DIGITISER
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ

REVIEW: SUPERHOT (PC, Mac)

27/2/2016

16 Comments

 
PictureREDHEADS
I had a poo earlier. Don't judge me on this; we all do it. Even you, madam.

As usual, I took a magazine in there with me (specifically, an issue of How It Works, if you must know). If you'll excuse the phrase, it runs in the family; my grandad used to take a paper in with him, and do the crossword.

He'd be gone for up to an hour. I'm not quite that bad, but I still like to take my time.

I have done this all my life. Through good times and bad. It's a refuge. A chance to de-stress, and come out feeling a couple of pounds lighter, both physically and psychologically. These days, it's about the only time I can switch off enough to read.

On this occasion, I couldn't focus. I tried to read an article about Vikings, but it wasn't going in. I ended up throwing it across the bathroom. The reason? I could only think about one thing, and that thing was this thing: Superhot. As I have done every moment since I started playing Superhot. And when I'm not playing Superhot, all I want to do is play Superhot, and if I can't play Superhot, all I want to do is talk about Superhot.

PictureBATMAN
BEAUTIFULLY WHAT?
Superhot is beautifully simple; a first-person shoot 'em up, where time only moves when you do.

It looks like an even-more-stylised Mirror's Edge, and there's one of these meta-narratives they have nowadays, but at its heart, this is a game where you're dropped into subways, offices, and alleyways, and have to take out the bad guys. 

Grab the nearest handgun, machine-gun or shotgun and shoot. If there's no gun nearby, punch one of the bad guys in the face and take his.

Or pick up a briefcase or spanner and throw that at him. Or grab the baseball bat that's handily propped against a wall.

It's all standard FPS stuff - but because of the Max Payne-ish "bullet time" mechanic, never, ever, has a first-person shooter made me feel more like an action movie star.

I mean, that's what they usually want us to think we feel like in their games, but they trick us with cut-scenes and button hammering. Superhot does it for real, by slowing time to a crawl, giving us space to think before we act. The player's brain compresses it into seamless action.

Drop from skylight. Grab ashtray. Fling ashtray into bad guy's face. Grab his gun. Shoot him. Dodge bullets from somewhere off to your right. Wait for your gun to reload. Spin around and shoot the guy who just shot at you. Aim at the next bad guy coming round the corner. Click. Out of ammo. Throw gun at him. Jump towards him over computer desk. Grab his katana and slice him in two.

It's brilliant. Honestly. This review isn't going to do it justice, and that makes me feel a bit ill. Some reviewers have described Superhot like FPS chess, or FPS turn-based strategy. For me it's an action movie simulator.

There's a moment at the end of each stage where the words "SUPER HOT" flash on the screen accompanied by a computerised voice shouting the same. I swear that every time I heard it, I started to go all funny in the trousers. That's how good Superhot is.

PictureYOU LOOK SHATTERED...
THRUSTING
​The main thrust of Superhot is over in a couple of hours, but there are plenty of extras: an endless mode, challenges, various modifiers. It feels generous for the relatively low price.

​I can't really complain about what's there, but I still wanted even more than it gave me; I never want to stop playing Superhot. 

There are surprises along the way: a new ability, a story twist that actually made me angry (in a wholly enjoyable way), and other secrets tucked into its hem.

If there's anything I have to gripe about, it's that it didn't feel entirely stable. It crashed or froze often on my Macbook Pro. Not often enough to be an issue, but more than I'd have liked. Also, the meta-narrative stuff feels like a bit of a cliche now. 

It reminds me of back when I took drama at college. One time, we were split into groups, and each group was given three words that would be the only dialogue in a vignette we were expected to come up with. Every group's scene saw them pretending to be students in a drama class (well, except for my group: in ours, I pretended to be Jesus... so take from that what you will). For whatever reason, that was the default scenario... and it's becoming the same with a few too many indie games.

That whole you-have-no-free-will-and-you're-in-a-game thing was novel in Bioshock, but its getting hackneyed.

But still. I'll forgive it in the case of Superhot, because Superhot is the best game of 2016. I don't care what else gets released. Nothing is going to come close. Nothing is going to top it. Nothing. It's the game I've been waiting for. It's the game that changed my poo routine. My, if you will, pootine.

SUMMARY: All bullet time all the time... It's not often I say this, but can every game between now and the end of forever please rip this off?
SCORE: 1,000,000,000,000% out of 1,000,000,000,000.5

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
REVIEW: FIREWATCH (PC, PS4, MAC)
REVIEW: PONY ISLAND (PC/MAC)

REVIEW: FAR CRY PRIMAL (PS4, XBOX ONE, PC)

16 Comments
Zombelina link
27/2/2016 04:52:01 pm

So - you liked it then?

