Video Game / Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer is a First-Person Shooter developed by Tendershoot (credited as "Big Z Studios") and published by No More Robots, released in 2023.

The plot follows the story of our protagonist, Zane, who belongs to a group of martial artists with psychic powers known as the X Slayers. One day, while training at the X Slayer dojo, Zane hears a news report that their enemies, the Psyko Sindikate, have bombed Zane's apartment and blown up his mom.

Zane's mentor, Mikey, sets out to confront the Sindikate and tells Zane to stay behind since he's still in training, but Zane refuses to let him go alone, setting out to follow him — and eventually, pick up his crusade against the Sindikate when Mikey dies...

That's only the surface level of the game however, and the true meat of the story is metatextual. Slayers X is the defictionalized magnum opus of the person behind "Big Z Studios" — Zane Lofton, the edgelord Breakout Character of Tendershoot's previous game, Hypnospace Outlaw. 20 years after the events of Hypnospace, Zane uses a winning lottery ticket, a guilt-tripped former classmate with programming skills, and an obsolete game engine from his childhood to make his dream game a reality. Through this premise, the game playfully jabs at the classic FPS genre, amateur game modders, and "edgy" teen culture, all the while hinting at the mundane hardships and tragedies of Zane's adult life.

The game can be purchased on Steam here, and is featured as part of the Xbox Game Pass. The game's Twitter account, which doubles as a devlog and Character Blog, can be found here.

I am... the X Troper:

• '90s Anti-Hero: Played With, as Zane is a foulmouthed Anti-Hero with guns and crude design who lives and breathes the nineties, but is too immature to come off with the same typical image as one.
• Abnormal Ammo: The Glass Blasta is loaded with handfuls of glass sharts[sic] that are gained from breaking windows, bottles and mirrors.
• Actor Allusion: Gianni Matragrano voices some of the rats in this game. They may randomly do a Duke Nukem impression when talked to, referencing Gianni's YouTube channel where he regularly does voice impressions of Duke.
• Adjustable Censorship: Explained in-universe as being added so Zane's son can play the game. However, it only lets you set the gore to "Normal" or "Extreme".
• Adrenaline Time: Firing either the blast or the laser using the Hackblood Talismen will cause the game to temporarily slow down, giving you extra time to react to enemies or align a shot.
• Affectionate Parody: Of crude '90s FPS games such as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior (1997) and Redneck Rampage. It has the same edgy, crude humor as those games, but rather than using it to make Duke Nukem and Lo Wang seem like the carefree R-rated action movie heroes they are, it's played to make Zane seem all the more immature and puerile. But the parodic elements aside, given the number of actual classic FPS tropes played straight,^{such as}  the Standard FPS Guns, the perennial Sewer Level, the unnecessary background object interactivity, an "early-game gratuitous building destruction sequence with multiple explosions" like in many classic Build games, and the bad 3D model intro cutscene that parodies Blood's cutscenes, it's hard to view this as anything but made by someone who understands the genre.
• A.I. Breaker: Warewolves have two attacks: a claw swipe if the player is close, and a missile launch if they're not. Despite being the most lethal enemy and a boss encounter, they can be easily killed with even an unpowered S-Blade by repeatedly weaving in and out of their melee range to bait the claw swipe, stunlocking them and preventing them from using their actual dangerous move.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Many air vents are large enough for Zane to enter.
• Almost Dead Guy: Zane finds Mikey in a state where he can give most of the necessary information to him before dying.
• Alternate Universe: The game is still grounded in the universe of Hypnospace Outlaw, so divergences like a trennis court and the acronym "BWL" are included. Also included is set dressing that implies similar divergences to Trennis happened to other games such as Billiards now having two color-coded sides.
• Approval of God: In-universe. Mikey Sykey (the frontman of the fictional Nu Metal band Seepage) agreed to be part of Zane's project after the Hypnospace archive went public; Mikey saw the original Slayers X comics, which featured him as a prominent character, and loved them. He was so enthusiastic that he allowed Zane to use Seepage's music, and even composed a new song specifically for the game, as well as voicing the fictional version of himself. His voice acting is surprisingly competent compared to the amateurish or phoned-in performances of everyone else, lending genuine emotion to his death scene in particular.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Sloppo's menu consists of of the terd burger, diarrea burger, pig butt-hole sausage, fried terd nuggets, fries and a soft drink. The drink's quite a steal at $1.
