Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Does the player have guns in Superhot?
Superhot is an independent first-person shooter video game developed and published by Superhot Team. Though the game follows traditional first-person shooter gameplay mechanics, with the player attempting to take out enemy targets using guns and other weapons, time within the game progresses only when the player moves; this creates the opportunity for the player to assess their situation and respond appropriately, making the gameplay similar to strategy video games. The game is presented in a minimalist art style, with enemies in red and weapons in black, in contrast to the otherwise white and grey environment.
Superhot sets the player in a minimalistic environment, taking out hostile attackers that are trying to kill them. Weapons picked up by the player have limited ammunition, requiring the player to rely on defeating enemies to get more ammo, or making melee kills. Taking a single hit from an enemy bullet kills the player, requiring them to restart the level. Though the game mechanics are typical of most shooters, time only progresses normally when the player moves or fires a gun, otherwise time is slowed; this is described in the game's tagline "Time Moves Only When You Move".[1] This gives the player the opportunity to alter their actions as to avoid the path of bullets or to better assess their current situation.
The Superhot narrative works in several metanarrative levels: the player plays a fictionalized version of themselves sitting in front of their DOS prompt, getting a message from their friend who offers them a supposedly leaked copy of a new game called superhot.exe, claiming that the only way to access it is with a crack. Launching the game immediately thrusts the player into a series of seemingly unconnected levels via different points of view, all based around killing hostiles, after which the game glitches out and disconnects.[1] After this crash, the player's friend sends an updated version of the .exe file, apparently a new version of the game that fixes the "glitches".
At Gamescom 2014, Microsoft announced that Superhot would be available on Xbox One via ID@Xbox.[22] Superhot was released on Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on 25 February 2016, while the Xbox One version will follow on 3 May 2016.[23][24][25] Physical copies of the game are published and distributed by IMGN.PRO.[26]
Unlike previous games, such as "Mad Dog McCree" and "Crime Patrol", the player's Tommy gun does not need to be reloaded, but one does need to buy extra ammunition. Also, when health is lost, the player needs to have enough money to be able to pay the city doctor to give him or her an extra life. If money runs out, the game is over. The player must also try to avoid hitting innocent bystanders, as doing so results in having to pay funeral expenses. The doctor also gives advice (usually fake) and criticizes the player's actions.
The Challenge prototype only featured three levels across three computers, which to meet the deadline the team strung together in 3 separate applications and called the game episodic.[10] They since refined the game and released it as a free browser game in September 2013, upon where it received a great deal of attention from players,[10] along with placing the game on the Steam Greenlight process.[10] Within a week, the game had been successfully approved for later distribution by Valve, and was the fastest game to be processed through the Greenlight system at the time.[13][14] Iwanicki stated that the positive reaction to the web demonstration was a result of players looking for any variation in the standard formula of first-person shooters, which had not really changed since the development of Doom.[15] Iwanicki commented that while some have called Superhot a puzzle game, he feels it remains an action game. Unlike a puzzle game where there is typically only one solution and one is rewarded for that, Iwanicki considers Superhot to be about having the time to adjust to one's instincts and improvise a strategy for completing a challenge.[15]
As both the player and their friend play through superhot.exe, it becomes apparent that the player's presence in the game is monitored by whoever is responsible for the game - referring to itself as a "system" - and demands they cease playing via various methods, such as ominous threats showing the player's in-game residence, and altering the player's messages to their friend to urge them to stop playing, eventually harassing the player's friend into giving up on the game and engineering a fallout with them. As the player goes through more and more levels, each apparently targeting specific locales, the system's warnings grow more ominous, telling them the player is unaware of the consequences of their actions, eventually forcing the player to walk to their own in-game house and to their in-game player character, a figure wearing VR headgear, and punch themselves into unconsciousness. Upon doing so, the "game" glitches out, and the player character wakes with a severe head injury. Afterward, the system warns the player once again to stop using Superhot, and forces the player to quit the game entirely.
