SUPERHOT SUPERHOT SUPERHOT

Platforms: Windows, OSX, Linux, X1

Superhot is a straightforwardfirst-person shooter on the Unity engine which uses a simple basic premise to create a very addictive formula.

"Time moves only when you do." Any action, from moving to turning your head to causes time to flow.Superhot feels more like a strategy than a shooter. You'll take your sweet time thinking of the best move to make because now you've got time.Much like in Space Invader, you have to learn to shoot where the enemy is going to be, not where they are currently.

Still, each level is technically finished in less than a minute, as you'll see when observing the replay at the end of it. You get thrown into a different environment in each level with little in common and only a few words to guide you, much like in WarioWare. Scenarios range from bank robberies to fights in parking lots to scuffles in bars.

The game is stylised as a cracked prototype game, superhot.exe, which you'll hack into a server to play. Between the short episodes you'll be disconnect from the server ("It's how the crack works") and chat with a friend about it on an MS DOS-like emulated screen.

Other than the regular story mode, you can also play ENDLESS which is a score-based, arcade version of the game. Through ENDLESS, you can then unlock MODS with which you make the game in STORY or ENDLESS either harder or easier.

The graphics are minimalistic. Enemies are red, weapons are black, and the world is white. The audio takes after the graphics and upholds similar values of minimalism. There's nothing in the way of music and not much in the way of sound effects either. After completing each stage, a mechanized voice will repeat SUPERHOT over and over until you decide to move onto the next one.

Verdict: Well, this got me out of my gaming slump. Not entirely sure that's a good thing. For me. The game's great though.