SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years. SUPERHOT knows this. SUPERHOT even makes a joke out of those exact words at one point during the game, but it's the truth. There wasn't a single moment in SUPERHOT where I wasn't having my mind blown in some way, be it from finding a new way to ruin an enemy's day or one of the many mid-level fourth wall breaks that elevates SUPERHOT from being something much more than just a stylish shooter and into the realm of pure first person genius.
SUPERHOT does not play like most FPS games. In fact, if I had to find its closest relative, it would probably be the similarly ultra-stylized and hyper violent Hotline Miami, another game focused on maintaining a consistent level of killing things while avoiding a hit. Like in Hotline, a single attack will be enough to do you in, be it a bullet or the broadside of a baseball bat. If you play it like a normal shooter, running around and spraying at anything that moves, you will die. Enemies are mobile, they're accurate, and they will stop at nothing to have you dead. Thankfully, time is on your side. When you're not moving, time in SUPERHOT moves at a snail's pace, and will only begin to move any faster when you're in motion. You can seamlessly transition from a moment of slow calculating and rapid carnage whenever you want, and then you can slow time again as quickly as you sped it up. This makes the game as tense as it is flashy, constantly calling on you to make do or die decisions. After all, there's only so long you can stay in suspended animation before the enemy pulls the trigger.
Levels are appropriately short, most of which lasting only a minute or so. Like the previously mentioned Hotline Miami, you can just hit R at any time and jump back to the start of a stage after a few seconds of loading. Beating levels might not take long, but they sure feel like an accomplishment when conquered, made even better with every level finishing with a constant loop of your run going without slowdowns playing, showing just how insane the game's movements are at a normal speed.
And herein lies the largest, and arguably only real flaw with SUPERHOT. It's short. I had beat SUPERHOT's story in just under two hours, and you only unlock new 'challenge modes' to play once the main game is complete, most of which are just modifiers for the existing story levels. Basically, SUPERHOT is the equivalent to getting just one scoop of the most delicious ice cream you've ever had. It tastes like nirvana, but it's gone before you know it.
However, this doesn't bother me too much. The feature-length play time I had with SUPERHOT was easily some of the most fun I've had with a game this year. To sum it all up, SUPERHOT is simply super.
Review Summary
A genius shooter close to rivaling legends, sadly cut down by its minuscule running time.
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