• Artificial Human: The base beneath the Dollar$haver shows that Psyko Injectas are assembled on a factory.
• Ascended Fan: In-universe. The real Mikey Sikey found out about Zane through the published Hypnospace Archival Project, and reached out to not only give him the license to use Seepage tracks in Slayers X, but composed an exclusive song for it.
• Asteroids Monster: Poo Guys can split into Poo Babies on death.
• Attack of the Town Festival: The Psyko Sindikate has attacked the Boise Potato Festival, and are using the location to center their power.
• Authority Sounds Deep: Mikey, Zane's mentor, has a rich and deep voice.
• Author Appeal: In-Universe, the reason why rats are friendly NPCs is because Zane likes rats and didn't want to kill them so he chose to make them supportive helpers in his game.
• Author Avatar: For an In-Universe example, the protagonist is quite obviously a stand-in for Zane Lofton, himself a character from Hypnospace Outlaw.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Slayers' bathroom at the Steel Sewer is a toilet guarded by sawblades and a lava pit. Cool, but very obviously impractical for anyone who just wants to take a whizz.
• Awful Wedded Life: Implied in one of the houses in Cult Die Sack, where one of the beds is separated into two with a chainlink fence.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Voice acting example, In-Universe voice actress of Steffanie clearly did not care about partaking in voice acting.
• Battle Aura: At 95-100% Hackblood, a glowing green aura appears around Zane's head in the HUD, corresponding with his ability to shoot Sword Beams from the S-Blade.
• Big Bad: Mevin, a member of the Psyko Sindikate as well as being Zane's manager at the Dollar$haver store and his mother's boyfriend. Understandably he's based on various figures in Zane's real life that he hates.
• Big Badass Rig: Mevin drives around a massive truck as his personal vehicle, regardless of how impractical it would be.
• Big "NO!": When Mikey dies, Zane lets out "Noooo!"
• Bland-Name Product: Many props strewn about levels are photos of what are presumably Hypnospace-verse brands for things like toilet paper, dog food, and so on, with the brand names and slogans scribbled out in MS Paint.
• Border Patrol: One brief instance of this occurs in an Easter Egg at the end of the trailer park level - if you pass the level exit and continue to head down the road, you begin to hear some demonic noises and then a giant demented skeletal creature flies out of the dark tunnel ahead of you, homing in on you and killing you very quickly if you don't leave the level.
• Brain Monster: The Jezta enemy type consist of mostly-exposed brains.
• Bullet Time: Seen in introductory cutscene where bullets fly out very slowly and leave trails.
• Burger Fool: Steffanie has to excuse herself from the X Slayers' training so that she can work at Sloppo's under her boss' threatening to fire her. During the events of the game, this leads to her getting isolated from the rest of the X Slayers and kidnapped.
• Character Shilling: The whole project is one big ego trip for Zane, being a self-insert Game Mod where he saves the world through the power of guns and supernatural hacker powers. Of course, that's all part of the joke.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Take a look at Mevin's office desk at the Dollar$haver, and you'll see notices of termination for Zane and a spiky-haired coworker of his. She becomes relevant when Mevin gets killed, teasing a possible sequel to the story.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The comic of Zane's origin as an X Slayer in Hypnospace Outlaw depicts a Big Red Devil preparing to kill Zane, with the last line implying that demons are Psykos. The comic doesn't resolve this character, and neither does this game: demons never show up (besides the printed copies of the original comics in the attic), nobody mentions or references them, and Psykos are instead Artificial Humans.
• Clown Species: Jeztas are aliens with a lifecycle that's represented by several enemies and obstacles in-game. One secret even has you visiting their homeworld.
• Colon Cancer: The name of the game manages to cram in two different subtitles.
• Continuity Nod: The game generally makes sure it's clear that it takes place in the Hypnospace Outlaw universe.
  • Various decorations reference media from Zane's youth, such as "Professor Pizza" boxes based on Doctor Pizza of the infamous Pizza Dance (combined with Professor Helper) and a poster of "Taurus X: 2089" in his room.
  • Various elements reference Zane's old Hypnospace page:
    • The game being "developed by Big Z Studios" is a reference to Zane's self run "studio" from Hypnospace, which he made his comics with.
    • Kataklysm, the fictional game that Slayers X is a mod of, is listed as Zane's favorite game on there.