Reply
Zombelina link
27/2/2016 04:54:00 pm

Actually - if I had the money, that review would make me go out and buy a gaming pc. I feel like I'm really missing out.

Reply
Mr Biffo
27/2/2016 05:33:24 pm

Yeah, I'm feeling that way too. Thankfully I've got a decent Mac, but PC is where all the innovation is happening in gaming.

Reply
omniro
27/2/2016 08:11:18 pm

It's also coming out on Xbox One.

Reply
Mr Biffo
27/2/2016 08:19:08 pm

Yuss indeed.

Omniro
27/2/2016 11:58:20 pm

I have just completed the story and I must say...

Superhot is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!

Reply
Neilo
28/2/2016 04:42:34 am

Stop your fence sitting, Biffo

Reply
Cheapy MacCheapskates
28/2/2016 08:49:55 am

I read this review and decided to go buy it. Then I saw the £18 price tag.

Sorry, but no thanks.

I have a super hard line policy of never, ever paying more than £8 for a non-physical product. £7.99, that's as far as I'll go for a pure digital game.

Now, put it in a box, with manual, and boxart, and a disc, and the ability to resell it, and I'll go high, real high, £40, maybe even £60. Hell, I once bought Taromarou on Sega Saturn for £200.

But it's got to be real. Physical. Tangible. A commodity asset to sit on my shelf and later resell.

I've got online portfolios of games I bought in digital, for about £5 a piece, hundreds of them, and I never play them. I just can't go as high as £18. That's MADNESS.

Reply
Cheapy again
28/2/2016 09:15:20 am

OH MY GOD - IT'S ONLY A 2 HOUR GAME?! AND THEY WANT $25 FOR IT?!?! WTF?!

I can literally walk into CEX and randomly pick just any physical game off a shelf and get more bang for my buck.

Yeah, it won't be GAME OF THE YEAR, but... I just can justify it. It's why I've never liked arcade games. 50p for a couple of minutes always felt like a waste when the home port allowed indefinite play.

Sorry man. :(

Reply
colincidence link
29/2/2016 07:49:24 am

Technically it's a 6-hour game if you factor in the time you spend complaining about it.

Superbeast 37
28/2/2016 09:19:33 am

Not interested in buying it but when I saw the countless YouTube reviews my first thought was indeed that I'd like to see it ripped off by the big games and perhaps replace QTE's.

Reply
Super Bad Advice
28/2/2016 09:59:12 am

Yeah, it's not epically long. But the price is barely more than what you'd pay to see a film, or a couple of beers. And piracy/regurgitation aside that's money gone for good as opposed to something replayable. For 2 hours of innovative, addictive gameplay that's a reasonable entry fee. Sure, there are games that cost the same/less that last far, far longer, but if we were all looking at most game for cash as the primary deciding factor we'd all be down the park playing chess with tramps using pieces we'd made out of pine cones.

Granted I'm coming at this from the point of view of a wizened old git with disposable income, but not too long ago we'd be dropping more cash for a crummy home conversion of an arcade game that by design had virtually no longevity.

Reply
Dordon Zoop
28/2/2016 11:54:59 am

I took my iPad to the bathroom with me so I could read this while having a poo. THE PROUD TRADITION LIVES ON.

Reply
Omniro
28/2/2016 05:00:40 pm

I don't understand why people are so upset at the price tag just because it's got a short story mode. How many people really play video games just to be told a story? The main appeal in Superhot is in the gameplay, and there are many gameplay modes beyond the short story that you can play indefinitely.

Reply
Leigh
5/3/2016 07:47:47 pm

I'm not bothered which games rip off which mechanics, I just want more reviews to start with the line "I had a poo earlier."

Reply
PanamaJoe
21/3/2016 05:30:20 pm

I don't like digging up old articles but I thought this one deserved a quick revisit. I was curious if Superhot's fans are still playing the game 3 weeks later and whether their opinion has changed any. Mr. Biffo?

I put in about 3 hours in total. I can appreciate a short game if it is a thrill to play but I found Superhot quite tedious after a while. I was more relieved than excited to have completed it. A box ticked. I finished one of the challenges too and that's been it. I've gotten all I'm going to get out of it.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    This section will not be visible in live published website. Below are your current settings:


    Current Number Of Columns are = 2

    Expand Posts Area =

    Gap/Space Between Posts = 12px

    Blog Post Style = card

    Use of custom card colors instead of default colors = 1

    Blog Post Card Background Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Shadow Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Border Color = current color

    Publish the website and visit your blog page to see the results

    Picture
    Support Me on Ko-fi
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    RSS Feed Widget
    Picture

    Picture
    Tweets by @mrbiffo
    Picture
    Follow us on The Facebook

    Picture

    Archives

    December 2022
    May 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014


    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