Thank you SUPERHOT Team for sending us a review code!

SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE was released for free to most owners of the original SUPERHOT game. People (like me) who received the game as a gift or through Humble Bundle didn’t qualify for a free copy. There’s enough content in this title to justify the $24.99 price tag, but I have seen it for as low as $9.99 during a Steam sale.

Like the original and virtual reality version, SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE plays as a first person shooter where the enemies don’t move unless you do. For the most part, the enemies are made out of a red glass material that shatters when met with a projectile or physical force. The environment is mostly white and some of the enemies have only one red part of their body that can be damaged. Not only are these foes harder to see, but they’re more difficult to hit too!

Black objects in the game can be interacted with. You can pick up and throw various items like shurikens, knives, staplers, pencils, fire extinguishers, skulls, microscopes, etc. There’s also a decent variety of guns including pistols, machine guns, and laser canons. Katanas are nice with their ability to reflect bullets back at their source.

SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE has some major differences from the previous entries in the series. This entry is more story based with themes of revenge and addiction. Another change is that there’s a life bar. You can have multiple hearts instead of just one chance to make it through a randomly selected level unscathed. Later in the game you can unlock a purist modifier to only get one life and play the game like the original.

Hacks and modifiers are what makes SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE stand apart from the other entries. Before jumping into a level/node you get to choose your starting or core hack. For example, you can begin with an extra life heart, the ability to charge in and punch an enemy or recall your katana once thrown and so forth. Each node you enter will have several randomly selected levels and after a few of them you’ll be able to choose between one of two modifiers to make your life easier. Most of the time I’ve chosen to get an extra heart or have my health refilled as you have only a couple of life hearts to survive the entire set of levels in that particular node.

If your health bar is fine, there are plenty of nice hacks to choose from. Some of my favorites include ricocheting bullets, bullets that pierce through multiple enemies, starting each level with a katana or random gun, and turning all throwable objects into grenades. The ability to increase the amount of ammo in the guns and reducing the re-fire delay is nice too.

Later in the game you’ll unlock invincible enemies which adds some challenge and frustration as you cannot kill them. To counteract the difficulty curve, the hack to generate temporary hearts with each kill is very much appreciated. The ending is quite challenging as you’ll be required to give up your hacks and abilities one by one. Navigating through the binary world is a bit confusing and many gamers were upset about the forced delay of waiting eight hours to unlock the final area. The developers have listened and reduced the wait time to 2.5 hours.

There’s a wide variety of level locations including a casino, a yakuza hideout, a chapel, a morgue, the sewers, an office, a subway station, and several others. One of my favorite levels is the disco since it has some awesome dubstep background music which really sets the mood nicely. There’s also random music in a foreign language that plays during the mandatory waiting period.

Overall, SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE is a nice surprise for those who purchased the original game. I highly recommend picking it up if you were not eligible for the freebie. It’s a great starting point if you’re new to the series, but don’t get used to the multiple lives!