Skin Deep

Play it on: Windows (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Burn someone alive with flammable hand sanitizer

I completely missed that Blendo Games was releasing something new this week. 2025 continues to be full of surprises. Billed as a sci-fi immersive sim, Skin Deep has you sneaking around a wonky, slapstick-comedy-filled space ship trying to take out a group of pirates. It’s garnered some rave reviews as well as some more lukewarm responses. PC Gamer called it an “indulgent masterclass in immersive sim shenanigans” while GamesRadar lauded it as “funny, never dull” and “one of this year’s must-play indie games.” But Digital Trends lamented some of the bugs and repetitiveness while The Guardian found the game’s humor too saccharine, calling it “Deus Ex for Disney adults.”

From Gravity Bones and Flotilla to Thirty Flights of Loving and Quadrilateral Cowboy, Blendo Games has a history of melding gameplay and storytelling in interesting ways, and I’m looking forward to digging into more of the game this weekend (I’ve only messed around with the first level so far). I suspect the overall sensibility might not hit for me either, but I can already see why some fans are calling it the immersive sim for imsim sickos between all of the options for stealthy maneuvering and dispatching pirates. I suspect the ever-bold Blendo still has some tricks up its sleeve. — Ethan Gach

And that wraps our picks for the weekend. Happy gaming!