Mike Mc Grath reviews SUPERHOT…
SUPERHOT is one of those games that would be made even better with a VR device, so until the Flickering Myth higher-ups give me one….. No? OK. The gameplay is pretty simple; time only moves when you move and 1 hit kills on both you and your enemies. While this may sound pretty simple it makes SUPERHOT one of the most interesting shooters I’ve played in a long time.
The game drops you into 30 different levels, all of which feel like a scene from an action movie. The scenes themselves have very little story content except the occasional flash of words like “COME WITH US” or if your thorough enough you will find secret terminals in the levels which will let you ask the developers of the game question (more on that later). In short, kill red guys and avoid red bullets; simple enough but it can get very hard especially in later levels where loads of enemies are coming at you in a very confined space.
The plot itself is interesting if not a bit nonsensical at the start. The player is sent a crack for the developer’s website which allows you to play superhot.exe. As the player goes along the game gets more and more meta to the point where I was glad I didn’t own a VR device because I don’t think I could handle another existential crisis. The pay-off at the end is actually pretty good and again it does really hammer home the meta-story SUPERHOT was aiming for. The main story itself only took me an hour to complete but after that a series of challenges and an endless mode are introduced. The challenges put certain restrictions on what you can use in a level, for example a katana only playthrough of the game. Endless mode is exactly what is says on the tin. You are dropped into an area and kill as many enemies as you can. More challenges and endless mode maps are unlocked when you hit a certain kill amount on each map, so there is still plenty to do after the main game ends.
But let’s be honest its the action is where SUPERHOT’s focus is and it delivers n spectacular fashion. With time being controlled by your movement it makes the game feel like a puzzle and the only solution is bullets. There is one section where you start off unarmed in an elevator with 3 guns pointed at your head. The process of disarming one guy and then blasting all 3 away while still inside the elevator, then as the elevator doors open you are met with 2 shotgun totting enemies. All this was in the space of 20 seconds or if you watch your replay, it takes all of 7 seconds. Moments like this have a level of excitement and ingenuity I haven’t seen in a shooter since the portal gun was introduced.
The only bad thing I can say about this game is that the hit detection can be a bit off sometimes. It’s not Battlefield 4 bad but it can cause some frustrations where the bullet you knew wouldn’t hit you still hits you. Other than that I can’t fault the game in any other way. I would recommend that anyone who likes FPS or even puzzle games to give this a try. A VR device would add a lot more to the experience too.
Rating: 8/10
Mike Mc Grath
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Originally published March 2, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
