It’s Time to Play This Speed Runner FPS from 2022 — Neon White Review
If you haven’t given this one a try yet, you’re in for a fun time.
If you haven’t given this one a try yet, you’re in for a fun time.
Neon White is one of the best games of the 2022, expertly blending smooth first-person shooter gameplay with “speed running” puzzles, and is tied together with a great cast of characters. I highly recommend it.
If you’re reading this, I implore you to download the demo for yourself to see if just a taste of it will get you hooked. That’s what I did, and now, having completed the game, I am happy to report that I was not disappointed, and don’t think many others will be either. It’s such an incredible game with loads of style and polish, and is an addictive joy to play from start to finish.
The biggest complaint I have seen in reading through various reviews is that players don’t like the characters or the story, citing that the writing is too “cringe” or too “anime” or that “it’s just not that interesting”. To each their own, of course, but I disagree with all of those points. The disconnect, if I had to wager a guess, is perhaps from the gameplay attracting a crowd of people that aren’t used to some of these popular tropes? I personally found the characters very endearing, and the “anime” influences are really quite light in comparison to other visual novels I’ve seen and anime based games that I’ve played. I enjoyed the story too! Thought it was well written and paced nicely, and ultimately I had no complaints. Now, I could see how it’s off-putting for people interacting with pseudo-biblical-fiction for their first time. As for me, I’ve experienced this type of fiction before, through the likes of, Bayonetta and some others, so I didn’t mind the story’s setting, plot elements, or style and I found myself immersed in the world as it expanded.
What I’ve found most common in my reading, is that the majority of reviews praise the gameplay, and I have to add my praises as well. It’s so smooth, fast, intuitive, and satisfying right from the beginning. Traversing the game’s bite-sized puzzle levels as fast as you can possibly go is absolutely exhilarating. I love how the game slowly teaches you, through hints and otherwise, “how to speed run” as you play the game, and they incentivize you with medals and rewards in the hopes that you internalize what they’re teaching you. I’d run stages countless times until I’d get that Shiny Ace medal, signifying that I cleared the stage in one of the fastest time brackets. Sometimes I’d even go a bit further because I knew I could optimize my time even more than that. Even still, some stages I’d push even further beyond to best the scores of those on my friends list.
Everything is ludicrously replayable, to a ridiculous degree, and it never gets any less fun. I had so much fun replaying levels, that I found myself playing (and completing) the rush modes at the end of the game, which call for you to complete the entire game without dying. I did that three. Different. Times. I NEVER play games like this. It’s magical, what they’ve accomplished here.
When you’re not speeding through levels you might be collecting gifts, or rather, completing platforming challenges. These take place within the same stages you’re speeding through, but require an entirely different mode of thought as you puzzle solve how to traverse somewhere, to reach a gift. I think it’s a fantastic way to break up the game from this fast, optimized, race against time, into a slower, methodical puzzler that puts every stage you’ve played in a new light. It’s fun to spot a gift in the distance and be absolutely flabbergasted at the thought of reaching it, to then spend some good brainpower in solving the issue through careful gun play and parkour. So I’d add, not only do they break up the gameplay, but they help familiarize you with important game mechanics that make you an overall better (and faster!) player.
Something interesting that I did, which I’d recommend to any other player starting this game: Play it in such a way that one in-game day, is one real-life day. I started this originally because I wanted to push myself to get all the gifts and get as low of a time on every stage possible before moving on. But this also addresses something I’ve seen in a few reviews and even in my own friend — It prevents burn out by giving your brain a break. If you just play this game and nothing else, I can see how after several hours of this you’d be mentally exhausted, so I personally think implementing a break is the way to be. Doing it this way, I played for probably around 1–2 hours a day, for at least 12 Days. But that was just my first time through. I’ve played through it an additional 4 times, and that’s not even counting the amount of stages I played a LARGE handful of times.
Managing my time through my first clear of Neon White made for a nice routine where I would speak with all the characters at the end of my play session, giving them all the gifts I found, and exploring new story beats. I really enjoyed the characters. At times, my motivation to get through some of the missions was so that I could find the gifts for them to see how their relationship with White would change. The little side stories and side quests from them and others in the hub world area really helped me understand and appreciate the overarching plot. Everyone’s voice acting is phenomenal, and I give major kudos to every single one of them. I thought this was a great addition to this game, and believe it elevates the experience beyond its exceptional moment to moment gameplay.
Overall, I recommend Neon White to anybody, and I mean that. The learning curve starts pretty low, and they do their best to teach you the best tactics to be a fast runner. Because of this, some of you may be initially disappointed with how easy some of the levels are, but in checking the global leaderboard, you’ll find that the skill ceiling is far higher than you could ever imagine it to be. Levels are infinitely replayable, the story is interesting and the characters endearing, the music by Machine Girl is fitting and absolutely phenomenal, and it all just makes for a package that I think will make a fan out of the vast majority of people that play it. So pick it up, and catch me on the leaderboards!
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.