SUPERHOT

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About

SUPERHOT is an independent first-person shooter video game developed by Superhot Team. In the game, time progresses at a normal speed only when the player moves, enabling the player to analyze the situation in slow motion and take appropriate action such as dodge bullets. The game was released in February 2016.

History

In August 2013, a team of developers led by Piotr Iwanicki developed SUPERHOT prototype for the 2013 7 Day FPS Challenge.^[1] Following the positive reception of the prototype and the project being approved on the Steam Greenlight,^[2] in May 2014 the development team launched a Kickstarter^[3] campaign for SUPERHOT, gathering over $250,000 to develop the game.

On February 25th, 2016, Superhot Team released^[4] the full version of the game (launch trailer and gameplay video shown below).

On December 5th, 2016, Superhot Team released^[5] SUPERHOT VR, a virtual reality version of the game (VR trailer shown below).

On July 16th, 2020, Superhot Team released^[6] SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE, a standalone expansion for the game, introducing elements of RPG.

Gameplay

SUPERHOT consists out of several dozen minimalistic levels in which the player is tasked with killing hostile attackers using a variety of melee and ranged weapons. Both the enemies and the player die from a single bullet hit, with the player forced to restart the level should they die

The time in the game moves at an extremely slow pace, only progressing at a normal speed when the player moves or uses a weapon. This allows the player to access the combat situation mid-fight and react accordingly by dodging bullets and aiming their own shots.

The plot of the game unfolds on several meta levels, with the player playing as a fictionalized version of themselves who receives an invitation to try out a leaked copy of a new game superhot.exe. During the plot progression, the game constantly addresses the player, such as by issuing commands and warnings.

Reception

SUPERHOT received positive reviews from both critics and players, maintaining an 82 average critic score with 93 reviews and 7.5 user score with 530 user ratings on Metacritic^[7] as of July 16th, 2020. SUPERHOT VR had an average critic score of 83 and an average user score of 76.^[8] The standalone expansion SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE maintained an average score of 79 with 20 critic reviews.^[9]

Fandom

The official Facebook^[10] group for the game, created in 2013, had over 30,600 followers as of July 16th, 2020. On September 12th, 2013, a subreddit^[11] for SUPERHOT was created, accumulating over 7,700 subscribers in seven years.

It's Is the Most Innovative Shooter I've Played in Years

Upon finishing SUPERHOT, the player is prompted by the meta-heavy game to recommend it to their friends with the phrase "It's the most innovative shooter I've played in years." Following the release of the game, the phrase has achieved the status of a meme in the gaming community, often being used both in critic reviews and in online discussions of the game.