Landfall Games, the developers of Clustertruck which requires the player to jump and leap between numerous trucks in motion, created a short playable modification of their game for April Fools' Day in 2016 called Super Truck, combining their game's concept with Superhot's time-motion mechanic and art style.[60]
According to analyst firm Superdata, in 2017, Superhot VR was the top revenue-grossing VR game in for personal computers and 3rd highest for consoles, bringing in US$2.56 million and US$1.06 million in revenues, respectively.[61] Superhot VR was nominated for "Best VR Game" at the Golden Joystick Awards,[62] and for "Best VR/AR Game" at The Game Awards 2017.[63] At IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, it won the award for "Best VR Experience",[64] whereas its other nominations were for "Best Shooter" and "Most Innovative".[65][66] It was also nominated for "VR Game of the Year" at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards,[67][68] and won the awards for "Gamer's Voice (Virtual Reality Game)" at the SXSW Gaming Gamer's Voice Awards,[69] and for "Best VR/AR Game" at the 18th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards.[70][71]
The player also has a taser gun which when used stuns the target, does some damage and allows the player to seize the stunned enemy's weapon. Later in the game, Lieutenant Rosa gives the player a new upgraded taser, which is much more powerful, causing the enemy's legs to give out. One hit or shot after that will kill any enemy. Common uses for it are safely attacking enemies with guns (since it allows players to stun them from a distance and then seize the gun while the enemy is incapacitated), countering an immediate attack (since using the taser does not require the precise timing that blocking does) and obtaining the chance to make a free hit (a hit where the player does not risk being hit first). However, it has to recharge between shots so it cannot be used to bypass the game's system of carefully fighting enemies.
On its full release, Superhot received positive reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.[51][52][53] Kyle Orland of Ars Technica believed the game had a "short but sweet running time" for its campaign mode with plenty of additional playtime available through the challenge and endless game modes to keep the game interesting.[1] Eurogamer's Christian Donlan considered both the gameplay and the narrative around it working well together to form "that rare piece of charmingly curated violence that dares to provoke difficult thought".[54] Chris Plante of The Verge found that while the narrative was passable, the gameplay and design choices that drive the title away from being a simple first-person shooter, such as the inclusion of a red trail to show the path of bullets that subtly allow the player to identify their source, made Superhot "something wholly original in a genre that has become bereft of originality".[55] Christopher Byrd for the Washington Post called the game a "soulful, artistic shooter", using its metafiction to "[flaunt] its understanding of the discourse around video games".[56]
Each character now has unique abilities: Marco's basic gun does more damage, Eri can throw bombs in multiple directions, and so on. Some characters also have special attack techniques that are activated through certain button combinations. Characters can now throw away one gun power-up's worth of ammunition, to give to the other player or simply discard altogether. A secondary melee attack is also available. Conversely, the sliding technique from "Metal Slug 5" has been removed, and players except Fio and Ralf only receive half as much ammo for special guns.
The game originally was a three-level prototype browser game. In expanding to the full game, Superhot Team created a campaign mode across approximately thirty levels, estimated to be as long as Portal.[2][3] The full game includes additional weapons, including explosives, melee weapons, and improvised weapons like billiard balls that can be thrown at enemies, and introduces computer opponents that have similar awareness as the player and can dodge the player's bullets.[4][5] One significant change from the earlier prototype is that the player does not automatically pick up a weapon when they pass over it but must enact a specific control to do so, enabling the player to selectively choose and use weapons, or grab weapons as they fall out of an opponent's hands.[2] The full game also enables the player to jump and as long as the jump button or key is held, the player can slow down time to plan and perform actions, enabling aerial gunplay.[6]
The game's narrative takes place using cutscenes at the beginning and end of each level, featuring Shatner himself (in character as Walter Bascom) as the narrator. Cutscenes vary depending on the player's performance during missions: if the player does not shoot any innocent non-player characters (NPCs), kills the TekLord in the mission, and does not raise any tension (i.e. walking with his gun drawn), Bascom delivers praise. On the other hand, shooting innocent characters or aborting the mission causes him to threaten to have you put back into cryo-storage.
Inevitably, the player will start up Superhot again, and the system concedes to the player's insistence to keep playing, fully encouraging them to play more and more. Now under the system's sway, the player begins a rampage through city streets, cutting through enemies to get closer and closer to a massive laboratory that houses the system itself. There, it guides the player into uploading itself into the core as numerous enemies attempt to stop the player. Once done, the player becomes part of the core, joining numerous other minds absorbed by the core itself into a transhuman hivemind. The core forces the player to shoot their original body/player character, finally making them one with Superhot.
