Built on the foundations of SUPERHOT and SUPERHOT VR, MIND CONTROL DELETE continues to bring you more of SUPERHOT’s signature power fantasy. Time moves only when you move. Enemies pour in from every direction. You are in complete control as you shoot, slice, and explode your way through dozens and dozens of increasingly challenging combat encounters. The closer you get to the core, the more powerful you become. You amass an arsenal of skills and weapons. You uncover snippets of precious knowledge - of the meaning that you crave so much.

9.3 / 10

Interested in reinvigorating old brain neural pathways? Well then, read on, and don’t forget to thank lamb chop for the forever ingrained self-referential song of yore.

This is a game that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend. Some people started playing it not knowing what it was, but now they keep on playing it forever just because…

Disclaimer — this review is a result of my biased first impression after circulating a few hours of chronic gameplay and should be taken lightly.

Overall: 9.3 / 10

SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE is a natural successor to the wonderfully imaginative FPS SUPERHOT. In keeping with the characteristic format of time moving only when you move, while extending the story into a seemingly endless repetition of survival, discovery, advancement, and death, the gameplay adds a rogue-like mechanic of skill upgrades – from extra lives to exploding projectiles – for a myriad of unique runs. SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE, despite improving upon controls and production quality, reminds that often the original experience of something special may at best be asymptotically reached.

Gameplay: 9.4 / 10

Improved polish of control; improved item and skill progression. Yet feels a bit grindy and loses the lovely cadence characteristic of its predecessor.

Controls 9.7 / 10

Kept the good and removed the bad – no more numpad to control replays, bravo!

Difficulty: 9.4 / 10

Despite the difficulty seeming sometimes too easy, the game finds ways to punish. Unfortunately it results in more of a grind than a delicate balance of story and progression.

Progression: 9.2 / 10

Everything added to aid gameplay progression feels like the correct choice: a skill pool for rogue-like runs with different builds, varying enemy difficulty, new weapons and weapon mechanics. Again, it’s just the fluidity of progression that suffers – particularly when juxtaposed with the former title.

Story: 9.2 / 10

As a continuation of the story in SUPERHOT, the only question that remains is… if…. it….. ever…… ends…….

Characters: 9.4 / 10

Well, now we have some backstory, built entirely from the first game. Yet, the novelty is worn a bit – I have grown tired of myself.

Setting: 9.3 / 10

The levels are, again, wonderfully made for both story and gameplay. Unfortunately they become too repetitive, and feel less dream like and more nightmarish, as if trapped.

Progression: 8.9 / 10

This is the category that truly falls from the last. Everything else about this game is a general improvement of development and production. Sadly, story progression held so much of the divine experience together, hurting story and gameplay alike with its fall.

Production: 9.2 / 10

It’s another masterpiece, and worth applauding.

Music 8.8 / 10

More music than the last, but the music in the disco level started to wear on my psyche.

Art 9.3 / 10

It’s a touch improved, and fits well.

Graphics 9.6 / 10

Love the polish here, well done.

Recommend?
If it’s one or the other, play the original, though I recommend both.

Replay?
I would like to at least complete the story… if it ever ends.

Joy?
Like that of a cyclical reflection.