The world comes back into focus through a haze of pain and the coppery taste of your own blood. Your head feels like it’s been split open—and it has. A phone rings somewhere in the abandoned warehouse you’ve woken up in, an insistent, screeching demand. This is how PIGFACE, the debut shooter from solo developer titolovesyou and publisher DreadXP, introduces you to its world: not with a gentle tutorial, but with a splitting headache and a death sentence. You are Exit, a terrible woman whose awful past has finally caught up to her, and the voice on the phone has a bomb drilled into your skull. The job is simple: kill, steal, and survive. Or don’t.
PIGFACE is not a game that whispers; it screams. It’s a raw, unfiltered shot of adrenaline that feels ripped from the gritty, late-90s thrillers that inspired it. Part Hotline Miami, part Manhunt, and part Max Payne, this is a kinetic, ultra-violent FPS that is as stylish as it is sadistic. We played the Early Access version on PC, and while it may be short, the hour it offers is one of the most intense, promising, and visceral experiences of 2025.
A Contract Written in Blood
The premise of PIGFACE is brutally efficient. You are a bad person, and now you’re being blackmailed by people who are arguably worse. They know what you’ve done, and with a remote-detonated explosive nestled against your brain, you have no choice but to comply. Each mission is a contract delivered with cold, impersonal menace. Infiltrate a location, eliminate a target, steal an item—the objectives are a means to an end. The real story is told in the blood you spill and the chaos you create.
The game perfectly captures a grimy, pre-millennium tension, a Fight Club-esque vibe of societal decay and personal desperation. There are no heroes here. The world is dirty, filled with scumbags, and you are simply the most effective scumbag in the room. This simple, powerful setup is the perfect canvas for the gameplay, stripping away narrative baggage to focus on what matters: the kill.
The Symphony of Carnage
At its heart, PIGFACE is a first-person Hotline Miami. It’s a combat sandbox that marries the tactical, cautious approach of a stealth game with the frenetic, explosive energy of a classic boomer shooter. You begin a level with your chosen loadout, but plans rarely survive first contact. One moment you’re methodically dispatching enemies with a silenced pistol, the next you’re frantically running through corridors, shotgun blasting, praying you find a hammer before your ammo runs dry.
The gunplay is magnificent—visceral, weighty, and utterly satisfying. Every bullet tears through the game’s pixelated, low-fi enemies with a shower of gore. The arsenal is extensive, allowing you to purchase everything from sledgehammers and landmines to assault rifles and grenade launchers from a black market dealer. This freedom of approach is the game’s greatest strength. Do you go in quietly, using the open-ended level design to your advantage? Or do you kick down the door and let the bullets do the talking? The choice is yours, and the game is brilliant at reacting to your chaos. Shoving an enemy into a wall of spikes or watching a well-placed grenade turn a room into a Jackson Pollock of viscera never gets old.
A World Drenched in Grime
PIGFACE is a masterclass in aesthetics. It perfectly channels the look and feel of its inspirations, creating a world that feels dangerous and lived-in. The visuals are reminiscent of games like Condemned: Criminal Origins and Manhunt—dark, oppressive, and coated in a layer of filth. This isn’t a game about pristine graphics; it’s about atmosphere, and PIGFACE has it in spades.
The levels, though few in this Early Access build, are cleverly designed to encourage experimentation. They offer multiple paths and verticality, allowing for tactical repositioning and creative problem-solving. While the enemy AI is currently one of the game’s weaker points—often lacking awareness and showing inconsistent reactions to sound—the raw thrill of the combat more than makes up for it. The environments themselves are a weapon, filled with hazards and opportunities for environmental kills that add a strategic layer to the mayhem.
The Scars of Early Access
Let’s be clear: PIGFACE is an Early Access title, and it wears that badge openly. The most significant criticism is its current length. With only five levels, including the tutorial, the game can be completed in about an hour. Just as you’re mastering the mechanics and sinking your teeth into its bloody world, the credits roll, leaving you desperately wanting more. It’s a testament to the quality of that hour that its brevity feels like such a tease.
Beyond the short runtime, there are other small cracks in the foundation. The AI, as mentioned, could use a significant overhaul to make stealth more reliable and firefights more dynamic. Enemies can sometimes ignore a sniper shot whizzing past their head, only to instantly pinpoint your location through a wall moments later. These are the expected growing pains of a game in development, and given the polish on display in the core mechanics, there’s every reason to believe they will be addressed as development continues.
A Promise Sealed with a Bullet
Even with its current limitations, PIGFACE is an easy recommendation. The asking price gets you an hour of some of the most engaging, stylish, and satisfying FPS gameplay in recent memory. It’s a project with an incredibly strong vision and a gameplay loop that feels polished to a mirror shine. The foundation here is not just solid; it’s exceptional. You aren’t just buying the game as it is, but investing in what it is poised to become: a modern classic in the retro-shooter genre.
Developer titolovesyou has captured lightning in a bottle, creating a game that feels both nostalgic and refreshingly new. It’s a brutal, exhilarating ride from start to finish, and we are eagerly awaiting the next contract.
Pros:
- Incredibly visceral, satisfying, and polished gunplay.
- Masterful, grimy, late-90s atmosphere and art style.
- Excellent blend of tactical stealth and frenetic shooter action.
- Clever level design encourages replayability and experimentation.
- Strong, confident vision, even in Early Access.
Cons:
- Extremely short, with only about an hour of content currently.
- Enemy AI is simplistic and inconsistent.
- Leaves you on a cliffhanger, desperately wanting more.
PIGFACE: PIGFACE is a declaration of intent. It's a raw, violent, and impeccably stylish shooter that delivers an unforgettable, albeit brief, experience. It’s a bloody love letter to the gritty thrillers of a bygone era, and while it's currently more of a prologue than a full story, it’s one of the most compelling and promising Early Access titles on the market. Just get the job done. – Obsidian