    • The Steel Sewer where the X Slayers base their operations is derived from Zane's crude drawing of it in his comic, featuring a band stage, firing range, and a giant TV with video games.
    • The attic of the X Slayer dojo contains Zane's comic of his origin as an X Slayer, which was part of his Hypnospace page.
    • When staring into a mirror, Zane may randomly quip that he's "sexy both on and offline", which is one of the first things you'll read on his page.
    • The "WELCOME TO THE STEEL SEWER" room in the second level has a hidden message where Zane mocks the player for exploring. This is a reference to how his pages would mock the player for scrolling to the bottom of them.
      "did i tell u that u could come here? *kicks u in the nards*"
  • The embarrassing photo of Zane at the end of the hidden hallway in the Boise Potato Festival has "BWL" repeatedly superimposed on it, referencing Hypospace Outlaw's equivalent of "LOL," "Bursting With Laughter."
  • There's a Gumshoe Gooper mask on sale at Dollar$haver.
  • The animation playing in Mevin's home theater is Zane getting decapitated◊, an animation seen in earlier versions of Hypnospace Outlaw before the Plus update changed it to Zane getting punched in the teeth.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Depending on the player's actions in Hypnospace Outlaw, Zane could have died in the Y2K Mindcrash. This game confirms he survives into the 2020s.
• Creative Closing Credits: The credits are a touring shot of various 3D spaces designed within the engine. Also, they're initially written as credits to Zane Lofton, before being blown up and replaced with credits to the actual staff behind the game.
• Creator Breakdown: invoked As much of the game is a self-aggrandizing story by Zane, it becomes fairly clear some of it is working out his own baggage over how his life went, such as missing his mother (who is heavily implied to have passed away at this point), never knowing his real father, and disliking his stepfather.
• Creator's Apathy: An in-universe variant with Adam Chase, Zane's unseen classmate who helped him finish developing this game. According to Adam, the reason why the final boss sucks so much is because he just gave up, since he only helped Zane because of a high school promise that he hoped he would forget.
• Cyber Green: The beams at the exit of each level, the swirling voids that appear in bottomless pits and some skyboxes, and Hackblood are all bright green, fitting the game's focus on supernatural computer hackers.
• Cyberspace: The Psyko Sindikate have hidden the Hackblood Talismen in a computer inside their base beneath Mevin's house. Mikey programs the world inside it to look like a level from Kataklysm, so that Zane has an easier time exploring it.
• Dartboard of Hate: Mevin has a dartboard with Zane's face on it at his house.
• Dead Man Writing: One of the houses in Mevin's neighborhood has last words written on the wall of a child who suspects their parents were replaced by Psykos. They also wrote down a scream of terror as they're being killed, with a blood splatter on the wall covering part of the scream.
• Death by Origin Story: A news broadcast in the opening cutscene reveals that Zane's mom was killed by Psykos in a car bombing offscreen. It's implied that this was written into the story by Zane as a means to memorialize her after her actual passing.
• Defector from Decadence: Scattered here-there are Psykos attempting to live normal people lives instead of slaughter the residents of Boise. The first level has some Psykos camping out harmlessly in the woods and they won't shoot you unless you shoot first, and another one has some Psykos attempt to start a door installation service.
• Degraded Boss: When you reach Steffanie, she is transformed into a rocket-launcher-wielding werewolf, and the game treats the encounter like a mini-boss fight with her. Several clones of her then appear throughout the rest of the game as regular enemies.
• Delusions of Eloquence: One of the final few levels is essentially titled "stinky crater", but with the words swapped out for sophisticated-sounding ones in the incorrect context.
  NOW ENTERING... CREVASSE OF REPUGNANT
• Distressed Damsel: Zane's not-quite-girlfriend and fellow Slayer Steffanie is abducted at the start of the game. She's injected with wolf DNA, becoming a violent Warewolf.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Warewolf enemies will wail "I love youuuu" as they die.
• Easter Egg: Falling down the crevasse at the Boise Potato Festival and landing on the small outcropping just below the kill plane reveals a hidden hallway littered with disparaging messages from Adam Chase, an old high school classmate of Zane who only helped him finish this game because of a promise that he made when they were teenagers. Continuing to go through the hallway reveals that Zane is now a father and thinks the game will elevate him from "a deadbeat dollar store manager," and that the reason why the final boss sucks so much is because of Adam's Creator's Apathy.invoked The very end of the hallway also features an unflattering photo of Zane in his underwear with "BWL" repeatedly superimposed atop.
