SUPERHOT

As I was checking out new indie games which I could play on my dying laptop, I came across SUPERHOT, supposed to be one of the most innovative game of last year. Of course I was intrigued by this description, and decided to try it out myself. So, is it worth playing?

When you first boot into SUPERHOT, you are greeted by what is supposedly another player of the game[in the game world], urging you to try out the game. Once you boot up superhot.exe from the  game menu, you are thrown into a few random situations where the game’s mechanics are explained to you, in what is ostensibly a tutorial. Here you are introduced to how time works in the game. Basically, only when you move, does time also. This lies at the core of SUPERHOT, and the most important thing to keep notice of, is how you’re going to utilize this mechanic.

Because even though the game is a first-person shooter at the outset, you absolutely have to be on your toes trying to figure out which ones among the red guys you have to focus on. The one who’s firing at you with a shotgun, or the one who’s right next to you and will punch you in the gut? Or is it the location from where you just heard a pistol pop off? All the varied possibilities and choices one can make, make for interesting dynamics. This game is essentially a puzzle where the pieces move as you do.

Not to say that it doesn’t have a story as such. We start off by just trying out this game at a friend’s recommendation, but the soon after everything goes sideways. At the start, we cannot get into the full game because the later game levels are password-protected, but then we manage to somehow get in due to some glitch. Soon enough, the game turns into something else entirely.

All of this is neatly packed into a short but satisfying 2.5-3 hours of the game. Yes, SUPERHOT is pretty small, but is totally worth every second of it. And the fun doesn’t end once the story is finished; you can try out the Endless Mode which gets unlocked after the story completion.

In the end, I’d like to say that this game is nothing short of marvelous, and is worth trying out. Anyone who is even remotely into indie games would find this a worthy buy.

RATING : 9.7/10

PROS :
– innovative mechanics
– great concept
– story

CONS :
– campaign is too small
– frame rates were occasionally bumpy[maybe because I was streaming]

Watch me play SUPERHOT on my twitch channel flamenfeed.

INSIDE

It has been some time since I’ve played any games, let alone indie games. So I myself wanted to try out something new, and picked up Inside. So, how was the game?

Inside starts off with the player being in control of a red-shirted boy who’s trying to get away from some facility of a dystopian world, where people are being turned into some sort of machines and mind-control is an extremely common occurrence. We, as the boy, have one objective; to escape from whatever horrors could be perpetrated upon us. The game is pretty dark and feels like a monochromatic game; I was actually trying to turn up the brightness of my screen to increase the visibility of the colors, before realizing that the game itself was being presented that way. It is pretty dark most of the time, in both form and character, and is a silent game throughout, save the occasional musical cues we get whenever we complete a part of a puzzle, or something on those lines.

                                                 Probably the most thrilling part of the game…

The puzzles of Inside are some of the most creative ones I’ve seen in some time; I mean, what would you expect if you haven’t played any indies in some time? But that notwithstanding, I must say that the puzzles did make me think quite a bit. And the bleak atmosphere really suits the game. Not just that, some of the incidents that take place over the course of the game are really thrilling, the kind of tense situations where you know that just one wrong move is enough to get you caught or killed. Which was exactly what I liked about Limbo, made by the very same Playdead. Whereas some of the scenes are just flat out disturbing in their far-reaching implications, yet more reason to love this game. The plot is a bit vague except for the escaping part, but in this case the ambiguity actually works in the favor of Inside, because of all the player interpretations which can kick in and add unique flavors of gameplay to each individual. And the best part? Minimal backtracking!

In the end, I would say that this is one game any indie/puzzle-game lover should definitely not miss. Do yourself a favor and play this already!

RATING : 9.3/10

PROS :
– great setting
– bleak atmosphere interspersed with tense moments
– creative puzzles
– minimal backtracking

CONS :
-I dunno man, you guys tell me.