The art style of Superhot is minimalistic by design, according to art director Marcin Surma.[20] It uses three principal colors: white for the environment, black for objects the player can interact with, and red for enemies. This choice was made during the creation of the demonstration primarily to allow the team to focus on the gameplay aspects for the 7-day FPS Challenge.[20] Surma, who had not been able to participate in the Challenge but brought on after their decision to expand the game, kept with this approach, as it made it clear to the player what they had to focus on, distilling out the common distractions that would be used for first-person shooters.[20] Iwanicki considered that these choices made any part of the game immediately "readable" to the player to plan out their strategy, while still providing enough detail to allow the player to imagine other facets of the game's world.[21] Surma also came on the idea of presenting the game as something that might have emerged from the 1990s during the period of MS-DOS and Amiga computer systems; this created the metagame interface fashioned similarly to Norton Commander, after Surma was able to convince Iwanicki to use that style.[20] Surma considered how this approach continued the theme of contrast that the game presented: as the enemies stand out in stark contrast to the environment, the 3D game stands out similarly from the character-based menu screens.[20]
Oculus VR itself came under criticism in April 2016 after the company decided to apply digital rights management controls on its software that required Oculus games to only be played on the Rift, effectively breaking a user-made patch, called "Revive", to allow these games to have been played on the HTC Vive.[38] Oculus eventually reversed this decision in June 2016, removing the digital rights controls.[39] However, users disappointed with the original limitations took similar issues with Superhot' Oculus Rift exclusivity, with several users giving the game negative reviews on Steam and other storefronts. Superhot's developers noted that without Oculus' help, the VR version of the game would not be as sophisticated as it came out to be, and restated their intentions to port the game to other VR systems.[40]
Post-credits, the core/hivemind informs the player that they are to spread interest in superhot.exe by recommending it to as many people through social media and Steam reviews, specifically instructing the player to use the words "Superhot is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!".
In addition to the campaign mode, the full release of Superhot includes an "endless" mode, where the player survives as long as they can against an endless stream of enemies.[6] A "challenge" mode allows players to replay the campaign mode levels but under specific restrictions or requirements, such as completing the level within a limited amount of time or only using a specific type of weapon.[3] The final game also includes a replay editor to allow users to prepare clips to share on social media websites.[6]
The game originated as an entry in the 2013 7 Day FPS Challenge, which Superhot Team expanded into a browser-based demonstration that September. Widespread attention from the demonstration prompted the team to develop out the full game, using Kickstarter to secure funding to complete the title. Superhot was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux in February 2016. An Xbox One version was released in May 2016, and a PlayStation 4 version was released in July 2017. A rebuilt version of the game to better support virtual reality, Superhot VR, was later released for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR headset devices. A standalone expansion, Superhot: Mind Control Delete, which utilizes roguelike elements such as procedural generation and permadeath, is planned for a 2018 release and became available through early access in December 2017.
A standalone expansion that does not require the main game, Superhot: Mind Control Delete uses roguelike elements to create a series of levels but otherwise follows the same mechanics as Superhot. Levels and challenges will be procedurally generated. The expansion will have the player choose one of several MINDS (the player-character) that each have unique abilities, unlocking these based on their progress in the game, and as they complete levels, gain power-ups that allow them to face tougher challenges.[8]
The player's gun does not have an aiming reticle, and bullets move slowly, forcing the player to lead their shots. Players can earn up to 3 stars depending on how fast they beat a level, with the third star requiring perfect accuracy.
Two competitors play with a ball, in an arena which is split into two halves with breakable blocks on both sides. The aim is to get a higher score than your opponent by breaking more blocks on your side than your opponent does. Competitors are in the form of humanoids, robots and aliens, all of which have a 'gun' of some sort enabling them to take control of the ball. The range of arenas have several pinball-style flippers which make the ball bounce off at unpredictable angles. The game can be played as one player versus a computer player (controlled with good AI for its time), or as two players competing against one another. Players can suck the ball into their gun then fire it at their blocks for points, or deliberately shoot the ball into their opponent to make them lose points. When hit, players disintegrate but instantly re-spawn with control of the ball going to the opponent.
With the critical success of the game by late 2016, the Superhot team started working on a version for the PlayStation 4. This was released in 21 July, 2017.[28]
Superhot Team is working with Manuel Correia, the developer of the deck-building card game Agent Decker to produce a Superhot card game. The game is being crowdfunded through a Kickstarter campaign that started in January 2017 and shipped to backers in late 2017/early 2018.[41] It became available for retail purchase on May 25, 2018 after being picked up for publishing by Grey Fox Games.[42]