Game Atelier broke into the indie scene many years ago with their fantastic take on the Wonder Boy series, the magnificent Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. They took their sweet time to come up with their next project, taking as much time as Team Cherry did to develop the sequel to Hollow Knight, Silksong. In Game Atelier’s case, they went with something completely different from their debut project. Gone is the colorful, cartoony, 2D world of Monster Boy. Let’s talk about the gritty, polygonal, sci-fi world of Otherskin.

We are in completely new territory with an action adventure game about a scientist who volunteered to explore a desolate planet, Vandermire, in order to look for a cure/solution to a plague currently destroying the galaxy, only known as “the Corruption”. Upon reaching Vandermire, which was once the homeworld of an advanced civilzation, she gets attacked by Corrupted monsters, but somehow, her suit saves her from the plague, also granting her the ability to morph the DNA of downed enemies with her own, granting her momentary abilities such as flight, a grappling hook tongue, time manipulation, and so on.

If that premise sounds somewhat familiar, then don’t worry, you’re not alone. From the moment I booted the game up and was presented with its initial exposition dump, I was reminded of the plots seen in Metroid Fusion and Metroid Dread. Otherskin doesn’t shy away from the Metroid influences, and its first few minutes made it look like it was also going to pay homage to Metroid Prime (albeit in third person), but Game Atelier went on another, simpler route. This game is level-based, with levels being accessed from a hub world. You don’t collect abilities like in a metroidvania, as you can only use them inside a specific level. Even though the game is linear in its story progression, its level design and overall gameplay reminded me a bit of platformers from the Nintendo 64 days.

The gameplay loop might sound incredibly creative and expansive, but in reality, you will usually acquire from three to four abilities per level, a good chunk of them being duplicates from other levels, such as the hover wings. I didn’t particular mind that approach, to be honest. Otherskin might look like an expensive game, but it’s clearly an indie in terms of its budget. The developers did not try to bite more than they could chew, with levels lasting for about twenty-ish minutes, a bit more if you decide to look for extra materials which allow you to upgrade your weapons. The platforming is decent, albeit a bit basic, and the puzzles thrown into each level aren’t particularly inventive, but are rarely dull or overly impossible. Just a decent middle ground all around.

I don’t think I can say the same about the combat, which felt just a bit clunky. Again, not bad per se, just shallow and a bit buggy. What hinders it a bit, besides its simplicity, is the game’s unoptimized performance. Otherskin might occasionally look impressive, with some breathtaking environments and lighting, but its framerate just isn’t very stable. I don’t know if that is an engine issue or just bugs that need to be patched out, but the framerate would constantly fluctuate, even when I decided to turn on the Performance Mode on DLSS. The janky performance would hinder the somewhat precise aiming, which, coupled with how aggressive the enemy AI is, resulted in a handful of deaths. Thankfully, Otherskin is very lenient with its checkpoint system: you can die over and over again, just losing some resources. Enemies don’t respawn alongside you.

All in all, Otherskin is a game that is more interesting than the sum of its parts. Everything it has to offer, from its setting to its combat and DNA-absorbing gimmick, is… decent. But add all of these elements up, and you get a pretty enjoyable action adventure that doesn’t overstay its welcome nor tries to bite more than it can chew. A handful of annoying framerate-related issues and the occasional bug frustrated me, but that’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a few fixes and optimization patch. It’s got some good ideas, and fumbles in some areas, and at the end of the day, it its still worth your time.

Graphics: 7.5 The framerate and optimization might be a bit wonky, but Otherskin does quite a lot with its small budget in terms of its visuals. Enemy designs are decent, lighting effects are good, and environments can be occasionally breathtaking.	Gameplay: 7.0 Using morphs to improve your traversal abilities sounds groundbreaking, but it’s just a handful of powerups per level, coupled with the occasional decent puzzle to solve. Combat is a bit too shallow, however.
Sound: 6.5 Both the soundtrack and voice acting are bang-average. In no moment did either of them impress me, or irritate me. The quintessential middle of the road.	Fun Factor: 7.5 A game that is more interesting than the sum of its parts. I like that it didn’t try to bite more than it could chew: it’s level-based, somewhat compact, and straight to the point. It’s got some good ideas, and fumbles in some areas. All in all, I had a fun time with it.
Final Verdict: 7.5

Otherskin is available now on PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Otherskin was provided by the publisher.