Superhot is one of the most innovative games I’ve ever played. It’s basically a first-person shooter interwoven with a puzzle game. Time only moves when you do and you have to use that ability to evade bullets and shoot, slice and bash foes. You can only get hit once so your timing has to be precise. If it isn’t, you have to start the level from the beginning. Most levels are quite small so it’s not that much of an issue. However, many levels place you in almost impossible situations that can either be approached through a trial-and-error method or through thought. Thinking your moves through rather than just going with the flow will serve you well as the game can get frustrating at times. Be mindful of your surroundings as enemies tend to spawn from any direction. Overall, Superhot is an incredible experience even though it’s quite a short one. It evolves the shooter genre and presents something truly unique to players.
One of the most striking features of the game has to be the graphical style. It’s stunning to say the least. The game features gorgeous textures and only a few colors. Red, white and black are the only ones used throughout the experience. Red is used for enemies. Black is used for objects you can use as weapons. White is the color of everything else. The models are also angular and have a crystalline appearance. This is deliberate as enemies and objects shatter to pieces when they’re destroyed or consumed. I don’t think I’ve seen such a graphical style in any game before. It reminds me of titles like Limbo because they dare to do what other developers don’t want to when it comes to graphics. The risk pays off in a big way. Superhot is a triumph in terms of art as well.
Superhot’s campaign lasts only two hours and has over thirty levels. Once you beat the campaign that focuses on transcendence and has quite an interesting plot, you unlock challenges and an endless mode. This increases the replayability of the title. There are also other features like an Instagram clone called Killstagram where you can upload your gameplay for other players to see. The plot is presented as a MS-DOS chat sequence which turns into something quite different. Your friend sends you a message to try out a new game and everything just goes downhill from there. I won’t get into details as that would spoil it but the story is quite good albeit confusing in the beginning.
As alluded to earlier, timing and precision are key to success in Superhot. You have to anticipate where your enemies will be and have to shoot a few paces ahead of them as bullets can take a while to travel. Something to keep in mind is that using weapons also moves time ahead and it’s not just limited to the directional controls. This presented somewhat of a challenge as I initially thought only using W, A, S and D forwarded time. The left click can become another mechanic if you wish to use it. This increases the complexity and gives you more control over how fast time moves forward.
The game also gets more complex as the levels go on. Initially you’re only given a gun. Then you can bash some enemies with a bat. Then you can slice them up with a katana. Lastly, you’re given the ability to invade their minds and take over their bodies. Using all of these abilities together makes for an interesting experience and gives you plenty of ways to tackle any combat scenario. Each player will find their own way to win and this is what makes Superhot so different. I went on the Killstagram site and saw moves that I could’ve never imagined doing myself.
Even on my laptop which has a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 processor and a 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics card, Superhot ran at a smooth 60 FPS no matter what. The settings aren’t that expansive but considering that the game runs this well on a lot of devices, they don’t have to be. Unfortunately, demanding PC gamers will find this unacceptable and the developers need to give us more control over the resolution and frame rate. Having a FOV slider in there will also be of use. These are standards that PC gamers expect nowadays and I’m surprised that they’re missing here.
There was one major and bizarre issue I encountered. I had to play the game in windowed mode because I couldn’t figure out how to make it fullscreen. I’m not even sure there’s an option to make it fullscreen to be honest. If it’s there then it’s buried in the settings somewhere which I wasn’t able to find after considerable searching. This was rather annoying I must say. Making the graphics menu clearer or adding these extra options will definitely improve the experience. It’s a shame that the title is let down on this front.
The Xbox One version has even more problems. The first issue that immediately becomes apparent is the severe aliasing. The jaggies are the size of the saw blades you see in hardware stores. The edges look horrendous on larger screens and while this might seem like a small issue to some, it can be quite a jarring experience. Secondly, for some odd reason it’s very hard to aim properly at a distance. This points to unoptimized controls. What’s odd is that you normally attribute this to a fluctuating frame rate but the frame rate is smooth throughout Superhot’s duration on Xbox One. Maybe adding an auto-aim option can fix this because it’s quite annoying and frustrating. I hope the developers are aware of these problems. I imagine they are because the issues are rather pronounced. Additionally, why isn’t there any vibration when you shoot a gun or strike an enemy?
Summary
In conclusion, Superhot is a game that everyone should play. It furthers the shooter genre that has stagnated for a while. Despite its short playtime, the title offers an amazing experience that can’t be found in any other game out there. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. I would recommend that you pick it up on PC instead of Xbox One as the experience is vastly superior. The controls are tight as you don’t have to struggle with them. The graphics, even on the limited “Fast” setting, are superior. I don’t understand how a vastly underpowered laptop can run Superhot better than an Xbox One but it does in this case. All of the problems I encountered on Xbox One point to a slightly unoptimized experience. I would’ve tolerated the severe aliasing issues had the controls been tight but I struggled to line up shots at a distance all the time. I experienced none of this on PC. I’ve only come across this problem in games where the developers haven’t taken the time to adapt the mechanics for use with an Xbox One controller. This is why the scores for the two versions are different. It wouldn’t be fair to consumers had these issues been ignored in favor of simply updating the review to reflect another platform. They need to be highlighted so the developer can hopefully update the game and fix these problems.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.