While I’m not particularly religious, from time to time I do still ponder what heaven might be like. It’s a nebulous, sometimes frightening concept. What could possibly await you in the afterlife?
Neon White reviewPublisher: Annapurna InteractiveDeveloper: Angel Matrix, Ben EspositoPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out 16th June on PC, Switch
Maybe it’s somewhere where concepts like stress and worry don’t exist. Or perhaps it’s just like being asleep, forever. In Neon White, heaven is neither of those things: it’s a place where you kill demons and get horny.
Last year, co-creator of Neon White Ben Esposito opened a gameplay walkthrough by saying that unlike his more child-friendly title Donut County, his next game would be for freaks. ‘Ah,’ I thought, ‘I think he’s talking about me.’
To describe Neon White at its most basic, it’s a speedrunning FPS, where our protagonist, the titular White, is tasked with killing all the demons plaguing heaven before judgement day. But there’s a strong dash of anime mixed in there too, with some fun, albeit simple visual novel elements.
The problem when you refer to something as vaguely anime is that some people inherently don’t like it for boring, reductive reasons, and I do wish those people would grow up, because Neon White wears its anime influences proudly on its sleeves, and is all the better for it. Especially paired with maybe the most exhilarating gameplay I’ve experienced this year.