Headlander: Playing With Your Helmet Head

Metroidvania games have a special place in my heart. The way it's designed is with the focus on two of my favorite aspects of any sort of games: exploration and upgrades. Unfortunately, games of this genre are pretty difficult to pull off, so there aren't many of  'em out there. The best games are the ones which the genre was named after Metroid and Castlevania. Still, there has been a couple of good ones here and there, but none of them reached the excellence of level design, combat, and boss-fights that both Metroid and Castlevania offered through the years.

Headlander is developed by Doublefine. A developer well known for their adventure games, and other more experimental games such as Brütal Legend and Psychonauts. So seeing them tackling such a genre is pretty exciting, especially since all of their games are full of personality.

Headlander is set in the far off future where humans have escaped mortality but paid the price with their own bodies by transferring their consciousness to robots. Furthermore, humans made AIs that handled all their day-to-day chores, freeing themselves for pleasures, but in the process, they lost control. All of that narrative is written through the lens of Hollywood 70s sci-fi along with Doublefine's undeniable charm.

You begin the game by waking up and realizing that you're the last human with a real physical body, but not a full one. What's left of you is your head preserved in a helmet, and powered to float and thrust through space. Your mission is to take control back from whoever is running things and give humans back their true form. The story and the characters are what you expect from a Double Fine production: filled with charm, details, and character. Each character you meet or take control of has, at least, a slight detail to give it character. You take control of bystanders and press B some dance, others fart, and so on and so forth.

The gameplay is as odd as the story it's set in. Mainly, the game is played in a 2D perspective but with 3D graphics. You float through space and can vacuum robot's heads off, replace them with your own, and take control of their bodies. Different robots have different abilities and can give you access to different places, coupled with the Metroidvania level design, the gameplay mechanics are a match made in heaven.

The combat is basically based on you taking control of robots and shooting other robots. You press the right trigger to shoot and use the right stick to target, but for more precision shots you hold the left trigger and it will show you where your laser shoot and where it will bounce and so on, and depending on the body you have, the laser maybe just a regular straight shot, a double, triple, zigzag, etc.You also have access to a melee attack which also changes depending on the body you have.

The upgrade system relies on you gathering resources and investing in a tree. The main issue I had with the tree is that the cool fun upgrades are way too far and you will gain access to most of them after completing at least 75% of the game. Also, I'm more of a fan of the Metroidvania's which you acquire an upgrade or a totally new ability through exploration. In that style, the game will stay fresh since the level design is based on those upgrades.

Headlander will take you from 7 to 10 hours to finish. The developers tried to keep it fresh and they were successful at that to some level. The only part that I felt the game stretching was the middle. Your objective will be to disable four locks or so by running through the same areas. Other than that, the rest of the game is awesomely varied with great ideas being introduced before you feel stop enjoying the one you're in.

Without great boss-fights Metroidvanias are like KFC without skin; they just never climax. Headlander has a couple of bosses through the game with some fun ideas, but they never really reach Metroid or Castlevania level bosses. The bosses in Headlander are few and lack both presentation and challenge.

Another aspect that made both Metroid and Castlevania such amazing games is the sound track. Headlander took the quirky approach in its sound track with mostly forgettable tracks all throughout the game. But when it comes to the voice acting, the game may have had few characters but the VO work was excellent, especially when it comes to the door security.

In closing, Headlander is one of those cool games you pick up and drop off on a weekend. It's short, sweet and a Metroidvania. Not many of those around, and in the case of Headlander it's coupled with Double Fine's charm and funny story that will leave you in the end with a hilarious twist to remember.