So, before I start talking about this, I was not expecting to like this game.
I dislike FPS games. I always have. They just aren't very fun to me. But, this game, this game has changed that. SUPERHOT is a great game, it's mechanics are interesting, the gameplay is fun, and the game doesn't overstay it's welcome. (except for something I'll talk about later) The game can pretty much run on anything that can play video games, the story is amazing once you get past the tutorial, and it is very addicting. I want to talk about the gameplay for a bit. The gameplay/mechanics follow this:
Time is frozen, and only unfreezes once you move. That's the simple explanation of it. But, the game is so much more. It's less like an FPS game and more like a strategy game. You always have one life. Once you get hit, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the level, kind of like Geometry Dash. Some levels give you checkpoints, but most do not. You can also throw your weapon, breaking it and making an enemy stunned and (if they have one) dropping their weapon. Near the end (and in certain challenges and endless, we will touch on that later.) the game ramps up in difficulty, giving you more enemies to defeat. You have to start caring about where you are, what enemies you kill, what enemies you don't, and what guns you have. But that's not even all. I won't spoil it, but near the end you get an ability to warp to and become an enemy. Unfortunately, you don't get to have said enemy's weapon. This ability recharges quite fast, but since time is stopped very often, it might take a long while to recharge. That's about it for the mechanics, but you have to use them all together to win levels, and I find that very interesting. Before we get into the nitty gritty of the story, let's talk about post-game. In post-game, you unlock challenges and endless. They are both really fun, if not extremely difficult. It is a good amount of post-game that will last you multiple hours. But, let's actually talk about the game, or moreso, the story.
SPOILER WARNING! BUY AND PLAY THROUGH THE GAME BEFORE READING THIS NEXT PART!
You wake up as a useless CHUD who pirates video games. Your useless CHUD friend (who also pirates video games) sends you a download to a game called "SUPERHOT.EXE". (you know it's scary when it's a .exe file) Normally, a smart person would avoid sketchy downloads for a game you've never heard of before, but you are not a smart person! You install and run the game, and it takes you into the tutorial. You kill a few red guys, get a few guns, all the sort. But then, it says "ACCESS DENIED" and kicks you out. How rude! Maybe if you actually bought the game (like a normal person) you would've been able to play! But, you go to your friend, and say it was a weird bug. Because red text telling you to leave is a bug, apparently. Your friend gives you a new installation, that should fix the bugs. You play through it a bit more, and then the same thing happened. How rude! So, your friend AGAIN sends you a new installation, but this one is password protected. How rude! Somehow, you're amazing and just know the password. I'm sure this won't lead to ANYTHING bad! It lead to something bad. You play through the game again, but this time, IT sees you. IT is watching you. And IT texts you! He says a bunch of stuff like "THIS IS NOT A GAME." and "QUIT, AND NEVER RETURN." So, you do! Finally! Character dev- and you're booting back up the game. This time, everything's corrupted, (god I wonder why!) but you can boot up SUPERHOT. You play through a few levels, and then IT traps you in a box and has a whole speech, but you are let free. Is this really you, though? You talk to your friend again, but this time you speak weirdly. Saying things you don't mean. You are being controlled. So, over a little bit of time, IT slowly takes control of you, saying that "BODIES ARE REPLACEABLE" and "MIND IS SOFTWARE." It all ends in a lab, with the core of everything. IT tells you to switch into the core, and become it. After a fight that takes WAY too long, (at least for me) you swap into it, fully under the mind control. In one last effect to be free, you show up to where you yourself are playing the game, and kill yourself, letting your mind be free.
WHAT A STORY! But, now that we have talked about the ups, let's talk about the downs. First of all, the game is too hard for what it is. (for me) This is mostly due to my own personal skill issues, but still. One thing that I hate about this game though is that some of it feels like a drag. There's a section where you have to beat 3 hard levels to repeat certain phrases to IT before you can go and try the last level. There also was just nothing to do with the desktop. It's pretty much just for talking to IT and your friend and SUPERHOT. Everything but that last part gets fixed in the second game. Speaking of that, let's move on to the second game and the conclusion.
So, I'm playing through SUPERHOT on May 31st, 2026, which means the second game has been out for quite some time. I mean to play it soon, but I have played it a little, so I'll give some opinion on it.
SPOILERS FOR SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE
The game picks up right where we left off with the original game, waiting for MORE. Again, I haven't played the full game, so expect my information to be a bit wrong sometimes. We click a button saying MORE, and are dropped into the tutorial. Blah blah blah SUPERHOT tutorial BLAHHH. And it's over! We meet again with our red virus friend(?) and the actual game begins. SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE is NOT SUPERHOT 2. It is it's own thing that stands by itself. Remember this, it's important. S:MCD is a rougelike, where you have to delve deeper and deeper into code to fix it. You have 3 lives per code breach, and they are decently long for the point you are at. I, unfortunately can't say more than that cause I haven't played much of it. I'll talk more about it once I leave my review for that game. But, with that, we end off on our conclusion.
This game gets the lowest possible 10/10 from me. I think the game is incredible. The gameplay is fun, there's quite a lot of post game content, and the story is quite interesting. The issue I have with this game is that there is just a far more superior game to play, that being S:MCD. If S:MCD did not exist, this game would be an 11/10. The last thing I have to say is that you have to check out this game, it's the most innovative shooter I've played in years!
