SUPERHOT, by SUPERHOT Team
Ok, this is a bit of a weird one to review. So much has been said about SUPERHOT that I don’t really know if I really have anything to add (other than “It’s the most innovative shooter I’ve played in years!”). Still, I just finished the sequel, Mind Control Delete, and I feel like I should at least give my thoughts on the series, and that starts with the very first game, so I’ll do my best to come up with something original.
SUPERHOT is a first-person shooter with a kind of minimalist art style. Every enemy is a generally polygonal red dude, and all of the environments are perfectly white. Despite the monochromaticity, though, these levels are surprisingly detailed, and there are little indicators and background props that you won’t notice if you just focus on the shooting, the devs definitely didn’t need to put that much effort, but it’s nice to see it paying off, it really gives off the feel of a stereotypical level from a triple-A shooter.
That actually brings me to another creative aspect of the game, its story is really something else. It isn’t a really big presence throughout the game, but it’s very interesting, and I’d recommend you skip to the next paragraph now if you haven’t played it, because I’ll be spoiling from here on out. The game you play, the moment to moment “shooting red dudes” is, in-fiction, its own game, the sinister SUPERHOT.exe, designed to hook players on its gameplay and assimilate their minds to use for some nefarious purpose or another. Throughout the game, you see the character you play slowly lose control as the program takes over their life via a series of text messages. The “cutscenes”, if they can even be called that, are very low budget, but still managed to keep me hooked throughout my time with the game.
The other element that kept me hooked, however, was the gameplay. I’ve been putting it off long enough, but SUPERHOT is much more than just another fps. The entirety of the gameplay revolves around the mechanic that “time only moves when you move.” Enemies and objects remain nearly stationary until you look around or take a step, and as you might imagine, this changes everything. It transforms the game from one of reflex to one of strategy, of predicting your enemies movements so that you can land the perfect shot, and being hyper aware of your surroundings at all times. It’s such a simple, elegant twist on the classic formula that I’m honestly shocked there haven’t been more clones of the game, it seems like the kind of indie gem that would attract such hounds.
This gameplay also complements the simplistic art style I mentioned above, as it feels like more of a statement. It screams “we don’t need detail”, and I’m inclined to agree. The relative simplicity of the art style accentuates the creativity and nuance of the gameplay to a degree that’s very hard to pull off, I’ve seen games that think they’re cleverer than they are make the mistake of trying to stand out on gameplay alone, but SUPERHOT manages it excellently.
So there are my thoughts on SUPERHOT! I hope I had enough original stuff to say that you weren’t bored. Needless to say at this point I really recommend the game, and it’s on most major platforms so if you want to check it out, there you go! Thank you to everyone reading this, and please remember to take walks daily!
See my thoughts on the sequel, SUPERHOT: Mind Control Delete, here!