Game review: Superhot (2016)

The game that I will be going over today in my review is both one of the most fun games I have played in the past couple of years, while also being a pretty strange game in general, it's called Superhot. Superhot is a kitchen cooking simulator where you strip down and rub cooking oil and grease all over yourself an FPS indie/action game which was released back in February of 2016 for the PS4/PC/Xbox One. Superhot was developed and published by Superhot Team (Kinda surprised they just went with something so obvious for their studio name), using the Unity game engine. (As of now, this is the only game that they have developed and released.) While the game is labeled as a traditional FPS game, it is far from being just that.

Obviously I'm not going to try to argue that this game isn't a first person shooter, because at its core it most certainly is. But, it's definitely something unlike any other FPS game and gives a breath of fresh air into the genre. You can't just go in guns blazing in this game, each and every action you take needs careful planning before initiating it. You need to stay 2 steps ahead of the enemy AI, or you'll more than likely find yourself having to start the level over again. Everything in this game relies on having good timing. And, that good timing is up to the player to figure out. And, once you do get the timing right, this game is just non stop fun.

One of the things which I find really fascinating about Superhot is that it is about Virtual Reality while not being a VR game itself. (Well, there is a VR version of the game that was released shortly after this version. But, I'm too broke to afford a VR headset.) The game starts off with you turning on your VR device and checking around the system. A friend notifies you via email about an awesome leaked program for the VR device under the name Superhot.exe, which of course leads you into trying it out for yourself.

After launching it, you're thrust into a virtual world of different levels that don't really seem to be all that connected. It focuses you on eliminating hostile enemies by whatever means necessary to the level at hand. Everything in the game is very simplistic in design. The world is almost entirely white shapes with the enemy AI being red humanoid figures. The weapons which you can use are all black, as to be easily distinguishable from the rest of the world. Said weapons can range from using your fists, a melee weapon like a baseball bat or of course some different firearms. After playing through several of the levels, the system glitches and disconnects you from the system. The same friend from before notifies you of a new leaked version of the game which fixes the glitches so you won't get pushed out of the game again.

I won't go too much farther into the story elements of the game as I don't want to spoil anything for people who haven't played it yet. But, I will state my opinion on the narrative of it. While I appreciated that it was trying to do something a bit different and strange compared to most games, I felt like the plot of the game was its weak point. I definitely enjoyed the mindless action a lot more than I enjoyed the segments where it would take you out of it. It was definitely an interesting tale being told in the game, but most of the time I booted it up I just wanted to fight heaps of enemies instead of worrying about the story.

Alright, so lets talk about the gameplay of this game. Superhot plays like a normal FPS game for the most part, but has one major difference that sets it apart from the rest of the genre. Time can only move when the player starts to move. This is why being meticulous with your planning is a big part of the game, as the game gives you an infinite amount of time to make a plan of attack before you start moving. Once you start moving to attack, so will the enemy. This also means his bullets will be heading your way, but again, they only move if you move. Having it set up this way gives you a unique dodge system as you can just sidestep the bullets.

Getting in close to an enemy for some melee combat is also handy and possible with this system. It's handy not only for attacking enemies but to disarm them as well. Punching an enemy will make them drop their weapon allowing you to grab it mid air and take care of business. You can also pick up quite a few different melee weapons that are throwable, which will make the enemies stagger back giving you time to rush them. These different styles of combat really link together well and make for an oh so satisfying experience as you play through the game.

After you've finally shot, beaten and sliced your way through the opposition and finished everything up, the game then plays back everything you've done in a real time mode allowing you to feel like an ultra badass. While it wasn't really needed for the game to be fun, it's definitely an entertaining little mechanic that they've added in, making you feel like a hero from a movie. (Though you already do kind of get that feeling from the slow time parts of the game. They're quite reminiscent of the Matrix movies really.)

After you play through the story mode of the game, you'll unlock two separate modes which you can then play through. One is called Endless mode, while the other is called Challenge mode. These modes were made to focus on the gameplay without any narrative being involved, and are what you'll really want to unlock since they give a lot of variety to the gameplay. Endless mode does what it suggests and gives you an endless onslaught of enemies to fight with. This mode just keeps you going until you die basically, though you can choose to alter the settings a bit if you'd like.

Challenge mode is probably my favorite part of the game, personally. It gives you challenges to attempt while putting you into each stage of the story mode. It just happens to cut out all of the narrative bits allowing you to focus on the gameplay itself. The challenges range from all kinds of stuff. One might only allow you to use your fists to finish the level, another challenge might require you to do a speedrun of the level and finish it in a small amount of time. Generally pretty much every challenge was pretty fun to complete, and forces you to play in ways that you probably wouldn't have otherwise.

Overall, I think this game is probably one of the most entertaining FPS games that you can play right now. While the combat could be a turn off for some people, I highly recommend that you check it out and give it a spin. I can't comment on the VR version (Though I assume it is probably even more fun), but this main game was really enjoyable and I had a lot of fun with it. I do think the story was a bit intrusive at times, but it was unique and wasn't horrible or anything by any means. Either way, this is a good game and you're missing out if you don't check it out!

Thanks for stopping by to check out the review, my dood and doodette's. Appreciate it!