Game Review: Christmas Mutilator (Xbox Series X)

Merry Christmas! Deck the halls with blood, guts, and entrails. It’s the most violent time of the year and the world of video games rarely treats us to competent horror games based around the festive period. Happily, every so often, along comes one that just about manages it, even if it’s not something that will live long in the memory. Christmas Mutilator delivers horror wrapped up in a Christmas bow, and with cool retro aesthetics.

Now, retro visuals and gameplay elements are hardly cause for celebration, but with Christmas Mutilator, the stylistic choices enhance the experience. This is a slasher game, where you are the potential victim, going the retro route makes sense. Although it is fair to say that you might need to turn the brightness up on your TV if do turn on all the filters.

Set at a remote cabin in the icy and snowy woods over Christmas, players take on the role of Amelia, who is waiting for her husband and kids to come home for dinner. Then the phone rings and a voice asks her what her favourite Christmas scary movie is. Well, actually, it’s her husband calling to reveal that he and the kids are stuck in a storm.

Amelia is home alone, and someone knows this. The Christmas Mutilator has targeted her and unlike Kevin McAllister, there’s no time to set traps. Not that it would matter as Kevin didn’t have to deal with someone wanting to chop him into little pieces. The wet bandits would have been a lot more successful had they gone that route.

As Amelia, players must find a way to escape to safety, while avoiding a killer who wants to place her severed head on the top of the Christmas tree.

Sort of.

It’s a visceral game, with some cool looking gore, that relies on tension to create its scares, but the reality is that outright horror is not the game’s strong point. The killer’s ferocity does make for a heart-racing experience, but in the few times you must face off against them, it’s basically instant death. This is not ‘run and hide’ gameplay, it’s ‘run and die’ gameplay in extremely linear fashion.

There is one way to play the game, one way to beat the game, and all six endings can be seen within 45 minutes, if not less. This is very disappointing, even if the retro visuals and sound fit the vibe. The latter, in particular, proving to be one of the strongest aspects of the experience, enhancing the tension and creating even more foreboding atmosphere.

Alas, while all of this makes for a mostly positive experience, there’s no ignoring the flaws with the game and some are glaring. The first part of the game is so dull, and collecting firewood in the forest is made to feel like nothing more than padding. In addition, the controls are sluggish, a stamina meter is just an annoyance, and some of the screen tearing makes the game look really cheap.

Still, it’s hard to be too harsh on Christmas Mutilator as effort has gone into making it look, feel, and sound both retro and festive. I liked it, and if you like these types of games, so will you. Now, all together! Slashing through the snow…