The first time I played SUPERHOT at a trade show, I immediately knew it was something special. While screenshots may make it look out to be a standard, yet very stylized, shooter, it doesn’t play anything like Call of Duty or its many contemporaries. Instead the game is founded on one simple principle: when you move, time moves. This governs everything from bullets to enemies, and creates a whole new dynamic.
Players quickly learn to take their time while playing, as trying to play the game like a normal first-person shooter will only result in frustration. Every movement should be planned and every corner checked, as a single bullet is all it takes for the player (and the enemies) to die. It creates a tense atmosphere that makes every successful level feel like a triumph. Moving slowly through a level makes it possible for the player to dodge out of the way of oncoming bullets as if they were in The Matrix. It’s ridiculously cool to calmly move out of the way of an oncoming shotgun blast, throw a weapon at an enemy, watch them shatter into glass, and then pick up their weapon in one fell swoop. These sequences make up the majority of SUPERHOT and they never stop being cool.

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It’s such a fresh experience mechanically that SUPERHOT would be a recommended title even if the levels were drab and uninspired. That’s thankfully not the case here, and it helps the shooter go from great to phenomenal. Every enemy has been placed with care, and fini...