Christmas Massacre (2021) Game Review – Someone’s Halls Are About To Get Decked

Posted on by Jim Cox

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Christmas Massacre is a 2021 seasonal-themed stealth slasher, developed and published by Puppet Combo and Vague Scenario LLC. The game takes inspiration from the gore-drenched horror films of the 70s and 80s such as the Silent Night, Deadly Night series, Black Christmas (1974), and Christmas Evil (1980) to name a few.

Christmas is coming and Larry’s got a big problem—his Christmas tree is telling him to KILL! But whose side is the tree really on? And can he trust what he’s hearing?

 

Taking the festive season typically associated with joy and warmth and twisting it into a nightmare of murder and mutilation, Christmas Massacre takes the seldom-seen route of video games and places the player in the shoes of the merciless killer rather than their potential victim. While the story consists of a blend of slasher tropes and obscure humour, the narrative maintains a dead-pan delivery throughout—never playing into its bizarre nature.

While the game may appear to be action-orientated, Christmas Massacre relies on stealth as its core mechanic. Although your victims can’t defend themselves from your attacks, their escape from the location will fail the level, and as the mere glance at you causes indescribable terror in your unsuspecting prey, remaining hidden is the key to a successful spree.

 

Following the typical style that Puppet Combo is synonymous with, Christmas Massacre preserves the chunky polygon style of the PS1 era for its graphics, delivering a sufficiently nostalgic recreation of the games of yesteryear that’s sure to strike a chord with gamers of a certain age (Goddamn we are old). Additionally, with optional visual settings in the game such as CTR scan-lines and video format, the game can look as crispy and evocative as the player desires, but these can be turned off entirely if so desired (though it does negate some of the intended atmosphere).

Though Christmas Massacre is a relatively short game, only consisting of 8 levels excluding the tutorial, the game makes up for this the old-fashioned way by being incredibly difficult at times. Indeed, this is not necessarily a game for casual gamers, becoming surprisingly frustrating with the spike in difficulty early on. Placement of the player’s victims can become obnoxious in the latter half of the game, becoming increasingly difficult to commit your vicious crimes undetected, alerting the entire map and causing a mad rush to an exit in hopes that you can clean up the rest of your targets before failure. Furthermore, with the player’s aim being slightly off-center to the cross-hair, it can be misleading as to where an attack will land, further exasperating the annoyance of a mission failure.

 

Moreover, I managed to experience a unique glitch when I soft-locked myself after the first level, managing to lose the only available weapon to the player at this early point of the game. After completing the tutorial and first level, I closed the game to take notes (which is my job, sir) but upon reopening the game and beginning the next level, I was stripped of the knife and had no way to progress—only fixed by deleting the save and beginning from the start.

Despite these problems, Christmas Massacre does feature an incredibly addictive game-play loop, offering a fair amount of replayability through the implementation of a scoring system, as well as several hidden outfits scattered throughout levels.

 

A unique and twisted take on the holiday season, Christmas Massacre succeeds in delivering an enjoyable, albeit, difficult stint as the murderous maniac. Whilst it may not be for the faint of heart or easily frustrated, fans of horror games and retro-throwback enthusiasts seeking a festive scare will find plenty to enjoy in this gratuitous indie gem.

Christmas Massacre (2021) is available on PC, Playstation, and Xbox now

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