SUPERHOT: Mind Control Delete PC Review

It was supposed to be over. There was supposed to be nothing left to discover, nothing left to learn about the dark world of Superhot. But now there is a whole new thing to discover in Superhot: Mind Control Delete. This is, of course, despite what the game will tell you. The opening of the game continually reminds you: There isn’t anything more, there isn’t anything new to find. You’re done, you reached the end. Stop while you still can.
 

 

Of course, we all refused to listen. And as we delved deeper into Superhot: Mind Control Delete, we discovered more and more power and more and more sinister implications around the world around Superhot as a franchise. But what exactly is Superhot: Mind Control Delete? Well, the answer isn’t particularly easy.

Originally, Superhot: MCD was meant to be a free add-on to the original Superhot, and was slowly developed over the course of several years. The game was then released earlier this week, and it was an interesting journey. The game is free to anyone who bought the original Superhot, but not anyone who got the game through a free promotion like PlayStation Plus or Xbox Games With Gold. The game is available as a standalone title, but also in bundles with either Superhot or Superhot VR, all for varied prices.

What the game actually ended up as is far from most other Superhot titles. MCD is, surprisingly, a rogue-like take on the time-stopping formula. The entire game is set up around the idea of endless content, repeating forever and ever and ever. At first, you’re just working with the usual formula, but then you unlock a health bar, giving you additional hits before you’re defeated. When health doesn’t placate you, the system throws you Hack Programs.
 

 

The Hacks are an interesting aspect of the game. They give you special abilities or augment what you already have. Some hacks can make you explode with a flurry of shurikens when you’re damaged, while others simply allow you to start with a Katana or a random gun. Some hacks will heal you, while others will give you more maximum health overall. As the game progresses, these hacks become more and more complex, and you discover more and more Core Programs that change your gameplay on a more basic level.

Core Programs are larger gameplay mechanics that change how you play the game. Think of Core Programs like the HOTSwitch functionality from the original game (which does appear as a Core Program in MCD), an unlocked ability that can change the way you play. These can be changed between Nodes and unlocked throughout the play. Some of my favorite Core Programs were the Recall Core, which gives you a Katana at the start of every level and allows you to summon your Katana into your hand from anywhere to slice down foes in its path; or the original HOTSwitch Core Program, which allows you to jump between the bodies of your enemies to escape death or just get a better angle.

However, everything comes at a price. As you unlock more Cores and Hacks, you also uncover more difficult enemies. As you play, enemies will start to take on different forms. Some of them will be covered in spikes, and explode when you kill them. Others will be the same white material as the world around you, barring a single piece of their body like an arm or a leg, which is a bright red weak point for you to hit. The hardest to face are the Cores themselves. The three unlockable Core Programs are personified by a trio of unkillable enemies.
 

 

Charge is represented by someone commonly referred to as the Dog, a humanoid with a Dog head that charges at you. Recall is represented by what is commonly referred to as the Ninja, a regular person with a slash across their face who wields a Katana as a weapon, throwing it and recalling it back. HOTSwitch is represented by the Addict, a character with a bizarre open face that reminds me of Stranger Things’ Demogorgon; this character works the same as any other, but has the ability to HOTSwitch into your body, swapping the two of you. Each of them spawns throughout later levels, after you discover them, and cannot be killed. The only way to escape the Dog, Ninja, or Addict is to kill your way through other enemies until you finish the level.

The strangest thing that Superhot MCD chose to do revolves around the ending of the game. The game ends with a bizarre trip through the Superhot OS interface, following lines to recover data. The final step of this journey is the most bizarre: Wait eight hours. Its not like a mobile game, where you can close the app and do something else for eight hours, no. You have to keep Superhot Mind Control Delete open and running on your PC for eight hours.

A quick note before continuing. When I wrote this review, the End Screen was eight hours long. In an update on July 21st, however, the game was updated to reduce the time down to 2.5 hours. If this still isn’t enough to placate you, however, there are plenty of videos and articles online describing how to use Cheat Engine to bypass the timer. Now back to your regularly scheduled reading.
 

 

What exactly do you get, after eight hours of waiting? You get the Pure Core, which plays... like normal Superhot. You have one hit, there are no special abilities, no hacks, just you and your ability to slow time. Sure, it all plays back into the story, the moral of MCD, that you should just stop and walk away, but you still want more, you always want more. Every time you load the game up, it is a request for “More.” When you advance through the nodes, it is always for “More.” You take and you take and you take, despite the continual warnings that there is nothing left to find, nothing left to take. Every step you’re told to just stop, that there is nothing left. We didn’t listen, and we only ended up hurt when it turned out to be true.

So, what is Superhot Mind Control Delete? It isn’t exactly Superhot, not how you remember it. Superhot was just as much of a Puzzle Game as it was an innovative time-based shooter. What Mind Control Delete has done is they’ve removed the “Puzzle.” Every level is different, every single time. There is never a period where you get to rethink your approach to the same level, never a chance to try a new approach. However, this, as far as I’m concerned, isn’t a bad thing. Superhot as a puzzle was engaging, but Superhot as a randomly generated shooter is just as interesting if you can get past the issues that can rise up from time to time.
 

Tyler Krasnai
Editor, NoobFeed
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