Very excited this game has launched — perhaps you can tell because this review is actually timely! This game’s kickstarter launched late spring 2014 and despite being fairly stingy on kickstarter at the time I backed it on impulse. The game has a very unique spin on the fps genre, is from a small studio in Poland and is built in Unity, so I could not resist.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a strong FPS player, the fast reflexes required to play and fear of dying just has never made it work out for me. SuperHot is more akin to Portal in design, requiring logical reasoning skills to suss out where to move and who to shoot first — which weapons to use etc. Death to reload is virtually seamless so there is little penalty for failure and allows for quick experimentation to see the most efficient way to complete the levels. One thing I think it achieves is the feeling of player choice, it feels like there are multiple ways to solve each puzzle.

Levels are designed very tightly, with some that are more challenging interspersed with some that are very joyful as well as narrative sequences. The different mechanics are slowly revealed to the player in a way that keeps the game feeling fresh. There appears to be some amount of dynamic difficulty adjustment, so that after a few times losing the earlier red guys have stronger weapons to steal.

The game is features a very simple aesthetic that serves to keep the player focused on the specific elements of the level — the geometry, enemies and interactive objects. When the player destroys and object or enemy it explodes into a shattering of pieces punctuated by a sound effect quickly informing the player it is no longer part of the challenge.  Interspersed with the core game-play are chat sequences and other interactions with the computer UI which gives the player the feel of playing an older game.

Not going to spoil too much of the narrative, but it definitely begins to unfold after the first few levels and serves to add an air of mystery to the game. It is fairly lightweight so doesn’t get in the way of the core mechanics and serves well to take a break between tougher puzzles. Enjoying this game very much, would definitely recommend checking it out if you enjoy puzzle game-play.