Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut [Xbox]

Blue Wizard Digital’s Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut is a fantastically horror-filled, fun puzzle game where you play as the antagonist of a bunch of video-store movies, killing dumb teenagers, old grannies and cops that get in your way. It plays in to all of the horror tropes well, and this combined with the relatively short levels makes for a really fun and interesting time. It has a very 80s-slasher vibe throughout, with a lot of Friday the 13th references - which is pretty cool, especially considering they went on to do a Friday the 13th title very similar in style to this, next.

As you start the game, you are given the option of setting a gore level depending on how much blood you can handle. This can be further adjusted in the menu, to allow full control over the level of blood you see. This is a really great addition, as the simple style of puzzle game works brilliantly for kids, but some of the kill scenes might be a bit disturbing for some younger kids, despite the cartoon-y comical nature. As the game progresses, the challenge steadily increases - introducing you to new mechanics such as light-switches, SWAT teams and cats. It’s really fun to work your way through, and with a move-counter on some levels it really pushes you to think outside of the box as to how you can pull off all the kills in a minimal number of moves.

Visually, Slayaway Camp has a really nice look, with everything having a blocky style and a fun, cartoony vibe during kill animations. Cutscenes are really well done, further adding to the movie-rental theme and giving a little bit of back story for each “movie” as you play them out. When selecting a level, you pick a VHS off the shelf, and you can even flip these over to read the blurb on the back, describing the movie. Little extra details like that are always good, as they could just as easily have made it so you couldn’t look at the back of the VHS instead, but going that little bit further shows their love for the project.

The audio is also well done, with a very minimal 80s style horror soundtrack that changes between movies and scenes, but has a consistent low-growl which gives off a feeling of dread, and is splattered by the screams and yells of your enemies, as well as the thudding of your Killer sliding from one end of the room to another. The cats however, were the bane of my existence. The shrill shrieking of a cat when you go too close to it (or worse, accidentally kill it) is ever so slightly infuriating after so many times.

You gain coins through getting successful bonus kills at the end of each level, and these coins can be spent on additional kill animations (called Gorepacks), as well as new Killers to utilise that all look fantastic. The Killers are unlocked via Mystery Boxes, which cost 1000 Coins each, but will grant you one new Killer at random. This adds a little bit of surprise to things, and makes it more likely that you’ll try out each new character rather than just purchasing the ones you like the look of. They are all heavily inspired by various horror/slasher movies, and can be used in any level of the game. There’s also the option of spending your Coins to get hints to solve puzzles if you find yourself stuck at any point, but with enough attempts you should be able to get through most levels without needing to splurge.

Available for £13.59 on the Xbox Store, Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut is a fantastic brain workout if you enjoy puzzle-based games, and the horror theme works brilliantly. Sadly, I did run into an issue within one level (Slayaway Camp 8, NC-17 Levels: Episode 5, Central Park Slasher) in that it is bugged - the police chopper is stuck at the front of the screen upon loading, and the screen remains dark. I am only able to move (in any direction) one single time, and then it jams. I can’t see any way to fix this, so I reached out to Blue Wizard to let them know - so I’ll update you if anything changes on that front. Aside from that one issue, the game ran well, only suffering a slight dip in frame rate on occasion when the end portal opened up for some of the busier levels. Overall, I had a lot of fun with Slayaway Camp, and would recommend you check it out if you’re looking for a new puzzle game to pass the time!

In the end, we decided to give Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut the Collecting Asylum rating of 8.5/10.

Have you played Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Blue Wizard Digital for the Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut Xbox review code!