Superhot

SUPERHOT, SUPERHOT, SUPETHOP, etc.

The thing that made Portal so successful, you'd think, was it's wonderful excellence in terms of memetic suggestion.You can say a lot of things about Super Hot, but there's a temptation to say what the game instructs you to say instead of actually reviewing what the game actually is. You'd be surprised, once you're "in on the joke".

Me, I don't know, I don't think I really felt much for the joke.

Regardless: Superhot's description almost always starts with a lie. The line is, I believe, a shooter that moves when you move. This isn't precisely true, though it isn't precisely untrue either. Instead, Superhot is a very simple shooter with a single enemy type and a weird meta story I won't get into that moves faster as you move faster, but is always moving just a little.

The end result could actually be described as a FPS-puzzle game, though that 'just a little' thing and certain other components degrade that puzzle element as well. So you end up with a shooter that is puzzling, both in gameplay and description.

Superhot, etc




Ok so basically Superhot is a minimalist shooter with a minimal but somewhat amusing story coupled with an unusual gimmick that feels so obvious and yet rather refreshing. Time moves faster as you move, and combat is a one hit affair: Graze an enemy with a bullet and they shatter to pieces, but any hit and you're out of the game too. Enemies are always moving, and those seconds you waste considering do add up.

Because you can be one-shot pretty handily at all times the game can come off as a puzzler, as you put together the correct set of moves to get through a particular set up. Levels are pretty short, though you will find yourself repeating them a fair number of times. The game loads quickly and doesn't tend to spend a ton of time wandering away from gameplay, outside of the story, so you don't really mind.

If you like a little puzzle in your shooting, and like replicating action scenes from films, Super Hot is an interesting innovation. If you like consistent action or a feeling of constantly firing on all cylinders, it's not a great game at all. I fall somewhere between the two, so the game was good, but not great.

The story is ... An attempt at memetic, and amusing, but it does get in the way a little a few times when it shouldn't and doesn't tell you anything astounding. But it's still fine, and I enjoyed the sound design a lot.

There are a couple things really neat about Superhot that probably get washed away in discussions of the story and the main gimmick. Gunplay in Superhot is far more realistic than in just about any shooter I've ever played, or at least, it tries. I think bullets move slower than they do in real life, but there's still more leading your shots and timing the distance in your head. You can also dodge bullets during slow time, but it's not nearly as easy as you'd think.

Also, objects will knock each other out of the air. This is something of a mixed bag and does add randomness to the game, but being about to shoot bullets out of the air is pretty novel the first few times it happens. A bullet you thought was going to make a kill hitting another bullet does, after a fashion, get pretty annoying.

The game is also, to be honest, a bit sloppier in its design than I'd like. While it's true it comes off as more of a puzzle than an action game, the design actually impedes the action side a bit too much to really recommend. I tried playing the endless mode and it opens you, generally, in a situation of disadvantage that meant most attempts went one or two kills while unarmed before an armed enemy shot me in the back. This would repeat over and over, and rarely got into the zen loop of slaughtering enemies.

It just doesn't feel like the game is set up to allow for what the game is fun at for most players. It has that same taste roguelikes do, where I know someone is getting better than me and enjoying it more, but it becomes so repetitive along the way I just get tired of it.

Anyway, would I recommend Superhot? Yes, though it is simply put very short and runs the risk of getting repetitive quickly. Meaning I wouldn't recommend it at full price to most people, or even the recent sale price. You could buy Doom or Superhot for the same price. It's nice for an indie game to set a high price for itself, but frankly, I don't think it's worth it there.

I guess you could ultimately bring it down, in terms of simplicity, against the cost of a movie ticket. Is Superhot worth a movie ticket? Yes. More? No.