SUPERHOT Review

Until recently, there was a consensus about how first-person shooter games had gone stale. With franchises like BioShock and Far Cry turned into a theatre of gun-inspired masturbation, gamers started craving a bit more variety. Even the most exciting games in this genre released a year ago were nothing but rehashed iterations of what we’d seen over and over, and those that represented a light at the end of the tunnel were at best distasteful. Evolve, for all the hype that preceded it, became an example of derisive games. Battlefield: Hardline was a train wreck. This trend continued until late last year, lethargically losing momentum. I believe that SUPERHOT symbolises the apex in the reversal of these trends, attempting to be something of an ‘anti-shooter’. For me, there’s little doubt that SUPERHOT originated as a statement against these particular types of games, but not in the way you imagine.

You will find yourself confined in extremely narrow white-washed office spaces, elevators or parking lots, generally surrounded by an aggressive mob of polygonal and faceless red people. Level by level, your job is simple: kill them all. The catch in this game is that time is halted and only resumes at normal speed as you move. This allows you to reevaluate your options thoroughly, having had a good look around you and at a snapshot of the room’s situation: bullets hissing around you, enemies bursting into thousand crystals and others swinging their bat at you. Having the ability to react according your enemies’ actions moment by moment permits you to take on challenges that, otherwise, it’d be impossible to accomplish. Arguably, this would make the game very easy, but whereas SUPERHOT is never excruciatingly challenging, being swarmed by too many shotgun-wielding enemies and making it out alive is no piece of cake.

At the beginning of the game, you realise that the main menu has been integrated into the story. You will be chucked out to it at the end of some levels in order to introduce a new part of the plot through a simulated chat room. Here’s where all conceptions of a traditional shooter start to fall apart. Each level is acknowledged as what it is, a level inside a videogame, giving SUPERHOT a meta-narrative within the game. The main menu even includes different folders that have no bearing with the game itself, and emulates an old computer. However, the game soon tells you that SUPERHOT is not just a game. If we discern two levels within SUPERHOT, we see there’s one that emulates reality, and another one a videogame. The story of the game relies on the former, reducing the latter to a series of levels that try to convey the same message as the story through the mechanics. In spite of this story being intriguing, it is considerably vague, to say the least, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you take a different interpretation. Here’s mine.

This game is perfectly aware of the polish and impeccability of the core mechanics. The level of difficulty is calibrated just enough to present a challenge, but never one that feels unattainable. SUPERHOT knows that you’re enjoying every second of the shooting and removes you from it to show you that you don’t have any control over the game. As soon as you jump into the game, you will be hooked and mesmerised by the smooth and satisfactory gameplay. What’s more, the short campaign length will not be representative of the hours spent in the game. Once you finish it, a plethora of challenges and modes will unlock, giving you a chance to loop back into each level like a zombie. The ‘Endless’ mode shows how this game is focused purely on its mechanics, without the need to change the pace or environments artificially. It is no surprise that one of the main criticisms I have seen of this game is on its need of more content, and new ways to explore the core system. The campaign, however short, sets the foundations of what this game is about. You’re not an army hero, decorated for massacring a legion of non-white people. You haven’t got a real reason to do each mission, other than how the fun you’re having. You are the closest it gets to a thug, whose merry enjoyment of a game soon turns into a murder assignment. And why would you take this assignment? You simply can’t stop playing the game. As much as you can control the flow of time, the reality is that the game has control over you.

One of the main ideas that runs throughout the game is the notion of mind/body dualism. It repeatedly asks you give your body up, and embrace the software that is your mind. In SUPERHOT, your mind is in a white-and-red world, full of guns and objects to throw at people’s heads. Your body, however, it’s not. This is further reinforced by the ability that you will later acquire of switching your body by seizing the enemies’. And when you do this, it becomes clear that you’re no special flower. You’re another red polygonal thug with no other motivation than smashing other red people to smithereens. It’s never clear what your assigned mission is, which begs the question of why you’ve taken it, and why you’re shooting people in the face so mindlessly. However, I think that SUPERHOT offers an explanation: it’s because you like it.

Unlike games like Hotline Miami, SUPERHOT openly acknowledges that it is a game. So when SUPERHOT tries to talk you out of the compulsion of going back into the game over and over, you keep playing because you don’t care about it. And that’s why there’s no grand reason why you’re killing. As I said, you’ve completely submerged yourself in the game and, when you see yourself, your actual red, polygonal body, playing the game, does not make any difference. Reality is at this point way behind us, and it’s the moving time, the shooting, and the killing people that has all your attention. Not as a statement about what a psycho you are, but just pointing out that having fun in a game which involves shooting does not say anything about you other than you enjoy how the game plays out.

So In a way, SUPERHOT is an ‘anti-shooter’ because it talks about shooters in general, and it denounces the hype, the over-the-top stories and the macho protagonist. It dissects why we like shooters and points out the absurdity in comparing shooting a virtual gun at somebody to at a real person. It exposes the trappings that people encounter playing these games. As the game says, our mind get abstracted. You got that far because you enjoyed how the mechanics played out, and even though there was not a substantial plot, the kick the game gave you was still enough to recommend it to your friends. It can even be considered an apology of why we like these games. Yes, they’re silly, teen violence, but also products designed for you to have fun.