In retro gorefest The Lacerator there are as many solutions as you have limbs to lose

rockpapershotgun.com:

Earlier this week there was some minor Discourse about the removal of the Erotica photography tag from the Dead Rising remaster. Some readers characterised this as a familiar species of cultural hypocrisy regarding video games - emphasising violence is A-OK, but for the love of god, don't mention sex. Good news, those people: Dread XP's latest horror signing The Lacerator has both. It casts you as hirsute 1980s porn star Max - surname not given in press release, but presumably something like Jackin' or Girth - who has been abducted by a large scary individual called the Lacerator.

The Lacerator is as good at Lacerating as Max is at shagging. If he catches you trying to leave his sordid, trap-filled hideout, he'll try to chop your appendages off. Losing a limb isn't game-over, however: it just seals off certain routes and approaches, forcing you to improvise. It's the basis for a schlocky, Manhunt-adjacent escape room experience, which seemingly offers at least four ways around any given obstacle.

There's no release date yet, but there is a pre-alpha demo. I've just had a quick go, and while I have yet to meet the Lacerator - a roaming nemesis in the tradition of, well, Nemesis from Resident Evil - I am already in need of a new left arm, thanks to a guillotine surprise I really should have anticipated. The branching possibilities of dismemberment aside, The Lacerator feels like an old school survival horror with authentically tanky handling. You can play from a modern, over-the-shoulder perspective, but the true connoisseur/sicko will of course prefer the game's fixed perspectives.

So far, the game's static camera composition feels pleasantly unhinging. There's always a blindspot to worry about, always the monstrous murmuration of something unseen, always the suspicion of an item or terrain puzzle component tucked away in some feculent background surface. You also have an inventory to manage, with consumables including bandages (which restore health, but not limbs)