Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer review

I’m not sure when I first realised how much I love weird video games. Was it after forcing as many of my friends as possible to play Mr Moskeeto? Was it after meeting the cast of Deadly Premonition for the first time? I suppose we’ll never truly know, but as I get older I’m much more interested in games that do something utterly bizarre than polished games with a big budget. Despite dedicating my life to all things weird and wonderful, though, I must admit the premise of Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer caught me off guard.

The X Slayers are a powerful group of radical people who have sworn to fight the Psyko Sindikate. Our awesome protagonist Zane is a member of this badass group, and has pledged to defend the people of earth “even though they’re bleep-holes to us and don’t even deserve it”. When the Psykos find the Slayers’ secret base all bets are off, and only Zane remains to get revenge on these punks.

So you’re probably thinking this sounds like an awful story, and not necessarily that weird. Well, bizarrely, what makes this game interesting is actually the “developer”. This boomer shooter was masterfully crafted by the fictional character Zane Lofton from Hypnospace Outlaw. In that game he was your typical 90s teenage internet troll, and this is the video game he was drawing pictures of when he wasn’t bullying people online. Now in modern times Zane has found these old design documents, and enlisted a friend to help him make the game reality.

The end result is finally here. Slayers X is your typical DOOM/Quake inspired FPS, with 2d pixel enemies, big guns and a whole lot of gore. The pace is fast, the secrets are hidden, and the bad guys are plentiful. If you’ve played any of these classic shooters you’ll feel right at home, but at the very least Zane controls really well and is packing plenty of heat to deal with the Psykos.

You’d think given the fact that this game was “created” from the mind of a dickhead teen that it’d have some fairly outrageous weapons to use, but honestly they’re pretty standard. You start with double pistols, then as you progress through the levels you’ll find a shotgun, machine gun and rocket launcher to fill out your armoury. It’s for the most part a decent selection, but not necessarily a daring one.

There’s one gun that’s an exception to this rule though, and that’s the Sludge Launcher. This crossbow-like contraption fires globs of sludge which explode on impact like grenades, and also attracts rats which gnaw on the baddies. Some of the more standard guns have some interesting elements too, like the shotgun that fires glass instead of shells which means you can gather extra ammo by smashing shit up.

The enemies you use these violent tools on are, however, a little disappointing. There’s not necessarily a shortage of enemy types (from walking turds to demonic heads) but they’re all fairly stationary which makes fighting them feel a bit dull after a while. Even when the levels got fairly hectic later on I rarely felt worried for my health, and knew that as long as I just kept firing my explosive ordnance into the crowds I’d be okay.

The main reason for this game’s existence wasn’t to create the greatest FPS of all time, though, but rather to demonstrate what would happen if you allowed an awful teenage boy to create a video game. This means constant references to turds, one liners that disrespect the enemy’s mother and a whole lot of bragging about how cool the protagonist Zane is. I expected to absolutely love this downright stupid idea, but it turns out that even though it’s done ironically it’s still incredibly cringe-inducing to walk past shelves full of turd cereal and diarrhea burgers. The same can be said for the cutscenes that feature a main villain who constantly brags about banging your recently deceased mum. I guess I just don’t have a lot of nostalgia for my days of being an intolerable little shit.

There is one sin that Slayers X commits though that is far worse than any of the attempts at comedy. This sin is the fact that the glass shotgun feels way too weak, and shotguns are pretty much all I ever use in boomer shooters. It isn’t the only weapon that feels a bit pathetic either, which is a real shame.

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer is a ridiculous concept for a video game, and it turns out there’s a good reason for that. The teenage boy inspired comedy just didn’t land for me at all, and the boomer shooter gameplay is just okay. As a massive fan of Hypnospace Outlaw I was really expecting to love this bizarre spinoff, and to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.