First things first, I want to thank my Beetle friend for this gruesome gift. Twas just what the mad doctor ordered.

Second thing second, content warning! I know, there is one on the store page, but that flat listing isn't always enough to let you know what you're really getting into like some colourful words can. So let me try to evoke it for you a bit... just a bit. I'm certainly not going to indulge in it cause that was pretty disturbing, namely animal abuse and abortion. (Gross understatement, btw!) Why am I specifically singling out these, especially animal cruelty in a story called Cut to the Core, full of gore and dismemberment? That's an interesting phenomenon I'm sure a lot of you can relate to. As a long time fan of all things horror, I'm kind of desensitised to slaughter, butchering and carnage when it comes to people, but definitely not when it's about animals (esp. caaats, nooo T_T). That ♥♥♥♥ tends to linger and haunt my mind. Those who don't want to dilute the shock factor, though, shouldn't read under the spoiler tag.

There are two distressing scenes of animal experiments, but the most disturbing and hardest to stomach was the mutilation of a cat. Not just the explicit visual gore and vivid description, but the sounds of poor cat's broken, weak squeals from deep within its flesh... Oh god! Abortion is more like butchering of a fully formed, still breathing, prematurely born baby and flushing it down the toilet.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857264853

While all of this is pretty graphic, soaked in red-dripping visuals and chilling words, accompanied by bloodcurdling sounds, it's not indulgent. And that also goes for all the limbs cutting, meat grinding and guts spilling. It's shocking definitely, even vomit inducing (people vomit a lot in this novel), but it is not there just for the shock value. There's sharpness to it, a surgical purpose. Not showing, or softening the edge of, the full depths and origin of madness while going full on, hardcore into body horror and transformation/reconstruction theme would be kind of dishonest and inconsistent. The novel, imo, strikes just the right balance between the pulpy shock factor and thematic drive.

Cut to the Core is pulpy in a classic horror comicbook vein, presented as a kinetic visual novel and is best experienced on autoplay (which is the default, I think). Everything becomes dynamic: shifting positions of text bubbles, characters' ever changing poses and expressions (sometimes quite exaggerated as to become freakish), panels slipping one over another often in quite exciting, vigorous manner. Sound effects from the text roll that turns all speech into a grotesque, distorted muffle to all those icky, squishy sounds of cutting through, tearing the flesh, are complemented by a rather anxiety inducing, tension building, dramatic industrial-ish music. Simply, it's a comic come alive. Wait, there is a term: a motion comic! Otherwise, technically it has most of the common functions of a VN: skip, rewind, log, autoplay, lots of save slots even without choices etc. One nitpick though: I needed to adjust customisable control keys every time I opened the game. It doesn't remember.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2847813360

As soon as I saw it opening with a splatter, I knew I'd be in for a wild ride. As cliché as it is, it always makes one's blood pumping. There are certainly many familiar horror tropes: a mad scientist (cross between Dr Frankenstein and extremely gory Misery); a tortured artist struggling with inspiration, horrified by where it comes from; contagious obsession with flesh, decay, death, beauty in ugliness (Cronenberg) etc. The store page description kind of makes it more pulpy than it is. I found way more nuance here, especially in interconnected relationships between characters and potent themes. Despite all the gore, I wouldn't call it torture porn, it doesn't revel in pain. But it is body horror in more ways than one, primarily interested in the emotional, psychological effect of the ghastly acts. Even existential. There's something very disturbing in a grotesque, bizarre cackling of a living corpse happily watching TV. Human decomposition imbued with pathos, morbid, sad, confusing...

It definitely captures that visceral fascination and repulsion we have with our bodies, that empathy which is at the core of body horror. Bodies are a part of us, but also apart from us. Are we bodies or are we in bodies? It's like there's a bit of discrepancy between completely identifying with them and seeing them separate from our core. Looking for that answer, body horror strips characters of their skin... body parts, mind, contorts them, reduces them; piece by piece they shed their meaty exterior. But does it strip them of their humanity? How much does it have to cut to get to it? What is the measure of a human? I feel like this story asks the question not only for the victim, but for the mad doctor too. She's an 'empathetic' psycho, with every new tear into the flesh, she tears a piece of her mind and soul. Weaved through is an interesting idea about freedom and loss taken to unspeakable extremes. The more you lose, the more you're free... from choice, responsibility, from action, free to just be. And how much do you really need to just be? This is also a twisted way to be safe: from the world, from mistakes, from yourself.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857274113

