In an age where major studios are obsessed with cramming too much stuff into a game, there is still truth in the philosophy of do one thing really well instead. Superhot is a good example of a simple game with a unique mechanic, and focusing on that. A first person shooter/puzzle game, the "schtick" is that time only moves when you do. This single mechanic allows for an interesting array of level designs with various degrees of difficulties.
It's not entirely accurate to say that time only moves when you do. Standing still just slows it down a lot, but doesn't halt everything. The natural inclination when picking up a shooter is to run and gun, but that can be a death sentence here. Depending on where enemies spawn and what kind of weapons they have, you could be dead before you even know it. The more you go through a level, the more confident you might feel going quickly, but odds are that you'll want to take it slow. Learn the level while you stop to plan out your next move. It's an FPS with a meticulous, deliberate sensibility.
Everyone takes just one hit to be killed, which adds tension to movement. One hit and you're gone. On the flip side, a single well-placed shot will take out enemies as well, which can make a big difference while planning your next move. Of course, getting those shots just right is shockingly tricky. Most players experienced in the shooter genre are familiar with leading their targets. It takes a fair amount of getting used to when those targets are moving in a very stop and go fashion. You have time to take aim, but it can be difficult to judge how far you have to lead a moving enemy when they aren't moving a normal speed, or how you won't know if you hit them until you start moving again, which then often exposes you to enemy fire.
Suffice it to say that Superhot can get challenging at times. Many levels feel substantially more like a puzzle game than a shooter. Frustration can mount as you struggle to dodge bullets, find enemy spawn points, and figure out the best routes to take to succeed. While bullets are easy to track, thanks to long, red tracer tails, how close they need to come to actually hit you is sometimes infuriating. Being in the first person perspective, it can be hard to tell when a bullet is going to hit the body you can't see. Rounds don't actually have to hit you head on to kill you, which sometimes feels a little unfair. Still, it doesn't take long to figure out proper adjustments to avoid enemy fire. Some enemies are more troublesome than others (like ones with shotguns that spray multiple rounds at once), but the difficulty is pretty solid to provide for a sense of great satisfaction upon solving the levels.
Perhaps the most surprising element of Superhot is it's narrative. People will be drawn to the time altering mechanic, and they might be grabbed by its art style. However, the story is worthy of attention, too. Fans of meta-commentary about a medium - like how Undertale makes comments about games or Community makes comments about television - will likely be interested in Superhot, itself a game about playing a game. Every few levels, you are kicked out of "the game" to have a text chat with a friend about it. As you get deeper into it, mysterious things start happening outside your control. Someone or something is watching you, both in the game and out of it. A series of chanting "The mind is software," and "Bodies are disposable," culminates in the "in-game" you killing the "out of game" you. At this time, they introduce a new body-switching mechanic that is shades The Swapper. It doesn't get enough time in the game for players to use, really, but it still adds to the gameplay.
There is a VR version out there that actually is pretty awesome. Superhot lends itself to the VR experience pretty well. They continue with the meta in game/out of game story element (you have to pop a disk into the computer and then put on a VR head set in game to start the game), and its stylized white environments with red enemies makes for a less disorienting VR experience than a game like, say, Resident Evil VII which goes for realistic graphics. Virtual reality isn't quite graphically there yet, so the more realistic the look, the more off it feels. While the first few levels of Superhot VR are surprisingly fun, there is definitely a wall you slam into. Since time slows down when you stand still, it's actually much harder to control that mechanic with your head than with a traditional controller with two analog sticks. Even more, the game requires the use of Sony's motion controllers, which are frustratingly unreliable in their accuracy. When it only takes one hit to get game over, and when they set it up so that each level has multiple parts that you have to repeat when you start over, the lack of accuracy is devastating to the experience. It is worth checking out Superhot VR, and it does maybe highlight the potential of the technology, but it still has a long way to go before gaming because equally fun with it.
When you finally beat the game, the mysterious people behind it all in the story tell you that it is now your responsibility to spread the word and get more people to play Superhot, so their ranks can grow. I'd love to say I'm not part of their meta-advertising campaign, but the game is fun and interesting enough that it's hard not to recommend it. Perhaps the biggest problem with it is that it is so short, which just goes to show how good it is. "Innovative" gets thrown around a lot as a term to describe games, but it might not be so accurate to describe it as such. It is, however, quite unique and worth playing regardless.
REDUCTIVE RATING: Super hot! Play it!
Systems: PS4, XBox One, Windows, Linux
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