• Epic Fail: In the Cottonwood Trailer Park, one of the doors is labeled "EX-PSYKO CHEAP DOOR INSTALLATION", with the subtitle "trying our best". Take a peek inside, and you'll see a bunch of destroyed doors and one Psyko having been flattened by his own door.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: While Zane is a foul-mouthed Anti-Hero prone to making Your Mom jokes, the tutorial level set in his house does have him pay respects to his now-departed mom when her photo or personal belongings are interacted with, saying she was the best that a kid could ever have and dropping the usual "edgy badass" affect in the process.
• Exploding Barrels: Red barrels often are scattered throughout the levels. Those barrels explode when shot at. The Cottonwood Trailer Park's post office includes a gratuitous number of these for some unexplained reason, and a sign that says to not blow the mail up.
• Expressive Health Bar: Keeping in step with the game's heavy Doom influences, Zane's face acts as a health indicator. The more damage the player takes, the more injured the face looks. The face also Mouth Flaps whenever Zane ever does so much as to vocalize (either talking or jumping) and even makes a whoah face whenever the player discovers a secret.
• Flipping the Bird: Subverted. While there is a button dedicated to flipping off enemies, Zane flips them off with a ring finger instead, since he is committed to not using swears.
• Flushing-Edge Interactivity: Toilets can be interacted with to flush away any of the grimy water left in them. They can also be attacked, which shatters them and leaves behind a busted, water-spraying pipe.
• Frame-Up: Whether the Jeztas are Always Chaotic Evil is unknown, but their animosity towards the X Slayers seems to be due to the Psyko Sindikate stealing their Hackblood and blaming it on the Slayers rather than being simple minions for them.
• Freudian Excuse: Played for Laughs — the post-game "Downtown Boise" bonus level reveals that Zane hates SquisherZ because he used to collect the trading cards, until some bully at the local laundromat stole his entire collection and the police refused to help.
• Game Mod: According to a hidden message from Adam Chase, Slayers X was developed as a mod for Kataklysm, the Hypnospace Outlaw equivalent of Doom. Certain elements of the game make In Jokes about actual amateur game modifications for classic shooters:
  • Various objects (such as bushes) look photosourced, riffing on the habits of classic game mods to use edited photos as game textures with little effort to form a cohesive style.
  • The secret levels "Mikeys Head" and "Uncle Gopher's House" borrow from two classic amateur map mod tropes: map editor doodles and levels based on the residence of a family member.
  • The secret levels' songs are titled as if they're just raw file rips from Kataklysm's MIDI soundtrack (much like how many amateur Doom modders leave in the default music instead of replacing it).
• Gangsta Style: Zane turns his pistols sideways when holding down the fire, tying in with the real Zane Lofton's inability to move on from his teenage years in the late '90s.
• Genre Shift: From a retro internet adventure game in Hypnospace Outlaw to a retro "boomer shooter" FPS.
• Glowing Eyes: Zane's eyes glow green, while major antagonists have eyes that glow purple.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Even as an adult, Zane still refuses to say any actual swear words. This even extends to Flipping the Bird, which is done with people's ring fingers instead.
• Hates Rich People: Zane doesn't like rich people, of which Mevin is one.
  Achievement text for beating Cult Die Sack, a rich neighborhood: "flippin rich people"
• Head Bob: When Mikey gives Zane his dying last words, the camera cuts to a view from behind Mikey. Because he's hooded, he has to start bobbing his head to make it clear he's the one talking in this scene.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Old habits die hard, as Zane Lofton's habit of making incredibly deific self-insert fics continues here. The game follows the same story as his webcomic from Hypnospace Outlaw, depicting an in-universe fictionalization of Zane as The Chosen One who fights the Psyko Sindikate alongside the members of his favorite Nu Metal band. The Big Bad, a sleazy retail manager dating Zane's mom, appears to be Zane's attempt to work out his frustrations with his mother's dating habits, a step-dad who cheated on said mother, and the Soul-Sucking Retail Job he has in the modern day.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Psyko Springjackers can be be dealt with by shooting their bombs right as they've tossed them out, doing heavy damage if not outright killing them.
