When I was in middle school, Super Hot was on fire on the internet and almost every gaming YouTuber was making videos about this game. After classes, I ran to play it on my mother’s old laptop (when it was popular) and enjoyed the new mechanics that I had never played and seen.
Super Hot is a game with very unusual mechanics — time moves when you move.
Super Hot was a very nice game that got its popularity for a reason, yet as it was initially just a project for a 7-day game challenge, it had only a few levels with minimalistic textures (which were obviously made for the time sake, yet became the style of the game).
These circumstances made Super Hot a one-day game because there are no updates, no multiplayer, the developer team is very small and there is barely anything that can be included in the game with such unique mechanics.
The VR version, however, was released recently and I wanted to try it out. Initially, I downloaded the demo version and played a few levels until it said I had to purchase the full version. I downloaded the full version, and played it for an hour or so — there are not a lot of levels, yet they were really fun.
As in VR headset it is hard to move around unless you have a full free space, the developer team decided to make it small levels where you don’t need to move a lot and just can stand in one place. The mechanics are the same, but they are more immersive, as you can move your head separately from your hands, so you can avoid the bullets flying directly to your head only by bending down or back.
The story is that you are a person in the room with a VR headset and different cassette cards that you insert into the computer and experience the level. The game gets harder and harder with the new level, but it is hard to play even from the beginning because only one hit kills you, so there is no room for mistakes. Yet, it is very nice and does not create a sense of an impossible level, which allows you to easily clear the level in 2 to 3 attempts.
What was interesting is that the guns in the game aim very accurately, just as in real life (you align the aim on your gun and it goes straight). Besides that, the NPCs were very responsive to what you do — when you try to throw the object at your enemy, it tries to evade it as well, so the guns are simply better weapons than knives/shurikens.
I would rate the game 7/10 because of the low number of levels and the very expensive cost of it. I believe they can expand the game, but the complication in it might be the problems with VR itself (you cannot move unless you have a lot of free space).
Mini-Challenge #1
I decided to use Super Hot as an example for mini-challenge #1 as well since I spent around 5 hours playing the game (a big amount of time for the VR Games).
The core loop of the game is very simple:
- A player is in a room with a VR headset swinging on top and a cassette (cartridge) that has to be put inside of the computer in front.
- A player appears in a virtual world with weapons and enemies.
- A player has to kill all the enemies without being killed.
- A player completes the level and achieves a new cassette (cartridge).
Besides the main core loop, some additional elements appear in the game – for example, achievements that you get based on your gameplay. Dodging 4 bullets at the same time gives you a “Chosen One” achievement, making it some kind of an easter egg for The Matrix. Such achievements are part of the core loop of the game that makes people continue playing the game and maybe retry clearing the level to achieve it.
After the last level, we are standing in the same room as before, but now we have a bunch of these cartridges with challenges to clear (speed-run, no-death, no-guns, etc.). Here, as basically, the game is finished, and the core loop is almost the same, but now you have to clear all the challenges instead of following the levels and the stories.
/by Ramazan 6.02.2024