SUPERHOT is a stylish shooter with a difference… time only moves when you do. The levels are set in white arenas punctuated by blue hues that define the environmental details. Black objects can be picked up and red enemies must be shattered. It oozes style and would fit perfectly into the world of Mirror’s Edge.

The game blends the puzzle and shooter genre but just because you can slow down time, where bullets are reduced to a crawl as they travel through the air, doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to solve each level. While playing, I couldn’t help but hum the Matrix fight tune in my head. Leaping over a desk and slowing time to a crawl, I smacked a dude right in the chops before grabbing his shotgun, as it dropped from his hands, and blasting him and his friend into little red fragments. SUPER! HOT!

The premise is simple. You are a hacker who has pirated the latest thing in computer gaming entertainment. The story unfolds via an ASCII interface forum – it’s all very TRON with the Matrix’s time bending set in the environment and tone of Portal. The story is great and best experienced firsthand, so that’s all I’m going to say.

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Usually as a game progresses more skills are introduced but with SUPERHOT what you see is what you get, with only a hotswitch ability being introduced later that allows you to switch into another being. Each bite sized level must be cleared of all red enemies, but get shot or hit with a fist, katana or other pointy object and it’s back to the start of the level you go.

The story isn’t really the focus of the game and is merely an aperitif for the main event – challenge and endless mode, within which are numerous levels to unlock and best – here’s where the fun and games really begin. Each of the levels, which are a rerun from the main campaign, has a mutator and the speed run levels have a RED goal to beat. Endless mode is… well endless and the more you kill, the more levels you will unlock.

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On each of the levels is a hidden terminal, which delivers additional story narrative. Rather than just dot the collectibles around the levels, you have to be creative and jump out of the play area – and all the while keeping some red guys alive, after all, killing all red guys ends the level.

The only thing missing from this top game is the ability to create your own levels. SUPERHOT places the user at it’s heart and there’s even a website linked to the game for sharing replays – killstagram – so going one step further to bring UGC levels would have made a lot of sense. There’s also no ammo count for weapons, so you’ll need to keep count of your shots.

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A game where time stops when you do might sound simple enough, but I can assure you that SUPERHOT is anything but easy. As the game goes on, scenarios get more devious, and the challenge and speed runs will keep you entertained (and hooked) for hours.

SUPERSTYLISH, SUPERADDICTIVE and SUPERFUN – this is SUPERHOT!

Thanks to Evolve PR and Xbox for supporting TiX

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