The original Superhot dealt with themes of senseless violence, mind control, and quick dopamine hits while essentially featuring all of those things. It was a groundbreaking title not only due to its unique gameplay but also its underlying themes.
Most of its themes are presented in text-based conversations that the player can completely ignore in favor of the gameplay, leading to its message being lost on a lot of people, which only helps to further prove Superhot‘s point.
This also happened because there was a layer of immersion that Superhot couldn’t penetrate at the time. As much as the game was addictive and kept the player hooked, there was still a divide that just couldn’t be breached without virtual reality.
Superhot VR
Developer: SUPERHOT Team
Publisher: SUPERHOT Team
Platforms: PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows (Reviewed)
Release Date: May 25th, 2017
Players: 1
Price: $24,99
That’s where Superhot VR comes in—a version of the title that can really immerse the player not only through gameplay but also in its themes of losing yourself to senseless violence and easy dopamine hits.
Superhot VR has you standing at a fixed location with the single objective of killing all of the crystalized red men who are coming after you. You can punch them, throw objects, shoot them, hit them with melee weapons, and more.
Superhot‘s original gameplay has been translated really well into VR; in fact, it feels heightened at times due to your position right in the center of fights. So far, it’s been my best action experience with VR games.
I do have some issues with the controls, but it’s nothing major. Throwing objects can be really awkward at times due to the game’s physics; it’s really not easy to both aim and perform the correct motion to hit someone.
This makes the player have to awkwardly wait for enemies to get close instead of risking throws from far away, since you will most likely miss if the enemy isn’t very close. It’s a minor thing overall, but it can be a pain.
Getting time to move forward is also a little convoluted. Superhot stops almost completely while the player isn’t moving, so when we want time to advance, we have to move. This isn’t possible since the player is fixed to their location in Superhot VR, so you have to do a little awkward motion with your hands to keep things going.
So many of the set pieces just feel like you are inside an action movie, dodging bullets in slow motion, throwing glass bottles at enemies, and clearing an entire room feeling untouchable. It’s a really unique experience that can’t really be described unless you’ve been through it.
It’s also really freaky to die in Superhot VR, as you just see a bullet quickly zooming towards your head. As much as it’s really cool to be inside an action movie, it’s also scary to die in VR, where your brain can’t really disconnect as well as it would from a PC game.
These little visceral feelings really make Superhot VR a fantastic immersive experience, but it has unfortunately been censored post-launch by its developers. The “sensitive content” in Superhot VR has been removed without a toggle for players to turn it back on.
The developers have stated the following about the removal of this content:
“Skip disturbing scenes” toggle was added in a previous update. Considering sensitive time we’re living in, we can do better than that. You deserve better. All scenes alluding to self harm are now completely removed from the game. These scenes have no place in superhot virtual reality. We regret it took us so long.
We’re commited to shipping this update to all vr platforms.
What’s weird is that the game originally did allow players to turn the content on or off, depending on whether they thought it was too much, so removing the content entirely alongside the toggle is a baffling decision.
The game had some really disturbing moments, especially in the beginning where it makes you shoot yourself in the head to “detach” your real body from the VR experience. It’s really disappointing to see these provocative moments go, getting censored six years after launch.
Superhot always had underlying themes of horror and existentialism, and when it finally hits its crescendo and is ported to a platform that allows it to convey its themes so well, it gets censored. It’s disheartening, to say the least.
Superhot VR has an original set of levels, but it does reuse some locations from the original version of the game. It’s really fun to revisit these maps and be able to play them in a different way, now more fitting for VR.
The original levels are still pretty good, though; most of them feature some really fun set pieces that help sell the game as an interactive action movie. Even after all this time, it’s still one of the best VR action games.
Much like the original game, Superhot VR is also pretty short, clocking in at around 2 hours and a half. It’s a brief ride that could probably benefit from Workshop support on Steam so players could make their own levels.
Overall, Superhot VR is a really good way to experience the game, possibly better than the original, but it bothers me that it was censored so long after it came out. A toggle that allowed players to avoid sensitive content already existed, so it’s unnecessary to remove the graphic content from the game entirely.
You can still enjoy the action and set pieces since it’s legitimately a fun game, but it’s sad that the game’s most provocative moments will be gone simply because the developers felt like virtue signaling.
You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Superhot VR is available on PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows (through Steam).