Two artists, a surgeon and a sculptor, are paralleled and mirrored all the way through, culminating in the ultimate act, terrible, horrifying, yet solemn and majestic. Beautiful. Fascination, obsession, compulsion... inspiration by death, degradation, depravity, ruin (there are a lot of blood-red close-ups of faces in trance) is another big thematic throughline, central even. The inability to look away from a mutilated face, being haunted by that ruined structure, the possibility of reconstructure, to create something new out of the destruction... from mistakes - this juxtaposition of death and art appealed to me greatly. De-form, dis-figure, deconstruct, reconstruct, trans-form, destroy and rebuild... isn't this exactly like any artistic process, only monstrous this time, using the body as canvas or a sculpting mass. Call it inspiration or madness, the source for the best art is often deep within our sick minds. It just needs one Muse from Hell to bring out and light that spark.

All of this is invoked by a very concise, minimalistic writing, the definition of succinct - crisp, sharp and surgically precise. Short sentences, dispassionate and matter-of-fact, are used to great contrasting and unsettling effects. Similarly, characters are confidently sketched with just a few traces, but impeccably and effectively placed, and voila; we have an outline of a full character with hints to their history, distinct personality and actual inner life - perfect hook for sculpting the rest. The story is very tight and compact with no excess meat let alone fat. And while appalling, curiously, it doesn't rely on twists as much as escalations. Things just go from bad to worse and yet it all comes full circle by the end. Masterful.

This quote aimed at a grisly art piece perfectly sums it up: "It's heightened without being idealized. Perfected without being a lie." It's just authentic. It's also dirt cheap, so what are you waiting for? To lose a limb or two?

Cut by Drugoja In The Nightmare

For disclosure, I got the game from my Steam group. I will buy one copy for a friend to support the devs, $3 is so generous for such a beautifully made novel.

I absolutely loved the story and specifically what happened to all the character arcs - it started a little cliche, but in the end, I think it managed to be something unique and different. Honestly, I didn't think I would like their personalities, at first I didn't feel like there was enough depth to them. Fortunately, the game had several twists that in my opinion felt very genuine, I think all of the characters had an interesting conclusion, especially Daniel. However, out of the 9 chapters, I was kinda bored for the first 3, and to be fair, you have to introduce your characters slowly so the horror has more impact later, but for me, it was a bit too uneventful at first; I felt like I was watching older people talk about money, and the game does not get super creative until like chapter 4 to 9, at that point, it was one of best visual novels that I played. I will tell you where you got my attention though, all the animal abuse, made me really angry, this is not a game for cat lovers guys, that said, very realistic, and the game does not shy away from exploring very troubled individuals.

In most visual novels, the background tends to be a filler, the focus is generally on the characters so most devs will cut corners on the settings, sometimes it's a couch, sometimes it's the garden or a balcony, usually not something you can really appriciate by itself; not this game though, I really felt like the artist took almost every opportunity to make every panel like a work of art, just beautiful shading, almost no filler with the exception of some character emotes. On that note, the game really felt like reading a comic in the way you focused on the panels, having the characters "move" around the scene was a nice touch, it really feels like the game has a lot of attention to detail, even when it comes to the choice of sound effects.

See, I feel like just because you make a visual novel, that does not mean you have to present it as a slider, every scene and movement in this game seems to have a purpose, and I don't think I ever played a visual novel that did it so well. I want to say it took me about 2.5 hours to finish the game in the auto-mode, you can also play in manual and adjust the speed in the settings.


(+) The story was a little boring for me at first, but I was 100% behind it from chapter 4 and on, at that point, I was in love with the characters, I think all the twists were cool, and the ending felt very satisfying. I like that you kinda walked that line where the world does not feel like fantasy, it's very grounded, and you never really know for sure until the end. I am generally the guy who likes my rabbit holes, and I think you managed to make a story that was somewhat realistic, with a touch of obscurity.

(+) Just the way the game was presented was very cool and nuanced. Obviously, it's meant to read like a comic book, but the way you focused on the panels was very creative, everything moving in the way it would make sense, even though it's a static game. It didn't feel like another power point slider.

(+) Pretty nice amount of content for the price (about 2 to 3 hours), some basic settings, and in general just very nice visuals, I like that the backgrounds were treated very well here, sometimes they were literally the highlight of the scene, not the characters. Very sweet shading, you make me so jealous.


(?) I mean... I have to be a little nitpicky to find something here. For myself, it took the game too long to really hook me, chapter 3 started to get interesting, and only at chapter 4 I was paying attention to everything. I understand that you need to introduce the characters, but something didn't feel right, the first 2 chapters had a lot of dry conversations for me. Does not look like you can select chapters?

