SUPERHOT

great gameplay, great story, mint game overall the game called me "good dog" and i realised some things

SUPERHOT is one of those games where the central idea is so simple that it is astonishing nobody had properly built a shooter around it before. Time moves normally only when you move. Stand still and bullets almost hang in the air, enemies slow to a crawl and you are given a moment to consider your next action. You are not particularly durable, ammunition is limited and you're forced to live in a John Wick movie taking weapons, throwing whatever happens to be nearby and carefully moving between bullets. What makes the game considerably more interesting, however, is how its mechanics connect to what it is actually about. Without spoiling the story, SUPERHOT and its deep meaning delves into media addiction and the increasingly parasitic relationship between a game and the person playing it. It gives you something immediately satisfying and then repeatedly encourages you to continue consuming it until you hear another repetition of: SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT. The fun is not separate from the message itself as the fun is how the message reaches you. SUPERHOT understands that the most effective way for a piece of media to control somebody is not to force them to continue, but to make continuing so entertaining that they willingly surrender their time and attention to it. You keep playing because you are enjoying yourself, even while the game quietly asks how much control you actually have over that decision. When SUPERHOT was released in 2016, this could have been interpreted as clever commentary on video games and media consumption. Roughly ten years later, it feels considerably more like a warning. Modern games have become increasingly designed around daily rewards, endless progression systems, limited-time events and other carefully constructed reasons to keep returning. The same applies beyond gaming, where social media and endless scrolling compete to occupy every unclaimed moment of a person's life. SUPERHOT does not predict every one of these systems, nor was media addiction invented after its release. What it does understand remarkably well is the underlying transaction. The game wants your attention, and it will reward you just enough to keep receiving it. The relationship becomes almost parasitic as it feeds on your willingness to continue, while convincing you that continuing was entirely your own idea. My only real difficulty is justifying the price of what is now a decade old and relatively short game. The central mechanic is excellent, but the game itself is relatively short. I would recommend getting it on sale if possible. Despite that, I absolutely recommend SUPERHOT. It is stylish, mechanically inventive and far more thoughtful than its minimalist appearance initially suggests. It is a game about how difficult it can be to stop consuming something that was deliberately made to keep you entertained, which admittedly makes recommending it to somebody else rather ironic.

HAH. This game holds a special place in both my mind and heart cause it was the first video game I completed on my YT channel. While those vids are now forever gone into the abyss, the memories of me raging, celebrating and actually enjoying the game will never leave. If you haven't played it yet.. definitely recommended. CAUTION: SUPERHOT MIGHT BE TOO HOT FOR YOU TO HANDLE.