty pockets. This constant resource scarcity pushes exploration and creative thinking. Nothing in the environment is without purpose—desk plants become sneeze bombs, electrical conduits transform into makeshift weapons, and broken glass creates deadly hazards.
The game’s Zoom Lens feature proves invaluable, allowing Nina to read notes, labels, and stickers from any distance. These environmental clues often provide humor while teaching players about object interactions without relying on tutorials.
Unpredictable Systems
The complex simulation systems at Skin Deep’s core often transform carefully planned strategies into chaotic comedy routines. One particularly memorable moment involved an attempt to eliminate a pirate named Franklin that spiraled into an absurd chain reaction:
A homing grenade bounced off Franklin’s head, he fired wildly, shattering a window, which caused his death by suffocation (while Nina survived thanks to her third lung implant). The needed key got sucked into space, hitting the emergency seal on its way out, which restored gravity, causing an air freshener to fall and create a flammable cloud.
Such layered interactions demonstrate Skin Deep’s commitment to systemic gameplay, where every object can potentially become a projectile or trigger for complex chain reactions.
Clever Design Choices
Skin Deep cleverly counters the common stealth game strategy of simply eliminating all enemies. The pirate enemies, called the Numb Bunch, have detachable heads that regenerate unless disposed of properly—specifically, by ejecting them into space. However, access to airlocks and other disposal methods is initially restricted, creating a natural progression through each level.
Players can temporarily incapacitate enemies by carrying their detached heads, but this consumes valuable inventory space. This elegant system encourages nonlethal approaches while maintaining combat as a viable option.
Sophisticated Systems
The game demonstrates thoughtful design throughout:
Guards possess just enough intelligence to create challenging stealth scenarios without feeling unfair.
Nina’s “Memory Palace” implant automatically records notes she finds, eliminating the need to memorize codes while still requiring exploration.
Basic actions like snapping fingers to attract guards, shouting to trigger alerts, or even spitting to press distant buttons add depth to interactions.
A “sneeze meter” prevents overreliance on vents, adding tension to extended stealth sequences.
Later mission phases provide weapons and traps for players who prefer a more aggressive approach.
Room for Improvement
Despite its excellence in stealth and systems, Skin Deep falls short in narrative and level variety. The story never evolves beyond saving cats and escaping ships, making the otherwise excellent levels blend together despite barge-specific gimmicks.
Nina’s personal storyline—tracking the Numb Bunch leader between missions—feels disconnected from her main assignments. While the spy-themed interludes feature Blendo’s signature environmental storytelling and mid-gameplay scene cuts, the payoff ultimately underwhelms.
Verdict: A Genre Standout
Skin Deep shines as an immersive sim that prioritizes fun over the genre’s typically dystopian themes. It delivers peak interactive problem-solving with surprising depth and weirdness, though it lacks the standout signature level that players might discuss for years to come. Nevertheless, it represents an impressive achievement in immersive sim design that players shouldn’t miss.