• Hostility on the Set: invoked Adam Chase vents his feelings about helping Zane in a secret area, revealing he never even wanted to work on Slayers X in the first place, but that Zane called in a favor that Adam hoped he forgot, only continuing to help out of pity for Zane trying to escape his manager job and provide for his son. Steffanie is also played by Zane's ex-girlfriend, likewise called in for a favor, who obviously didn't want to be there and doesn't even try to act.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Zane is still learning how to master Hackblood powers. He manages to launch an energy shot during the opening cutscene without having the Hackblood Talisman to do so, but clearly looks confused as to how he was able to after.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: The main instant healing items in this game are burgers and soft drinks.
• Hypocritical Humor: Zane doesn't think highly of Mevin because he lives with his parents. Zane himself also lives with his mom.
• I Am the Noun: "I am... the X Slayer" is a semi-frequent catchphrase of Zane's, which has a new meaning after both Mikey and Steffanie die, making him The Last of His Kind.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: There are four goofily-named difficulty levels, from easiest to hardest: "Not a real gamer", "Normal gamer", "Im awesome", and "Inzane".
• I Fell for Hours: Fall into the toilet for Psykos at the Steel Sewer base, and you get treated to a painfully long drop to think about how obvious of a trap it was. It'll take a couple of minutes to reach the lava-filled restroom at the bottom.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Can happen in the Fun Zone's arcade. Zane will refuse to play most of the games in it, saying things like "I don't have time to play games!", but the skee-ball machines are fully usable by Zane, and you can even get rewards for winning them.
• In-Character Commentaries: The bonus levels contain in-character commentary from Zane Lofton. His quips explain the nature of each level as well as context for some bits of level design (such as an anecdote about how he fell down the stairs at his Uncle Gopher's house and right out an adjacent window, explaining the blood splatter outside the game version of the house's window).
• Inherited Illiteracy Title: The word "Vengance" in the title is deliberately spelled like so.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Relatively low road barriers block the player from going outside.
• Intentional Engrish for Funny: Absolutely everywhere. That extends to the game's subtitles, achievements, marketing copy, and even its title!
  • The glass shards ammo type is typoed as "glass sharts".
  • The game also constantly uses the word "yield" when they mean to say "wield". It seems that Zane might not know the difference between the two.
• Ki Attack: When wielding the Hackblood Talismen, Zane can shoot energy blasts and beams using Hackblood, the game's Mana system.
• Lava Pit: Lava is found here-there. For an example, in the X Slayer base, the Psyko restroom is filled with lava.
• Level Goal: The end of every level has a shimmering pillar of green light. Zane jumping into it ends the level as he quips that "I am... the X Slayer."
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Mikey says this to Zane twice. He still can't put the pieces together.
  Son? What did he mean by son? I will never know...
• Mana: In addition to standard ammunition, Zane can also gather Hackblood, which allows him to perform Ki Attacks with the Hackblood Talismen and, at 95-100% capacity, fire Sword Beams from the S-Blade. Lastly, it also acts like armor, absorbing half the damage Zane takes.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Mikey is Zane's mentor. He dies near the beginning of the first level, barely making it outside the X Slayer dojo.
• Mercy Kill: Steffanie, a fellow X Slayer, is kidnapped and turned into a werewolf wielding a rocket launcher. Zane is then forced to kill her to progress, which he briefly laments about afterwards.
  rip... my friend... and fellow x slayer... we would of probably gone out if you werent turned into a warewolf
• Metafiction: Slayers X is presented as a Game Mod of a game that doesn't exist in our universe; the main game is a pretty straightforward '90s style First-Person Shooter, but many hidden aspects, such as the "developer commentary" and secret rooms, provide backstory to the game's fictitious creator and how his personal life affected the game's development.
• Monster Closet: A few of them appear in the game. For an example, in a Psyko base, a hallway opens up to reveal enclosed room full of monsters.
• Monster Clown: The Jeztas are floating brain monsters with jester hats that cackle maniacally as they shoot lightning and charge at their victims. A majority of the Psykos have a similar demeanor as well, even if they don't match the theme visually.
• Mook Maker: Jezta Spawn Tents and Jezta Big Sickos spawn Jeztas periodically.
• Mouse World: Several secret areas feature colonies of rats in tiny housing structures, governed by a rat king.
