PAPERHEAD Launches: Bloody Cardboard, Killer Pencils & WTF
PAPERHEAD launched on Steam on October 9, 2026, and its early reception is looking excellent. The horror FPS opened with roughly 95% positive reviews in an early storefront snapshot, following a free prologue that attracted around 3,800 reviews. Apparently, quite a few people have been waiting for the opportunity to shoot the living hell out of a cardboard factory.
Developed by Paperhead te4m and published by HypeTrain Digital, PAPERHEAD combines fast-paced shooting with grotesque horror, environmental interaction and a magical pencil that can draw objects into existence. Yes, a pencil. While other shooters are inventing progressively larger firearms, somebody has decided that stationery hasn't reached its full homicidal potential.
Cardboard monsters and a magical pencil are one thing. Want to see what happens when horror gets genuinely nasty? Read our coverage of The Conjuring: Unspoken, where the supernatural has considerably worse plans for your evening.
The world's worst arts-and-crafts project
PAPERHEAD takes place inside an abandoned research facility made from cardboard and paper. Initially, it resembles an elaborate school project that earns a child full marks and gets both parents dragged into an emergency meeting because nobody believes little Timmy built the entire thing himself.
Except this particular school project has blood coming out of it.
Behind those cardboard walls are grotesque creatures, disturbing environments and increasingly unpleasant combinations of paper and flesh. The handmade appearance gradually gives way to something considerably more organic, raising questions about what the researchers were doing there. Whatever it was, I suspect the ethics committee resigned.
There's something fascinating about using cardboard for horror. We're conditioned to think of it as harmless. It's packaging. It's the box your television arrived in. It's the thing your cat finds more interesting than the expensive scratching post you bought specifically for it. PAPERHEAD corrupts that familiarity until creatures made from materials that have absolutely no business possessing internal organs are trying to murder you.
Fortunately, you have pistols, shotguns, heavy machine guns, rocket launchers and a railgun. Combat is fast and physical, with kicking, stomping and explosive objects adding another way to deal with enemies. I'm particularly fond of games that let you kick things into other things. There's something wonderfully satisfying about having an entire military arsenal available and still deciding the correct solution is to put your boot through an explosive barrel.
Apparently, the pencil is mightier than the shotgun
The magical pencil is PAPERHEAD's most interesting feature. You can draw bombs, create doors and manipulate certain parts of the environment. It even comes with an eraser capable of removing corpses to restore health.
Which is quite extraordinary when you think about it.
In most shooters, a corpse is the inevitable result of combat. Occasionally it carries ammunition. Sometimes money. Usually it just lies there waiting for the game engine to make it disappear. In PAPERHEAD, the corpse itself becomes a medical resource. You erase the evidence of your previous violence and somehow emerge healthier.
Imagine explaining that to an insurance company.
"How did you recover from your injuries?"
"Rubbed out a dead man."
"Right. And do you have a receipt?"
I rather like the idea because the pencil has potential beyond simply becoming another weapon. Drawing an explosive is useful, but creating an opening where there wasn't one suggests something more interesting. Can you avoid encounters? Create alternative routes? Solve problems without emptying half a magazine?
Unfortunately, that's also where the first serious criticism appears. French FPS specialist NoFrag completed the game and praised its shooting and atmosphere, but found the pencil surprisingly underused. Some abilities reportedly remain restricted to specific doors and scripted situations.
I understand why unrestricted environmental manipulation could become a programming nightmare. But giving players a magical pencil capable of changing reality and then handing them a list of approved surfaces feels like granting someone supernatural powers and informing them they're only authorised to rearrange the office furniture.
That doesn't necessarily make it a bad mechanic. It does raise the question of whether PAPERHEAD has explored its best idea far enough.
PAPERHEAD lets you erase corpses for health. RetroSpace takes biological recycling in an entirely different direction, involving corpse-eating and DNA from your own clone. Because apparently ordinary survival has become too respectable.
A bloody promising start, with a few question marks
PAPERHEAD arrived with an established audience. Its free prologue accumulated roughly 3,800 Steam reviews, while the publisher reported more than 190,000 wishlists before launch. That wishlist figure hasn't been independently verified, but the prologue already demonstrates considerable interest.
An early Steam snapshot showed approximately 95% positive reviews from 70 players, with the count increasing during launch. Encouraging, absolutely. A definitive judgement on the full game? Not yet.
NoFrag's completed playthrough took approximately eight hours on Normal difficulty and praised the movement, weapons, enemy designs and atmosphere. Performance was reportedly smooth, apart from some longer loading times.
There were complaints, however. PAPERHEAD has a skill tree with upgrades purchased using golden paperclips, which can be sufficiently well hidden that players uninterested in searching every corner may find progression restrictive. The upgrades themselves reportedly don't always feel particularly consequential.
So you're rummaging through a building full of homicidal stationery, searching for glorified office supplies, only to discover the reward might barely change anything. Even the most deranged office manager would eventually have to explain that business model.
The default keyboard layout also drew criticism during frantic combat. For now, these remain findings from an individual completed review rather than problems established across the wider player base.
Has PAPERHEAD earned your attention?
Absolutely. Whether it deserves your money needs more evidence, but it has certainly earned a closer look.
The cardboard-and-flesh horror is distinctive, the combat appears wonderfully physical, and the magical pencil is an idea I'd love to see pushed much further. Unfortunately, the first completed-review evidence suggests its possibilities might be narrower than expected.
Still, PAPERHEAD is off to an encouraging start. A cardboard research facility filled with biological horrors, where corpses become medicine and your most interesting weapon comes from a pencil case.
Whatever happened in that facility, I sincerely hope nobody allowed the researchers anywhere near the crayons.
Still in the mood for horror with a ridiculous catch? Silver Pines makes you pay to save your game using the same money you need for ammunition. Apparently, even supernatural nightmares have discovered service charges. Read the Silver Pines launch report.
PAPERHEAD FAQ
When was PAPERHEAD released?
PAPERHEAD launched on October 9, 2026, on Steam for Windows PC.
Is PAPERHEAD a horror game?
Yes. PAPERHEAD combines fast-paced first-person shooting with grotesque horror inside an abandoned cardboard research facility. Expect bloody creatures, disturbing environments and considerably more internal organs than cardboard should legally contain.
What does the magical pencil do in PAPERHEAD?
The pencil lets you draw bombs, create doors and interact with certain parts of the environment. Its eraser can also remove corpses to restore health. Apparently, medical science has been wasting its time.
How long does PAPERHEAD take to beat?
A completed playthrough reported by NoFrag took approximately eight hours on Normal difficulty. Your experience may vary depending on difficulty, exploration and how thoroughly you hunt for upgrades.
Is PAPERHEAD free to play?
No. The full game is paid, but PAPERHEAD EP.0, its standalone prologue, is available for free on Steam.
Is PAPERHEAD worth playing?
Early reception is promising, with approximately 95% positive Steam reviews in an initial launch snapshot. Its distinctive horror and physical combat are attracting praise, although questions remain about how extensively the game uses its magical pencil.
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