Wrote a review of the game. Unfortunatly its too big to be posted so I post it here.
Perfection comes with a price
NOTE: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS that are important to understand in what way SUPERHOT: MCD (now shortened to just MCD) is indeed the perfect SUPERHOT sequel. With about 20 hours of playtime clocked in I have also played through almost the entirety of the game and I have seen almost everything the game can offer. This review is mostly for people who at least know what the first SUPERHOT is like and want to know quite a lot about the sequel.
NON WALL OF TEXT PART OF THE REVIEW WITHOUT SPOILERS: For those who do not want to read a wall of text. The first SUPERHOT was a masterclass in game design and MCD builds on everything that made the first game great and made it so much better. If you bought the first SUPERHOT before this game came out, you also have this for free. Gameplay wise MCD feels so good that it makes the first SUPERHOT looking like a very cheap and unfun ripoff if you feel like playing it again after "completing" MCD. Thats all there is to it. I strongly recommend MCD for those who enjoyed the first SUPERHOT. Playing the first SUPERHOT before playing MCD is strongly recommended. MCD is without a doubt a 5/5 and in fact the perfect sequel.
WALL OF TEXT REVIEW WITH SPOILERS: MCD does everything better than the first SUPERHOT did, literally. MCD takes the endless mode from the first SUPERHOT and basically makes it into a skill based roguelike, where you fight enemies inside well contructed arenas. After you've killed between 6 and 12 enemies, you move on to the next arena. Since everything is randomised, you have to be aware of your surroundings at all times. Compared to the first SUPERHOT, MCD makes the entire game feel like the ending of the first SUPERHOT. It becomes such an adrenaline rush that it may drain you of energy by just playing it. It becomes too potent of a drug. Whats worse is that the game knows this and gives you MORE at all times. Its kinda like the game forcefeeding you perfect gameplay, even when you're not asking for it. You will like it at first but then you understand slowly what the games message is. After a short time you ask yourself when too much perfection simply becomes too much.
The story itself is a pretty fresh take about nihilism as well. Usually nihilism deals with the feeling of nothingness but this game gives you the opposite of that while achieving the exact message, so much that everything this game offers turns itself around to become hollow with its vast perfection. The question this game asks you is "how much MORE does it take until you've had enough? Here, have several infinite times MORE of anything you've ever wanted from the first SUPERHOT!"
If you're reading this then you've probalby finished SUPERHOT and you probably enjoyed it greatly, but you wanted more of that amazing gameplay feel and you probably felt that SUPERHOT was way too short. This game builds itself on nothing but that alone. You will get MORE everything but several times better than the first SUPERHOT and you will get that infinitely so and nothing else. This game is basically paradise if you have enjoyed SUPERHOT, just think of the furst game but everything is better designed. Its literally SUPERHOT but several times better (more weapons, with all gameplay mechanics touched to be as polished and close to perfection as possible, even different enemy types and ways to play the game.) Yet if you already have everything that you and everyone else wanted, why are you still longing for MORE? As if you could complete the game, which basically tells you from the beginning that there will be MORE, forever?
Gameplay wise, think of this game as a sort of a roguelike. You can pick through arenas called NODEs through the menu and then you fight between 6 and 12 "enemies". After that you move on to the next arena. Every second or so arena you can pick a "hack" that makes you stronger. After you've completed 6 or so arenas you've completed a node and you can move on to the next one through the menu where the circle starts anew. You will gain special skills that unlock during your playthrough, similar to the enggame skills you gain through the first SUPERHOT. During the middle part of the game you will also meet different enemy types, all of them with special skills similar to yours that are impossible to kill. You must actively dodge them while focusing on killing the "regular" dudes. The game itself reacts much better to player input than the first SUPERHOT as well. It sounds silly but MCD plays better than the first SUPERHOT. So much that I can't come back to the first game because it feels like a "much lesser version" now than MCD. In a way MCD is too good.
Story wise, MCD is similar to the first SUPERHOT and goes places as well, but in opposing directions. If you thought the first SUPERHOT was crazy, MCD begins at that apex of craziness that the first SUPERHOT reached during its end and then moves on from there, becoming even crazier and more weirder than the first game after the first 20 minutes. This goes on until it reaches the point where it become its own antithesis. You perhaps heard of the saying that "less is more", which is what the first SUPERHOT was. MCD takes this saying and turns it into "MORE IS MORE IS MORE IS MORE IS MORE..." ad infinitum until it purposely collapses under its own perfection. At that point it becomes "MORE is less". While the first SUPERHOT makes you longing for more after you've completed it, this game does try the opposite of that. While the first 5 hours of MCD is amazing, it then tries to slam that aspect of the game into your skull. It even goes so far that its actively trying to make you hate the game at all times during its apex, yet its still plays and feels amazing, so much better than the first SUPERHOT in fact. The plot and gameplay certainly entices the player to keep playing while you're to be involved with this special love/hate relationship plot. It becomes to insane that there are SEVERAL infinite modes to pick during mid and late game just for jokes. But MORE and better is what people wanted after playing the first game and that is what they get.
All in all, if you thought that the first SUPERHOT was already perfect then MCD will most likely blow your mind several times. The question is how much MORE of this perfection does it take until the game breaks you into hating it and forcing you to give it a one star rating? Even the System, the antagonist of the first game, thinks you're weird for coming back for MORE. Were you not entertained enough by playing the first game? All of this doesn't matter anyway as theres always MORE of MCD, infintely so, forever.
I understood the devs message and gave the game a 1/5 star rating for them making MCD the perfect sequel to SUPERHOT. But since TREE DUDE is back, that alone varrants for a 5/5 rating.