• Museum Level: Completing the game unlocks three bonus levels accessible from the tutorial area, each including developer commentary from Zane. One of them was an ambitious level that was planned to be included in Slayers X but was scrapped because Zane ran out of budget, and the other two are a couple of Zane's earliest Kataklysm mod levels.
• New Weapon Target Range: Level 5 gives Zane the Hackblood Talismen, the BFG whose use is limited by how much Hackblood Zane has. The level also gives him a fast, automatic Hackblood recharge, giving the player a good opportunity to see how destructive the Talismen is. It also features multiple areas with platforming oriented around the Talismen's floating capabilities, allowing the player to learn how that mechanic works.
• Nice Mice: Zane's Explosive Sludge Launcher summons groups of rats to tear enemies apart. These rats, as well as others hidden throughout the game, can be interacted with, and say in squeaky voices how they're on Zane's side.
• No Communities Were Harmed: This game's setting is loosely modeled on Hypnospace Outlaw's version of Boise, Idaho. One of the locations is a Dollar$haver, Zane's place of work, and another is the Boise Potato Festival, referring to the real-world Idaho Spud Day.
• No-Gear Level: Level 5 removes all of Zane's weapons except the S Blade, but gives him automatic Hackblood recharge and the Talismen to use it with so he's not completely defenseless. Zane's other weapons can be found scattered throughout the level, giving the player an opportunity go enter the following one fully-armed again.
• Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: Falling into a bottomless pit simply respawns you back inside the level with a bit of damage taken.
• Notice This: If the player gains enough Hackblood to use the S Blade's Sword Beam, Zane will excitedly announce that "The S Blade has a Hackblood charge!" so the player can be absolutely sure in the heat of combat.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Zane's dismal opinion of Mevin leads to him dismissing him as a Psyko Sindikate boss, despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary. By the point of their second confrontation, Zane has found a Psyko Sindikate base beneath Mevin's Dollar$haver, and potentially went inside Mevin's house and found the Psykos' plans, but when he confronts Mevin the latter plays dumb and Zane lets him go because Mevin is a loser who still lives with his parents.
• Oddly Shaped Sword: The S-Blade is a sword that, per its name, is shaped like a stylized letter "S."
• One-Winged Angel: The final boss turns into a giant head on a spring when his first form is defeated.
• Painfully Slow Projectile: Noticably absent from this otherwise classic-style FPS is the "low health hitscan" enemy archetype. All ranged enemies shoot slow, dodgeable projectiles.
• Painting the Medium: The songs for the secret levels are noticeably less advanced than the main game's tracks, and are named "KATAKL01.xsm", "KATAKL02.xsm", etc., both of which imply that they're taken directly from the sequence files of Kataklysm — the fictional game that Slayers X was modded from in-universe.
• Parrying Bullets: In the intro sequence, Zane and Mikey are sparring; Zane uses dual pistols to shoot a flurry of bullets at Mikey, who cuts them apart with his S-Blade.
• Plunger Detonator: Near the end of one of the levels, there is a plunger detonator that opens up the level exit.
• Point of No Return: Most of the levels connect in logical ways, such as the first level being down the road from Zane's house and the Steel Sewer, which itself is a couple backyards away from Dollar$haver. If you ever attempt to retrace your steps to return to a previous level from the start of a later one, however, you'll see your attempts will be foiled by signs that say "NO TURNING BACK".
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: The final boss goes down with multiple small explosions.
• Post-Mortem One-Liner: Zane has lots of these during gameplay. Whether they're actually cool is another matter...
  Your grandma's a toilet! ...Dummy!
• Power Floats: When using the Hackblood Talismen, Zane will float a certain distance above the ground immediately below him.
• Power Perversion Potential: Psykos are largely Artificial Humans created to take over Boise. Mevin has particularly horny plans for building one of them: a "hot girl Psyko" designed after Zane's mom, which Zane can find in the motel near Dollar$haver. Still in beta though, according to Mevin's plans beneath his house: her gibberish babbling "makes it hard to get it on because its distracting", and "if the batterys run out your thingy can get stuck in there... ow".
• Race Lift: In Zane's original comics, Mikey had vibrant green skin beneath the shadow of his hoodie. In this game, Mikey looks more like a white guy who's merely lit up with slightly-green lighting.
• Recoil Boost: The X100 Rapid Mutilator enables flight if shot while aiming downwards.
