Superhot: A Linux Review

Written by Eric Griffith in Linux Gaming on 7 March 2016 at 02:30 PM EST. 11 Comments
LINUX GAMING
Almost two weeks ago the Superhot Team put out their independently developed, Kickstarter-funded, 3D FPS. What began as an online demo grew into a full game, albeit a short one, thanks to Kickstarter, and publisher IMGN.PRO.

So what is Superhot? Superhot is a minimalistic first person shooter where time slows down when the player slows down. If the character is moving at full speed, then so is everyone else. If the character stops moving completely, time slows down to less than a snail's pace-- though it doesn't stop entirely.


The premise of the campaign is pretty simple: a friend gives you a copy of a new in-development game that they stole off of a company's servers, and you play it. And then, as the game progresses, you realize that your friend, and I, just lied to you.

The entire campaign clocks in at around 2.5-hours-- not a very long time, but it doesn't end there. Once you beat the game, an "Endless Mode" unlocks, pitting you against an endless wave of enemies. Additionally, "Challenge Mode" unlocks. Challenge mode has you re-run through the campaign, but this time the levels have specific requirements. Some requirements might be: complete the level in under a minute, or complete the level using only a specific weapon, or other specific requirements for that level.


Regardless of whether you are in Challenge, Endless, or Campaign mode, however, the challenge of Superhot is surviving-- the player will die if they get hit by anyone or anything. That could be a speeding car, a shotgun, a katana, or even a single punch.

Is Superhot worth the $25? That's an interesting question actually.. I don't know. I had a lot of fun playing the game, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure if I got my money's worth at only 2.5-hours of campaign time. I'm not a big fan of "Challenge modes", so that knocks out several additional hours of gameplay for me.


This is not to say that Superhot is a bad game -- far from it. I love the premise, the game was fun (but infuriating), and I'm excited to see what the developers have up their sleeves next. Superhot is, if nothing else, a breath of fresh air and originality to a genre that severally lacks both.

Superhot is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, from Steam and GOG for $25.
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