Superhot

Although it's often used this way, the phrase "there's nothing else like it" isn't an inherently positive thing. Mentioning something as unique does not specifically tell anyone if that thing is any good, however, when I say that there's really not a whole else like Superhot, I want to make sure that I add that as well being different, that the game is pretty great. Starting from a weird browser-based prototype into a Kickstarter project into a full-fledged release, Superhot has finally seen the light of day, and shines with it's striking aesthetic and addicting gameplay. You might even say it's one of the most influential first-person shooters in years...

Superhot is a game about time and your perception of it as you play. Time moves at an absolute crawl when you are still, and will only go at real time speed when you are in motion, either physically moving, or even looking around on the spot. There are basically three commands - pick up, shoot, and throw - every enemy pretty much looks identical, all the walls are white, and there is very limited music. Despite all of this, the minimalism comes together into a package that feels tight and complete.

Although the primary combat does mostly involve the shooting - or throwing - of firearms, it's hard to call the game a true "first-person shooter". Trying to stand your ground and fight the oncoming waves of bad guys is a sure-fire way to end up dead as you only take one hit to go down (thankfully this is also the case with enemies). The stoppage of time turns the game into more of puzzle game than a straight-up shooter, with a brutal learning curve that comes across like a first-person Hotline Miami. You may go through a whole level thinking you're stumbling over yourself as you scramble from cover to cover, from weapon to weapon, but at the completion of every level it shows your run in real time, which almost never fails to make you feel like a bad ass. It can be hard to describe specific feelings sometimes, but there's very little quite like watching the replay of the first time you beat a level on your first try. The one knock to be made about the difficulty is that the last level is unnecessarily hard and crushing, causing me to eventually just get lucky with enemy behavior to finish it.

The story of Superhot is equally as avant-garde as it's visuals. You are an unnamed player - "yourself", I assume - who is communicating with a friend over text chat who prompts you to try the latest game superhot.exe. As you progress further through the game it becomes clear that something or someone sinister has become aware of your presence and is looking to make an example out of you. Going any further would risk telling too much, both because some of the narrative bits are decidedly creepy, and also because there really aren't that many. For a game that takes around three or four hours to finish, the sparse story-telling is surprisingly effective at evoking tone.

That's really what Superhot does best, and how it sets itself apart from other games: the tone and feel of it. Whether it's the colour palette - environments white, weapons black, enemies red - or the game within a game narrative or the replay shouting "SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT." at you every time you finish a level, everything is just so cool. Reloading the level is very quick, giving way to a lot of "one more time, this time I can do it" moments as you never want to put it down. While some new mechanics are eventually added in near the end, the core ideas never really change, creating a consistent experience.

That experience can be elongated by an endless mode that unlocks upon completion of the campaign, as well as the well hidden secrets in each level that encourage replaying those levels, but the core story is so satisfying, even for how short it is, that it would be easy to recommend without them. Superhot is a rare demonstration of style and substance that works because it's so contained, wrapped up in a cyberpunk depiction of VR that feels especially bizarre in a world where VR becomes more prevalent. It's not just a shooter, but it's not just a puzzle game, it is it's own beast, and, in the best way possible, there's nothing else like it.