Sometimes, you just want to pick up a game and shoot the bad guys. Other times, you may want jump into a game to immerse yourself in the fantasy or sci-fi world. This time though... this time I just want to go fast and see if I can push myself to go even faster than others. Thankfully, a game has risen up from the abyss to offer up that adrenaline rush I've been searching for. Lets get moving as quickly as we can and discover if this rush is worth pursuing or if we should stop while we're ahead in, Neon White.
This tale begins with our character named, White finding himself in heaven with a group of others wearing masks. A pair of beings calling themselves the Believers, force a mask upon White and we discover it's not for show but a explosive that will go off if anyone disobeys the Believers. White and the other masked individuals are referred to as Neons by the Believers, sinners that have been granted the opportunity to claim a place in heaven. Demons have infiltrated heaven and the Neons must destroy them as they press onward in missions, competing among themselves as there is only one spot open in heaven... the rest will return to the void.
White spots a couple other Neons that stand out from the rest; a tall man with yellow clothing and a ram-themed mask, a short girl with purple colored clothing and a rabbit-themed mask, and a taller woman with flowing red hair and a fox-themed mask. These individuals naturally gravitate towards White as they know who he is but White's memory of these people and even his death have left him. Yellow is quite warm to White and says they're bros, Violet is mischievous and certainly hints at her violent nature, meanwhile Red is mysterious and enjoys the game of keeping information from White. As we continue through the story, we'll discover more about these character's relationships to one another but knowing that at the end of the day, only one person can win this game.
Let's talk about the gameplay here now that we've got the stage set and discover what it is that keeps players running. Each chapter of the game has a set of levels you'll need to complete in order to continue, typically there are ten levels each but there are a couple that only have two or so. These levels simply ask you to destroy all demons within the level and reach the end. Neon White does a fantastic job of nudging you into performing better and going faster with it's medal and reward system for each level. You earn a medal depending on how quickly you complete a level which ranges from; bronze, silver, gold, ace, and the secret tier red ace (awarded for beating the developer's time). Bronze completion gets you to the next level and makes the gift findable, silver grants you the ability to see your ghost move through the level, gold will make a findable hint appear in the level to aide in finding shortcuts, and ace tier lets you see where you placed on the global leader-board. These rewards provided for each level may seem small but they really do help push you to see or figure out how you could reach and/or beat certain times. The gifts can be given to your friends and provide bonus levels, some with specific restrictions. While the ghost playback may seem pointless, it can provide the player a natural competitiveness or even remind you how you completed a level if you're returning to it later. The hint provided is totally optional but whether you use it or not, just seeing where the hint is can get your mind ticking with, 'how do I save time here?'. And lastly with the global leader-board, it acts as an added side of competition and information as you can see where you end up and the crazy amount of mere seconds or milliseconds some people are somehow able to save in their run.
The game does progressively add more systems as you go through the missions, so don't think all you're doing is just running and jumping, gotta kill those demons y'know? You're granted weapons that can be used to kill the demons and more importantly, grant you new traversal abilities, though they do come in the form of cards. Personally, I never like when cards show up in games as part of the gameplay when the game isn't card based like Inscryption or Slay the Spire, so I thought for sure I would hate this. To my surprise though, I came to love the system and it does fit well with the flow of the game. Most of the cards act as guns so for example, the pistol card fires as fast as you can pull the trigger, the uzi can fire until it runs out of bullets and clear weak groups of demons swiftly. Each card also has it's distinct color and ability to help you easily identify what you have and keeps things from getting jumbled up by making things overly complex. The pistol's card ability is called elevate and shoots you up into the air a good bit, the uzi's ability is called stomp and will plummet you to the ground quickly while also destroying anything in your way, enemies included within a small radius. These cards and their abilities are strong and the way the game balances this out is how limited their uses are. Each gun can only be fired so many times before it's out of bullets or if the ability is used then the card is immediately consumed. Try not to worry though as more cards can be found within the levels or by defeating certain demons so your favorite toys will come back in no time.
Is there more than running the levels and trying to top yours and your friends' best times? Yes... but it does come with a catch. After completing a full mission, you're granted the ability to go to the hub where you can talk to your fellow neons and the angelic... cats? As mentioned earlier, by finding gifts in levels you can give these to your friends to unlock special levels and items to decorate your room. The gifts also have a negative bonus that give you more dialogue between the characters. These conversations are usually innocent enough, but there are some phrases or conversations that will likely make you audibly groan or roll your eyes when they come up. For a couple examples, Violet at one point says she'll get one of the other neons that is simping for her to help her out and, Yellow at one point refers to his and White's relationship as, "You're the darkness to my light, you're my Sasuke'. Frankly, these talks almost come back to being so bad they're good but no one would blame you for skipping through the dialogue bits to totally sidestep these and stick to level running. While there are a handful of interactions or conversations that are good, the bad weighs it down so much that it can make it difficult to give these conversations a chance.
What remains of the story ends up being... fine. Neon White's main draw was never it's story or really it's characters either and I can't help but wonder if the game would have been better served if voice actors weren't used and some conversations were cut so we could have got more levels. The voice acting here is good and there are some points in the story that helps to endear yourself to the characters, but ultimately I'm not going to remember any of that as opposed to the rush or thrill of figuring out how to better get through a level.
Discovering that you may be a speed freak is good and all, but are those achievements going to be ridiculous? Thankfully in Neon White, that answer appears to be no. Nearly 90% of the achievements can be gathered if you do a complete run of the story and gather all the gifts and get all the ace medals. I only had 3 or 4 levels I had to look up a guide for the gift or how to get the ace medals so I think you'll have a pretty easy time with it and only need minimal help for those trickier ones. The more challenging achievos are going to be completing the heaven and hell rushes. Heaven rushes will be lite on you as you have infinite lives to get through the set of levels the hell variants have the harsh, you die you restart the whole rush. This can consume a lot of your time with White's and Mikey's rushes as they have you complete all the levels from the story if you die so be careful with these. Overall with the achievements though, the majority will come naturally to you and those last couple can be viewed as exactly what they're supposed to be, the final gauntlet.
Neon White really did something amazing and got someone who doesn't enjoy speed-running through games or using these type of card-based attacks and had me enjoy my time. When I first started the game I was sure I was going to give up after the first hour or two, especially after some of that dialogue but to my surprise, I kept finding myself wanting to push for a faster time and trying to shave that second or two in a level. I can only ask and hope you give it a chance as you may discover that something like this may be right up your alley too, just ya know, don't let those bad conversation bits drag your experience under. Regardless, lets get ready to find out who has the best time as we blast through the demons to reach the heavens in, Neon White.
4.0