SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE (Xbox One)

Wednesday, August 12, 2020.
by Adam Dileva

SUPER. HOT. If those two words mean anything to you, you most likely played and enjoyed the original SUPERHOT from back in 2016. There was nothing quite like it at the time, melding that sweet slow motions bullet time with Matrix-like moves that had you feeling like a super version of John Wick. SUPERHOT really stood out from the competition with its minimalistic aesthetics but super addictive gameplay. While there was a VR version, a full-ish sequel is now here with SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE, adding more moves, enemies, hacks and tricks up its sleeve to get you addicted all over again. It’s still the signature SUPERHOT that you enjoyed, but has improved in many ways without losing what made it great in the first place.

Do you crave more meaning? Do you want reasons for doing what you do in SUPERHOT? Do you wish you had purpose? With SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE has this by adding some narrative elements to the gameplay; kind of. There’s little snippets of story here and there, but it isn’t laid out in linear fashion like most games. Instead, you’re teased with story in an interesting way. Yes, I’m purposely being vague, as the narrative snippets are more like messages you find in a terminal that you’re hacking more so than grandiose cutscenes you might expect, teasing you with "meaning" behind what you're doing.

So if you’re like me, you may never had played the original SUPERHOT. It was always on my list but I just never got around to it for one reason or another, so I was quite excited to get into SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE. The premise is basically unchanged; you’re thrown into a level that is untextured and all white, and enemies you need to kill are the only thing with color, a bright red. The catch is that time only moves when you do, aside from an incredibly slow pace that’s always constant no matter what. The enemies aren’t terribly difficult to kill, but you’ll need to use any object you can find to throw at them or fire any weapons you might find lying around. Even if enemies have weapons, you can see the bullets coming at you very slowly, as if you’re in the matrix, so you always have time to move, just keep in mind time also resumes when you move.

Any object you can use will be black in color, so it’s easy to tell what’s usable, as the whole environment is a blank white. Where the coolness factor comes in is how you string together your kills. Do you grab a shuriken, throw it at an enemy, making him drop their gun, so you grab their weapon and shoot someone else in one fell swoop? Or maybe you rush at an enemy with a katana, slicing them in half, grabbing their pistol, shooting one enemy, throwing it at another to drop their knife, grabbing that knife and chucking at someone else? If all of this sound awesome, it’s because it is. Once you dispatch enough enemies, the level will end and it will show you a recording of how your level played out but in real time.

While the core gameplay hasn’t really changed much, there are quite a few new additions that are added with MIND CONTROL DELETE. The level structure is now done like most roguelite’s, where you’ll need to pass a handful of levels without dying (losing all your hearts) or else you’re sent right back to the beginning stage and need to try again to do it in one go. There’s an overworld ‘map’ of sorts, more like a pixel based ascii version, where you can choose which node you want to play in order. There are other nodes you can also choose if you unlock the path to them that also grants you new hacks (powers) or snippets of story elements described above. While I’m not usually a roguelike fan, given that levels are only a minute or two each, even having to restart a sequence over again doesn’t set you back very far.

The first bit of your adventure will have you trying to kill every red enemy you see, but eventually the enemies too get upgrades. At first you’ll be able to attack them anywhere on their bodies to kill them, but eventually some will have sections of their body whited out, meaning you can only hit them in their limbs that are red. This is where you’re going to have to be more accurate, as hitting an arm or head is much more difficult than a whole body or torso. Eventually you’ll start to get swarmed with more and more enemies at once and some will even have spikes on their bodies, meaning they’ll explode when killed, adding more projectiles to avoid.

So if the enemies get upgraded over time, you do too right? Yup. As you progress through the nodes, you’ll earn new abilities, known as hacks. At certain points between stages you’ll be able to choose one of two random hacks you've unlocked to aid you in your journey. These are randomized, but can make you incredibly powerful and help you along the way. Some hacks will offer more hearts, others will start you with a random gun or katana every level and later hacks allow bullets to ricochet, and a ton more that add some unique gameplay. These hacks allow you to change up your strategies on the fly, so you’ll need to be conscious of which hacks are activated. Two of my favorites that I always chose when given the option was charge, allowing me to use a short teleport towards and enemy to attack them and get out of harm’s way and make them drop their weapon, or an ability that allows me to recall my thrown katana back in my hands like a Jedi with their lightsaber.

Everything you do you will repeat over and over. Kill enemies, repeat. Shoot enemies, repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The new mechanics and hacks keeps things interesting, even though you’re repeating your same actions over and over as you try and make your way to the ‘end’. Combat feels smooth and exciting, even when I’m retrying a level numerous times. The gameplay has been greatly lengthened from the original SUPERHOT, and should last you at least 5-6 hours or more.

For a game that utilizes such a minimalist artistic style, it still has that cool and smooth look to it. Movement is fluid, animations are slick and watching your replay and the end of a level in real time is always satisfying. Audio is just as great, as weapons sound powerful, punches and thrown objects have some oomph to them, and certain levels are absolutely kickass when the music kicks in and you are bullet dodging and stringing moves back to back.

Even with its new roguelike progression structure, you almost always get that ‘one more time’ feeling, wanting to progress just one more node before you turn it off. Combat is exciting and intense, especially once you have a string of good hacks installed. Even though it’s incredibly repetitive at its core, it doesn’t ever feel as if it wears on you. If you enjoyed the original fluid combat of SUPERHOT, you’re going to really be excited for what MIND CONTROL DELETE adds to the mix. While it feels more like a great expansion than a fully-fledged sequel, SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE really is super hot.

Overall: 8.0 / 10
Gameplay: 8.5 / 10
Visuals: 7.5 / 10
Sound: 8.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE (Xbox One)

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