Headlander is a funny little metroidvania from Double Fine where you play a disembodied head, flying around on a space station, trying to stop an evil computer from controlling humanity. When I first started playing the game, I somehow thought erroneously that it was going to have more of a puzzle slant to it than it ultimately did, but I really enjoyed my time with the game! With a good mix of exploration and combat and only some small gripes related to the controls, I’d recommend Headlander if you’re looking for a chill and very stylish adventure.
After a small introduction to your - mysteriously - disembodied head, you’re thrust into a story of rebellions, artificial intelligence and a human specie that uploaded itself in robotic bodies, far in the future. Trying to escape the “Shepard”, you fly your head through groovy locales, guided along by the voice of “Earl”, moving your head in all directions. The main thing your head can do is to vacuum up the head of other robots, devices and systems, and take over. Usually, you’ll take a humanoid color coded guard to be able to go through color coded doors, but you’ll also have to grab hold of other things to solve puzzles and advance the plot.
Moving the head around is just fine - it becomes even better when you unlock the boost upgrade - but I struggled with the controls in more hectic battle sequences. Because your character is very fragile and cannot fight, you’re usually grabbing on other robots with guns to go through combat sequences. Enemies are kinda precise, and albeit you can use cover, things quickly turn into a mess, and then it’s super easy to just remove your head from the robot you’re controlling while trying to aim or take cover, there are just too many buttons that each do something. Luckily, the game is really generous with checkpoints, although you might have to redo an entire puzzle.
On the exploration side, the map is really good at telling you places you haven’t gone, and there are a ton of powerups for each aspect of your character along the way, with some side quests peppered in as well! You can unlock upgrades on a small tree as well, and I found them interesting and useful. Sometimes rooms are hard to read because of all the style, but going around is really fun and this game really scratched my metroidvania itch.
All and all, don’t sleep on Headlander, it’s quite strange, but pretty interesting as well!
