Jump, jump, run, shoot, jump, shoot, jump, shoot, shoot, jump. There’s something intoxicating about Neon Whitethe very first title from independent studio Angel Matrix, a unique first-person shooter where you have only one goal: to always go faster.
We play the role of Neon White, a man of sin destined for hell, but chosen by God to enter a competition to kill demons and have a chance to have a place in paradise. But the other Neons — Yellow, Red, Violet and Green — also have their eyes set on the grand prize. And if they recognize us, White has amnesia. A somewhat ridiculous story of greed, betrayal and revenge awaits us.
But Neon White is above all a game about movement and speed. In a hundred puzzles, we combine first-person shooting and traversal movements to arrive at the objective as quickly as possible while eliminating the demons on our way in order to obtain the highest distinctions.
Maps distributed throughout the levels give us access to weapons such as a pistol, an assault rifle or a rocket launcher that we can use to shoot demons, but that we can also sacrifice to move through space. Getting rid of the shotgun card, for example, propels us in the direction we are aiming for. The submachine gun map sends us back down, destroying everything when we hit the ground.
Combined with the brilliantly designed levels that we must cross at full speed, this double mechanic, where we must, in a fraction of a second, decide between using the cards at our disposal or sacrificing them, becomes intoxicating – especially when we has already figured out the solution to the puzzle in front of us and that we are concentrating on solving it as quickly as possible.
We enter the “zone”, this famous state of “ flow described by Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. Very stylized rudimentary 3D environments scroll before our eyes, our movements become second nature. A friend watching us play hit on the right word: hypnotic. The techno soundtrack signed by electronic musician Machine Girl also has a lot to do with it.
It’s a shame that the story of Neon White made us wince so much, with its too predictable stabs in the back and its questionable dialogues. Unfortunate especially since they are delivered in the manner of a slow interactive novel (which moreover does not allow any interaction), in complete antithesis of the main premise of the game: to go quickly.
We forgive this gap, the intoxication of our impulses having seduced us. frankly original, Neon White took us on a quest that tested our abilities both in logic and dexterity. However, it is difficult to imagine playing it with a controller on the Nintendo Switch rather than on a PC with keyboard and mouse, which allow much finer movements.