This review contains spoilers
Neon White is an incredibly fast paced puzzle platforming FPS, filled with fluid movement, hardbanging tunes and some very interesting visuals and level design. It took me around 16 hours to 100% this title, and honestly I have to say it was worth it!... Sorta.
Let's start with the great stuff: Gameplay and music.
As for the gameplay, like I said before it is a super snappy and fast puzzle platformer in the FPS perspective, which is honestly something we don't get enough of these days. All the cards serve different purposes and uses, and they all end up feeling pretty fun to use. Especially once the Dominion card comes into play, as rocket jumping in this game feels absolutely fantastic! There's also bonus side missions you can unlock by increasing your relationship insights with your Neon friends, and these missions are all excellent. Violet's side missions ended up as my favorite, as I loved the much harder challenge they brought to the table.
The music is another high note for this game, with the artist Machine Girl being the driving force behind the OST. There are some absolutely fantastic songs on this soundtrack, such as Cloud Nine, Rigged Game, and Hellion to name a few. Though, Machine Girl's style sometimes brings a strange juxtaposition when it comes to some of the levels. The harsh noise and crazy samples along to fast beats are good MOST of the time, though I found a handful of songs to grow especially grating over time. Namely Green's second boss fight theme, for an example...
As for the bad? The story, in my opinion, is incredibly weak. To a point where I just kinda wish they left it out all together. Despite having a rather grim plot with the potential to have some really interesting character interactions, everyone spends most of their time bombing jokes and making irritating meme references. If there's something indie games have been falling prey to in recent times, its trying too hard to be funny, and this game is definitely a victim to it. But I guess that's what you get when you have an OK KO writer doing the story for your game... It would've benefitted from taking itself a LITTLE more seriously. I think where it especially hurts are the Heavens Delight Tickets and Dialogue unlocks you get from other characters relationships. Why? Because it's all jokes and punchlines. The only reason you should even do any of it is to just play the incredibly fun side missions that come with the relationships. However, that does mean you'll have to tolerate characters singing The Black Parade in karaoke, or Mikey asking "what does pog mean?" And if that sounds awful to you, then luckily for you AND me, there's a big fat button to skip through dialogue! So at least they thought of that.
Overall, the game is a pretty great package with good replayability due to the Level Rush gamemodes, great visuals and tunes, and absolutely wonderful addicting core gameplay. Had it's writing just been a bit better, I may of given it a higher score. Despite that, I would definitely recommend for anybody looking for a quick and unique FPS game to play through.
Let's start with the great stuff: Gameplay and music.
As for the gameplay, like I said before it is a super snappy and fast puzzle platformer in the FPS perspective, which is honestly something we don't get enough of these days. All the cards serve different purposes and uses, and they all end up feeling pretty fun to use. Especially once the Dominion card comes into play, as rocket jumping in this game feels absolutely fantastic! There's also bonus side missions you can unlock by increasing your relationship insights with your Neon friends, and these missions are all excellent. Violet's side missions ended up as my favorite, as I loved the much harder challenge they brought to the table.
The music is another high note for this game, with the artist Machine Girl being the driving force behind the OST. There are some absolutely fantastic songs on this soundtrack, such as Cloud Nine, Rigged Game, and Hellion to name a few. Though, Machine Girl's style sometimes brings a strange juxtaposition when it comes to some of the levels. The harsh noise and crazy samples along to fast beats are good MOST of the time, though I found a handful of songs to grow especially grating over time. Namely Green's second boss fight theme, for an example...
As for the bad? The story, in my opinion, is incredibly weak. To a point where I just kinda wish they left it out all together. Despite having a rather grim plot with the potential to have some really interesting character interactions, everyone spends most of their time bombing jokes and making irritating meme references. If there's something indie games have been falling prey to in recent times, its trying too hard to be funny, and this game is definitely a victim to it. But I guess that's what you get when you have an OK KO writer doing the story for your game... It would've benefitted from taking itself a LITTLE more seriously. I think where it especially hurts are the Heavens Delight Tickets and Dialogue unlocks you get from other characters relationships. Why? Because it's all jokes and punchlines. The only reason you should even do any of it is to just play the incredibly fun side missions that come with the relationships. However, that does mean you'll have to tolerate characters singing The Black Parade in karaoke, or Mikey asking "what does pog mean?" And if that sounds awful to you, then luckily for you AND me, there's a big fat button to skip through dialogue! So at least they thought of that.
Overall, the game is a pretty great package with good replayability due to the Level Rush gamemodes, great visuals and tunes, and absolutely wonderful addicting core gameplay. Had it's writing just been a bit better, I may of given it a higher score. Despite that, I would definitely recommend for anybody looking for a quick and unique FPS game to play through.
Reviewed on Jun 21, 2022