• Revenge via Storytelling: At least some of the antagonists in the game are based on characters from Zane's life, if the description for the "Over the Road" achievement is any indication.
  this is for makig me work on sundays kevin! I mean... mevin...
• Rewarding Vandalism: Beyond being able to find health or ammo pickups in random crates and such, the Glass Blasta shoots "glass sharts", gotten by smashing windows. Zane himself encourages to break the drink vending machines instead of inserting coins.
• Ruder and Cruder: Hypnospace Outlaw had its share of creepy imagery and language, but Slayers X dials up the 'tude and gore. Justified in this case, as the game is established to be an in-universe project by Zane Lofton, Hypnospace's resident edgelord who grew up to be an utter Manchild.
• Saw Blades of Death: Circular saws moving on metal sticks can be found in the restroom section of the secret base of X Slayers.
• Schmuck Bait: The Steel Sewer has a couple of restrooms near it. One of them is specifically for Psykos, and it's very obviously just a long fall down a pit. If the player decides to jump in anyway, they'll spend a couple of minutes waiting to reach the bottom, which is a flaming lava room with a single toilet in the middle that'll kill them in seconds. It has a lineup of Psykos outside it, waiting their turn to use the loo.
• Sequel Hook: After the Final Boss, an unknown Dark Action Girl laments that Mevin may have died, but she still has some unknown plan to deal with Zane before remarking that "[she] is... the Z Slayer". Zane starts an X Slayer training dojo, and the final scene is of Mikey resting his arm on another unknown person.
• Shout-Out:
  • The level geometry of the Steel Sewer steals the poop texture from Gloomwood, but properly credits that game's authors anyway.
    "This poo texture stolen by Zane from David Slymanski & Dylon Rogers..."
    "Copy right Zane Lofton 2022 now its mine suckers..."
  • The drawing of Zane that appears when respawning after a death is an homage to the album art for Limp Bizkit's Significant Other, tying in with Zane Lofton's affinity for Nu Metal.
  • Vinesauce members Vinny and Joel, whose playthroughs of Hypnospace Outlaw helped expose the game to a wider audience, are depicted on the Metal Masters cover.
  • One of the random rat quotes is "Rats, rats, we are the rats".
  • One of the bonus levels available after beating the game, which Zane claims is based on "Uncle Gopher's House", is actually a recreation of Groverhaus, a DIY house renovation project that became a popular subject of online mockery for its poor build quality. The level also doubles as a nod to the high volume of amateur Doom WADs that just recreate the modders' houses.
• Single Tear: A green growing tear falls off Zane when he says he must avenge his mother.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Zane can, inexplicably, interact with, summon and talk to rats.
• Springs, Springs Everywhere: Jumping on tyres makes the player bounce. Slightly.
• Standard FPS Guns:
  • S-Blade: Zane's basic melee weapon, a sword with a blade shaped like an S. Usually only useful in an emergency, but if the S-Blade has a Hackblood charge, Zane can shoot Sword Beams with it, which penetrate through terrain and can One-Hit Kill a Jezta up close.
  • Double Pistols: Zane's basic hitscan weapon, two pistols that shoot modestly fast.
  • Glass Blaster: A shotgun-type weapon that launches glass shard shrapnel.
  • Explosive Sludge Launcher: A crossbow that launches cans of explosive sludge, filling an explosive weapon niche.
  • X100 Rapid Mutilator: The automatic weapon of the game, a sawblade-lined gatling-gun with a fast fire rate. Doubles as the game's Chainsaw, since it rapidly deals melee damage if the player is close enough.
  • Triple Helix Missile Launcher: Zane's other explosive weapon, which shoots three rockets at once.
  • Hackblood Talismen: The BFG of the game: uncharged, Zane launches powerful energy balls from his hands, and when charged, it unleashes a Wave-Motion Gun.
• Stock Animal Diet: The rats like cheese, in addition to Psyko meat.
• Stylistic Suck: The graphics have a very intentional crude style to them; many textures are just photo sourced with little to no attempt to have a cohesive style (a-la classic Build engine amateur modding) whenever they aren't intentionally replicating early 3D CGI. The rest of the aesthetic is generally approached with the intent of a edgy teen with tons of ideas as to what's "cool" with no sense of subtlety, with elements like the Nu-Metal soundtrack and the love of Toilet Humor pointing towards it.