Overall Thoughts: 8/10

A little slow at first, I didn't care for the characters for nearly 40 minutes, but you turned it around, the second half was the best visual novel experience that I had. So many cool twists and intimate moments, plus a very surprising ending. The price for this game makes no sense, the story aside, it's just a really well-made game, lots of little things in the way the panels are presented, very moody.

A great visual novel that pays homage to your favorite stories from "Tales from the crypt" and "Creep show". Nothing to do here except fire up the game, sit back and enjoy the show. The artwork is great and although the story is violent with some dark and disturbing themes, it is well written.

It's a solid thriller, this is really unexpected what I just surprisingly found.
Worth every penny.
Visual novel, no choices to be made, just watch the story unfold.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3164098176
Story with an R rating.
I enjoyed it.

Я не большой фанат визуальных новелл, но иногда хочется погрузиться в какую-нибудь хорошо написанную историю, не потея при этом в каких-либо геймплейных отрезках. Cut to the Core закрыла эту нужду, по рекомендации хорошего друга я поиграл в нее и… признаюсь честно, я не ожидал увидеть то, что увидел.

Cut to the Core - это так называемая кинетическая визуальная новелла, то есть, вы начинаете игру и просто читаете диалоги, без каких-либо выборов, влияющих на сюжет. Обычная линейная история. Но история эта… о божечки, история в Cut to the Core - это нечто. Если не вдаваться в спойлеры, то нам рассказывают сразу несколько параллельных историй, связанных друг с другом, и в каждой истории персонаж - явно психически нездоровый человек. Причем авторы вообще не стали стесняться в отношении демонстрации всего этого дела, на экране вы часто будете лицезреть кровищу, внутренности людей, а в наушниках будут звучат мерзкие звуки и мрачный эмбиент в нужные моменты. Во время каждой такой сцены мне хотелось закрыть глаза, а на коже пробегали мурашки. Но закрыть глаза не получалось просто потому, что арты в игре просто великолепны, у них очень необычный и притягательный стиль. Похожие эмоции я испытывал, когда проходил Corpse Factory, тоже новелла про нездоровых людей, хотя там жесть показывают немного по-другому.

Удивительно, что такая стильная новелла не получила должного внимания. Она дарит смешанные эмоции, здесь есть и мерзотные, и забавные моменты, это очень круто, так она и стоит при этом сущие копейки. Единственный ее недостаток - отсутствие русской локализации, однако если вы владеете английским хотя бы на среднем уровне, то проблем с пониманием происходящего возникнуть не должно. Если вас не отвращает жесть на экране, то обязательно присмотритесь к Cut to the Core.

A digital comic (no interaction at all) that does technically everything well to make you watch and enjoy the digusting and terrifying horror (and romance) it portrays. Memorable story, hidden gem!

This is definitely an interesting experience. It's revolting and hard to look at yet poignant and difficult to turn away from.

I kind of regret reading this. I thought it wouldn't bother me, but it was just too much. It was oppressive and never stops. I'm not sure there's any artistic merit to this. It's just body horror, over and over again. I don't think the story says anything about anything. There's potentially a big philosophical question here about what makes a person a person and this story absolutely does not even attempt to answer or address that question.

I will say that the art style really fits the theme of the story. However, I just got the feeling that the only motivation here was to try to make an experience with the most possible shock value (and still be commercial enough to sell). The characters seemed off. It felt like the ending was thought of first and then everything else was written for that ending, even if it didn't make much sense. So the characters motivations for doing things were questionable, to say the least.

Rate 4.5/10. I just can't recommend this. It's not awful, but it's a one-note story and that note is pure body horror.

This was one heck of an experience. It was definitely not for the feint of heart. As each chapter went on the game slowly but surely went further into madness, and I loved it. Just when you thought you had an idea of where the story was going it switched and another twist was added to the story. $3 well spent.

Disturbing, Fascinating, Macabre, Beautiful, Sickening, Passionate.

I never thought there's actually going to be a day when I get to play a game ( well, kinetic novel ) that has the ability to elicit all the above feelings at the same time.

The art style is what drew me in initially, it reminded me of the old animation parts from Tales From The Crypt, and Creepshow.

Then I stayed for the storyline, reading through each chapter as I was genuinely curious what is going to happen to all the characters in the game.

As for the theme, the closest I can think of in term of movies from the last 5 years would be the 2018 The House That Jack Built.

Definitely not a game for the faint of the heart. But I can't help but think this will be a cult classic 20 years down the line.