‘It Has My Face’ Is Simultaneously Thrilling and Terrifying, Feeling Like a Morbidly Fun Fever Dream (Demo Impressions)

Fun fact: Did you know that It Has My Face is published by Behaviour Interactive? I found that out minutes before writing this up, actually. And with the demo for this future indie superstar evoking The Thing, Hitman, and Assassin’s Creed‘s woefully abandoned multiplayer modes? I should’ve known. Let me set the scene for you because I remember my first round vividly.

To start, you peek into a mirror to get a good look at your randomly generated pixel art character. Between skin color, hair, clothes, and other minor variations, you’ll have more than enough to keep track of while you search for your murderous doppelganger. The It Has My Face demo keeps it simple: find your exact lookalike and get them before they get you. Which sounds easy until you factor everything else in. But we’ll get there.

So, I have a handlebar mustache, a tattered green shirt, and a bald head. Well, the game got the “bald” part right, at least. First things first: I needed a weapon. Otherwise, my clone can just stroll on up and shank me to death where I stand. In It Has My Face, you must find a weapon crate to have a fighting chance. In the demo, there was a small roster of rotating life-enders: a revolver, a bomb gun, dynamite, a knife, and a bat. If you take a chance on the demo, here’s the best advice I can give you: Do. Not. Use. The. Bat.

‘it has my face’ knows the key to effective horror

As an anxious, paranoid mess, I found the nearest weapon crate and got the revolver. Cool! But now, there’s a sea of NPCs walking around. Some of them share my characteristics, which sucks because a few of them will deliberately turn their back to you, you’ll blast them, it turns out they’re clean-shaven when you clearly aren’t, and in your panicked stupor, the clone slits your throat. That’s the kind of villainy It Has My Face gets into.

Even better? Outside of melee weapons, you only have one chance to make sure you have the right target. There are multiple weapon crates strewn about the map, but remember: you’re being actively pursued, too. I got lucky and shot my evil twin, by the way. In a blind panic, sure, but it’s about the destination, not the journey!

When you successfully take a clone out in It Has My Face, you head to the post-round progression screen. Here, you receive points if you meet certain goals. Destroying only your clone with no other casualties, backtracking to confuse your clone, doing the dirty deed quickly — there’s a lot to strive for. The trick, however, is that if you lose a round before your progression bar fills up, it resets. For the It Has My Face demo, progression came in the form of a tease of the full game’s narrative. It seems that you’ll be able to unlock weapons and mutators as you play, too. Oh, right, forgot to tell you about the fun, random effects that could happen.

if only life were so simple, eh?

Sometimes, if you’re doing too well, It Has My Face says, “Oh! Well, then, gamer, how about we throw you into complete darkness with just a dingy flashlight?” Or how about the “Hit Man” mutator where, in addition to the clone, there’s also a sneaky hitman that tries to send you to the pearly gates?

What about the “Delusional” mutator, where every NPC has a knife? But the fun doesn’t stop there — no! Maybe It Has My Face will feel like changing your hairstyle every couple of seconds, forcing you to keep frantically looking at your mirror. In this game, taking your eye off the ball for a fraction of a second could spell disaster and doom.

And though I won’t spoil anything, the It Has My Face demo’s story-centric teases? Surprisingly engaging! There’s so much to the moment-to-moment gameplay that I guess I assumed the story wouldn’t be as interesting. That’s what I get for being a cynic, huh?

if ‘the thing’ and ‘hitman’ had a creepy eldritch hellspawn progeny, it’d be ‘it has my face’

It Has My Face is paranoia personified. I can’t tell you how many innocents went to meet their maker because I haphazardly threw dynamite into a crowd. Or went to raise my gun at a clone, and a nearby officer didn’t like that. Or every NPC briefly turned into my clone, and in my desperate flailing, I was cut down before I even knew what happened.

It’s beautiful, unapologetic chaos. And it’s going to have multiplayer. So, if you want to get in on the action? You can download the demo for yourself! But don’t blame me if you end up having nightmares about being pursued in a large crowd by someone who looks suspiciously familiar…