  • For one particular example of this trope happening, when Zane first encounters Mevin outside the Dollar$haver, the sign advertising the tinygolf course next door suddenly changes when Mevin's truck takes off.
  • When Zane lifts his left hand to shoot energy balls with the Hackblood Talismen, you can see that his arm from the wrist-down is cropped out of the image, an issue that some classic sprite-based shooters shared.
  • To reinforce that "classic Build engine" style, many locations look overly angular and geometric in shape.
• Sue Donym: "Mevin Raniels" is blatantly based on Zane's stepfather Kevin Daniels.
• Suspiciously Cracked Wall: Shooting cracked walls with explosives reveals secrets.
• Swiss-Army Gun: The Rapid Mutilator is the game's chaingun and chainsaw, meaning that if you use it at melee range, it won't consume any ammo.
• Sword Beam: If he has more than 95 Hackblood, Zane can shoot energy bullets by swinging the S-Blade.
• Take That!:
  • In-universe one regarding SquisherZ. A secret is hidden behind a wall with "SquisherZ Sucks!" written on it, and in said secret you can shoot a Mushi, its Pikachu equivalent.
  • Done subtly with the game's constant references to The Matrix, with Zane using them as a starting point for his typical brand of edgy, hypermasculine content. Zane's handling of the Whole-Plot Reference jabs at the wide number of contemporary viewers who similarly read the film as a standard "macho" flick, overlooking its nature as a transgender allegory.
• Take Up My Sword: Mikey Sikey, in his last act before dying, imparts his S-Blade to Zane soon after the game begins.
• Toilet Humor: In spades — poop enemies can be spotted all over the sewer; one secret has Zane attacking living poop while it's on the toilet. There's an achievement for breaking every toilet in the game, and one level even features a mutant toilet as a boss fight.
• Trap Is the Only Option: The end of the Boise Potato Festival is an innocuous-looking forest route leading to the level exit. Crossing it on foot opens up a sudden pitfall into the next level, Crevasse of Repugnant. If the player attempts to skip the trap by flying using the Hackblood Talismen or the Rapid Mutilator, they'll find themselves stymied by an invisible wall. The only way to exit the level is to fall into the trap.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Warewolves use the Triple Helix Rocket Launcher, one of the weapons Zane can pick up. When killed, they only drop Hackblood energy.
• Variable Mix: The music becomes less intense or even more ambient when there are no enemies nearby.
• Weapon Specialization: According to the monitors in the X Slayer dojo, each of the X Slayers has a weapon preference: Mikey likes the S Blade, Zane uses the Double Pistols, and Steffanie prefers the Triple Helix Missile Launcher. Besides the Double Pistols, you can only pick up the other X Slayers' preferred weapons after they die.
• What the Hell, Player?: At the start of the sewer level, if the player makes Zane break the stuff in his own house (other than glass for Glass Blaster ammo), he'll ask why he's doing that and moan about how he spent his paychecks on that stuff.
• Whole-Plot Reference: A significant influence from The Matrix can be seen in the game, fitting the idea of it being made by a guy who never moved on from 1999. Zane is a jacket-garbed action-movie hero who wields two guns at once, has a form of psychic power from hacking, and enters a computer simulation at one point in the story.
• Working-Class Hero: Steffanie works at a Sloppo's fast food place when she's not training with the other X Slayers, and Zane likewise is an employee at the fictional dollar store Dollar$haver. In the "real" world, Zane Lofton is only slightly less of a retail slave, being promoted to management rather than still being an employee.
• Writer Revolt: In-Universe — there's a secret room left by Adam Chase, the programmer friend Zane got to make the game for him. It contains text saying that he regrets ever agreeing to help decades ago and that he's only following through because he pities Zane.
• Writing Around Trademarks: In-Universe — the companies in this game are knockoffs of already-fictional brands from Hypnospace Outlaw. Steffanie works at a fast food place called "Sloppo's", which is a clear stand-in for the food company Boppo's, while the soda machines feature "Grays Leak" cola, referencing the soda company Gray's Peak.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: If the spelling hasn't been massacred by the Stylistic Suck, then it's probably from Zane's attempts to make words look edgier, "Psyko Sindikate" for one. Then again, it's impossible to tell which trope is in play.
• Your Mom: Zane likes to make fun of victim's mothers (and other relatives) after killing them. Mevin likes rubbing it in Zane's face in return.