PAPERHEAD puts a pencil next to the shotgun. Given the cardboard surroundings, that almost sounds sensible. Then the pencil starts making bombs.
PAPERHEAD arrived on PC on October 9, 2026, according to its Steam page. Developed by Paperhead te4m and published by HypeTrain Digital, it combines fast first-person combat with horror. The innocent craft-project appearance comes with a considerable blood warning.
The important object is the pencil. HypeTrain describes a tool that can create bombs and doors, with kicking folded into those interactions. That gives this particular shooter a good question to answer: how much trouble can a player cause before reaching for the gun?
Draw first, shoot later
The appeal is in having to think about where things go. A kick that moves an object can change an encounter: there is suddenly a distance to judge, an angle to find, a reason to get close when staying back would be safer. Add a tool that creates objects and the player gets to supply some of the trouble.
That is a promising use for a pencil in a shooter. It gives the player something to arrange before pulling the trigger, with the possibility of finding a solution the room did not immediately advertise. Whether PAPERHEAD gives those experiments enough space remains an open question.
The less appealing version would be a series of instructions disguised as freedom: draw this, kick it there, proceed. A clever tool can become a chore surprisingly quickly when every room demands the same trick.
A feature list cannot settle that.
Unbroken combat footage would tell us more about how often players reach for the pencil, and what they actually do with it.
Cardboard has to carry the fight
Cardboard is a good material for this particular kind of unease. It suggests something flimsy and handmade, the sort of structure an elbow could ruin. Put violence into it and a familiar craft project becomes unpleasant. The setting gives the horror somewhere to start before the story has explained a thing.
But the paper has another job: keep the fight readable. While moving quickly, a player needs to spot an enemy, judge the distance and find a way out. Busy scenery can interfere with all three. The visual style deserves attention in ordinary combat as well as in the screenshot that persuaded someone to click.
The PC review at The Outpost awarded PAPERHEAD 8.5/10 and reported smooth play on a Ryzen 7 5700G and RTX 3060. It did not publish measured frame-rate results. That is one reviewer’s experience, not a benchmark for other machines.
MaisFPS has not played PAPERHEAD for this article. This is a reading of its published premise and early coverage, so it offers no hands-on verdict on the campaign or performance.
The pencil is the reason to look more closely.
Watch a stretch of routine combat, long enough for the trailer’s best trick to wear off. If players keep finding uses for it, the school supplies may have a career here.
Got a different take? I’d love to hear it. hello@maisfps.com
