"Neon White" Review

Available for: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch

Reviewed for: Microsoft Windows

Well folks, I'd hate to sound like a broken record, but unfortunately I've gotten behind on my writing yet again! And this time the reason is a lot more simple and a lot less "my fault." The laptop I typically use to write these reviews up and died on me, and with it, all my cliffnotes for the GOTY article for the end of the year. So, I'm scrambling to try and make up for lost time, so prepare for reviews that are a little more on the short side until I can get a handle on things. So, let's get this show on the road!

Neon White comes to us from Ben Esposito, the developer of the 2018 indie darling Donut County. In it, you play as the titular Neon White: an amnesiac hellbound sinner summoned to heaven for an annual competition against select other sinners. The premise of the competition is simple: whichever "Neon" kills the most demons within the swiftest amount of time over the course of a week wins, and their prize is that they get to remain in heaven until the next competition, at which point they can defend their title to win another year, etc. White is joined by a handful of other Neons from his past, and though he has no memory, the same can't be said for them. We have Neon Red, a sniper rifle-wielding big sister type who likes to hint at the intimacy she and our hero shared in life. We have Neon Violet, a bomb and knife enthusiast with a bratty little sister personality and a not-so-subtle sadistic side. We have Neon Yellow, a giant muscular bro who is none too bright, but who has our hero's back no matter what. And finally, there's Neon Green: the reigning champion of the competition with some kind of grudge against White. Did that all sound anime enough for you? Because you aren't imagining things if so. This game is very, very anime despite being developed by a westerner, and this is kind of a double-edged sword. The characters are tropey, which means they aren't incredibly unique, but it also means it doesn't take a lot of time to understand what makes them click. The dialogue is the same way. Some character interactions are good old fashioned juvenile fun, while others are (in response to a line about sweat) "you're so lucky you don't have big boobs, White! They get it the worst!" See what I mean? But while the characters and dialogue are a mixed bag, I have to say that our hero's past relationships with these characters are more than a little compelling. The story that unfolds as White recovers his memories isn't going to win any big awards for creativity, but it takes these  tropey characters and gives them a decent amount of depth that enriches the overall experience in just the right way.

It's customary for me to give a general idea of how I liked a game before I get started talking about story or the like, but it just didn't really flow that way this time. So let me take a step back to say that Neon White, from a gameplay perspective, is my favorite game of 2022 so far with no contest. Nothing comes close to the sheer fun of this game's moment-to-moment action. So, if you're going to pay attention to any part of this review, let it be this one. Neon White is essentially a first person shooter with an emphasis on speedrunning. You get plopped into various levels occupied by demons, and your goal is to get to the finish line as fast as possible, killing every demon in the level along the way. Any given level typically lasts less than two minutes unless you're really struggling, so that should give you a good idea of the speed at which this game plays. Now, to take out these demons, you have a sword that serves as your default attack, but it's mainly just there to keep you safe until you pick up gun cards. You can hold two types of gun cards, and you can hold a maximum of three of any given type. What these cards are used for, on the surface, is self-explanatory: if you pick up a pistol card or a rocket launcher card, you can use a pistol or a rocket launcher to shoot and kill demons, and the card is removed when you run out of ammo. However, each card also comes with a discard ability that aids in your traversal of the level in some way. Discarding a pistol, for instance, results in a double jump, while a shotgun discard launches you in whatever direction you're facing. Remember how you can carry a max of three cards of a type? This means you could, for instance, spend all but one shot of your pistol ammo killing demons, then instead of firing the last shot, discard the pistol to double jump your way into a finish line above you. Success in Neon White is dependent on you utilizing the cards in your inventory wisely to combine demon killing and skilled traversal in perfect harmony. 

Speaking of success, let's talk about what that looks like here. In any given level, you earn a bronze medal for bare bones completion, and you can also earn a silver, gold, and platinum medal for completing the level in under a set of predetermined times. You do need to earn some medals other than bronze in order to progress, but you don't have to earn the platinum medal every single time...that being said, if you're like me and you're having a blast with the game, you aren't going to be able to make yourself move on until you've gotten that top mark every chance you get. So success in Neon White is ultimately the result of playing through a given level multiple times until you've mastered the layout, the timing, the loadout, and you know the level well enough to be able to cut every corner you can find to shave off just another second or two. And when you take into account the aforementioned little time it takes to complete a level, this amount of replays really doesn't take up all that much time. It's the epitome of easy to learn, difficult to master (which I think Dunkey may have already said), but it allows you to overcome this difficulty without spending days upon days of your time on it. The development team clearly understood what kind of game they were making, how to make it, and how to best equip the player to excel just by engaging with the content. Now, before I move on, a little word about value for money. In most levels, you can find a gift somewhere in the environment. Getting these gifts requires even more clever, even more masterful use of the gun cards in the level than getting a good time does. You might, for instance, have to save a shotgun card that you normally rely on to get to a platform with demons, skip that platform, go to the end of the level to pick up a pistol card and another shotgun card, then go back to the area with the gift and use all three cards at just the right time to reach it. So these gifts require an immense amount of skill, and each gift corresponds to one of your companions. When you give these gifts to their respective companions, you advance your relationship with them. This results in extra dialogue, cutscenes from your past, and in some cases, a handful of extra levels with unique twists (such as "no discard abilities"). And if you get all the gifts for a particular companion, you unlock two level rushes from the main menu. These are essentially modes where you play either the entire game or the entirety of a companion's unique levels with various twists. So by fully engaging with the levels, you're able to score even more content for yourself. That's the kind of value I simply can't praise enough!

And that brings us to the technical side of things, which is mostly solid! The art style of this game isn't going to be for everyone, but I thought it worked fine. The framerate never drops, I never had any hard or soft crashes, texture pop-in, audio glitches, animation glitches, etc. Basically, nothing that would matter in a game so focused on speed and concentration happened. I do have one complaint, though, and that's the music. The soundtrack isn't bad per-se, it's just that every collection of levels has one track that is shared across every level within. When you take into account the amount of times you'll replay a level before moving on to the next one, every track ends up outstaying its welcome by a longshot long before you reach the end. But...I mean, that's it. That's literally all that's wrong here. Not bad in my book!

Folks, I have to apologize again for how scatterbrained this review might have seemed as I try to recover from my usual work laptop croaking on me, but if I've made one thing clear, I hope it's that Neon White is an easy, clear GOTY contender that will likely hold its own even amongst the likes of Elden Ring when the end of the year rolls around. If you like unique, well-crafted, fast-paced gameplay and don't mind a little bit of anime tropiness, what are you even waiting for? I simply can't recommend Neon White enough, dear reader, so I hope that if it hasn't yet crossed your radar, you'll give it a shot and have as much fun as I did!

Let us review:

-music overstays its welcome - 0.2

The final score for Neon White is...

9.8/10 - Near Masterpiece

Excellent work, Ben Esposito, excellent work!