Private Detective Fred Neuman has things pretty ruff. Not only is the resident of Hope Falls, which suffers the effects of radiation leaking from the local nuclear power plant, but he has lost his head. While investigating the city's most visible philanthropist (and biggest mob boss), he stumbles across trouble and lands in a toxic waste dump missing his top story. The town mad scientist then stumbles across him and takes a whack at repairing the damage. I don't want to butcher the story with my attempt at retelling it, so to cut it short, Fred's out for some revenge.

Reanimated but missing his own noggin, Fred can use the heads of others he comes across to make his way through Hope Falls and get back in his right mind. Each of the eight heads you acquire gives you different attacks or attributes. For instance, the scarecrow head hurls crows out at foes while the stretchy flesh of the corpse head allows you to suck up gallons of a liquid or spew out fetid fumes.

As a gameplay mechanic it’s quite clever, especially since the developers had the presence of mind to make the heads valuable beyond their use in simple combat alone. There is a strong puzzle-solving element to Dead Head Fred which breaks up fights but can sometimes feel like simple exercises in button-mashing. Gorgeous graphics and detailed, living environments also help to push away the frustrations of a querulous camera and some awkward control choices. For instance, the right shoulder button can be used as a combat modifier and for blocking as well as camera control, while "X" serves both as the jump and follow up attack buttons. Context & timing make it less of an annoyance than it sounds, but the layout choice is still a bit of a… head scratcher.

Someone was in their right mind though when they choose the voice talent for the game. Overall sound effects and music are great, but the VO work by John C. McGinley of television's "Scrubs" breathes the real life into the game. His dialogue with other characters and his sarcastic commentary on your playing skills is fantastic, but beware, the ESRB's "Mature" rating the game bears is well warranted. In spite of the presence of irradiated zombies and skeletons, the tongue-in-cheek art direction still lead us to believe that DHF might be kid friendly. But after only a minute or two of gameplay it becomes clear this is no Disney's Gargoyles. Besides gruesome Mortal Kombat-style kills, the F-bomb is tossed around like a frisbee at the beach with characters even using it multiple times in a single sentence.

Even with the profanity, the game manages to pull off a high degree of charm that could give this new IP a lot of legs if they can clarify the target audience in a sequel. If you are one of those PSP owners who feels like they mistakenly bought a PS2 port machine (and your noodle can pardon the liberal use of French), then your Playstation Portable might find some redemption with the headless Fred Neuman in Hope Falls.