Headlander
Double Fine Productions · 2016 · Sci-fi, Action, Metroidvania, Platformer, Comedy
PC
Very Positive91% · 61174Metacritic
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About Headlander
✦ AI summary
You're a disembodied head piloting different robot bodies to uncover your past and humanity's fate in a retro-futuristic 70s-inspired world ruled by a deranged AI. Dock into hostile robotic hosts, blast through side-scrolling action sequences, and unravel the twisted truth about what happened to mankind in this wild head trip from Double Fine Productions.
You are the last known human in the universe, and all that's left of you is a disembodied head. Seeking clues to your fractured past, you must travel through a hostile world of machines using a special helmet that allows you to dock into and take control of any robotic host body. As you launch from one body to the next, you'll start to discover that things are not quite what they appear to be, and the fate of humanity has yet to be decided...
Fresh from Double Fine Productions, Headlander is a retro-futuristic, side-scrolling, action-adventure game set in a world inspired by 70’s science fiction. It is a world of automation, a utopia gone wrong in which all of humanity have transferred their minds into robotic imposter bodies and are ruled by a deranged computer. Brought to you by Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts, Broken Age) and Adult Swim Games (Duck Game, Jazzpunk), Headlander is guaranteed to be the ultimate head trip.
Fresh from Double Fine Productions, Headlander is a retro-futuristic, side-scrolling, action-adventure game set in a world inspired by 70’s science fiction. It is a world of automation, a utopia gone wrong in which all of humanity have transferred their minds into robotic imposter bodies and are ruled by a deranged computer. Brought to you by Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts, Broken Age) and Adult Swim Games (Duck Game, Jazzpunk), Headlander is guaranteed to be the ultimate head trip.
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What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Headlander became tedious quite fast. The graphic design is really interesting but the level layouts and overall gameplay leave a lot to be desired.
https://youtu.be/vYmDWJpqUSA Comedy is a great setup but the long empty corridors and finicky analog aiming saps the joy due to poor pacing.
Headlander is a game that leans heavily into the story and dialogue. These didn’t land for me, and all I was left with was a very basic Metroidvania. [h3]Story & Presentation[/h3] I found this game’s story incredibly dull due to its pacing. You start this game as a floating head, and have to go find your body in some spaceship. Half of this game is navigating that spaceship with little motivation outside of that. Your character doesn’t speak, just lightly emotes. That and a super video-gamey guide just telling you “go here” and “do that” is not enough real story to push you to do anything. The remaining half of the game is discovering that the robots on the spaceship you’re on are oppressed and you gotta go kill their oppressive overlord. Technically, they’re not robots, but people’s consciousness uploaded to robots. But, these are 80s robots going around talking like “beep-boop I’m a robot” and making puns. It’s really hard to believe they’re even people. You really just end up not caring about any character in this game. You also have this game dev’s (Double Fine) signature dialogue and humor. There’s a lot of it, and it’s (generally) well voiced, but barely any of it re…
What this is missing in gameplay and mechanics, it really makes up for in terms of artistic vision and design, with beautiful backgrounds and stylish thematic cohesion, managing to blend the sci-fi and 80s styles perfectly. The gameplay is simple but satisfying and while it does become quite chaotic in terms of amount of projectiles, it's still very manageable thanks to the upgrades and way the damage and health are divided among the different colors. Also appreciate how short of an experience it was, so that it never felt like it was overstaying its welcome. A pity there's only 2 bosses the whole game. BTW kudos for the "chess" section of the game because it was very clever.
One of Double Fine's other games. Let's just say I stick with Psychonauts and Tim's LucasArts classics.
A little bit unique but not for me.
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