A year after being announced, Neon White has finally launched into Xbox Game Pass, and it is incredible. Some of the worst visual novel-style cutscene work is mixed with some of the greatest time trail FPS gameplay I’ve ever experienced. You’re a bad man, sent to heaven after your death, and put through trials to try and earn a spot in the clouds. You’ll meet a lot of uninteresting characters along the way in cutscenes you can thankfully skip.
The Locale
You are Neon White, a dead feller in heaven where you and a group of tropey, annoying characters are given color-based names. You are all Neons, with you being white and others being yellow, green etc. I do not normally skip the story or cutscenes in a game, but Neon White was the exception. I originally played the title back when it launched on PC and remember lasting about 3 cutscenes before I started pressing X to skip. That happened again when replaying the title for review on both Xbox Series X and the Microsoft Store version on PC as it is Play Anywhere.
In between each time trial, you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the story as you talk to various entities around heaven. I feel bad, but there isn’t a single character or voice in the game that I like. I can tell the actors are doing their best, trying to give this nerdy anime tale a mix of silliness and charm. It just never landed for me, at any point. I repeatedly tried to go through cutscenes but not only are there a ton of them (if you want), they’re incredibly long. Thankfully though, you do not need to sit through a single one to get to some of the most addictive time trial-based FPS fun I’ve ever had.
The Runs
Each mission is a series of time trials with progressively tougher objectives. It’s a slow burn, though if you skip the cutscenes as I did you should be able to “complete” the game in 4 or 5 hours. If you watch everything and want top ranks in each level, all gifts (which you hand to companions for unlocks), etc. it could easily take dozens of hours or more. With the title being on Game Pass at launch I foresee a lot of scoreboard chasing against friends. Here is a rough breakdown of each trial and how they work.
You’ll start a mission that consists of several levels. There are 97 levels spread amongst 12 missions. Every mission has three levels of completion, silver, gold, and ace each tied to a time. The levels are anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute long and are a mix of running, jumping, shooting, and ability use. The shooting and abilities are tied to cards. These are a finite resource in each level with two use types. The first is shooting and the second is a unique ability per card. One of the first you’ll get is a pistol that shoots a single shot or can make you jump up in the air. Your shots are limited and using the 2nd ability destroys the card immediately.
Levels are designed in a way to force you to optimize your route, card usage, and focus on shaving off milliseconds to beat your friends and others around the globe. There is a rifle that hits hard and can make you dash forward, a shotgun that is murderous up close and can have you fly forward based on where you’re aiming.
It is a brilliant mix of aiming, platforming, and planning. Levels are rarely longer than 30 seconds, and restarting is nearly instant with the press of a button in case you make a mistake. Once you’ve gotten at least gold rank in a level you can then find any gifts or other story items with it. These runs let you focus less on time and more on reaching particular areas. It’s a lot of fun and with the ability to skip the story, it’s a game I have always enjoyed returning to on PC. The controls on console feel great, with just enough aim assist to help and never hinder. It’s an extra nudge and not a full-on slowdown magnet.
Graphics and Sound
Neon White runs at a high framerate on the Xbox Series X and was an easy-locked 120 for me on PC. The game’s style is clean, making it easy to see enemies and know where to go. You’ll get a lot of different movement abilities and having things like particle effects kept to a minimum is paramount. They are going for an anime feel with the style for each character, and if the writing and voice acting were better I think it would have worked well.
The game’s music never gets in the way while matching the high-paced tempo of the time trials. Some memorable stings hit at the start and end of each stage as well. The writing didn’t work well for me, and the voice actors never had a chance to make it any better. The audio mix for the VO’s feels off as well. It sounds like people in a recording studio or home mic setup and not people in an outside environment. It doesn’t match the large rooms in heaven, always feeling too crisp and clean, but that’s a minor nitpick in the grand scheme.
Wrapping Things Up
Neon White features incredible gameplay and some of the best “one more try” levels in recent memory. It’s so fun to play that it can’t be brought down by its poor story. It is worth a purchase or Game Pass download, especially if you’ve got some friends to compete with on the leaderboards
Neon White
Played on
Xbox Series X, PC
PROS
- Gameplay
- Level Design
- Replayability
- Clean Looks
- Skippable Cutscenes
CONS
- Writing
- Voice Acting
- Story
As with all games where time trials are a major mechanic, this is a pass.
It’s no longer for me either.
I’m sure many will love this though, and good for them to be able to play it on Game Pass.
As long as someone does, I just can’t get into time trials, as I lose interest in even try to get more than I need to advance.
I gave it a quick try and didn’t find the time trial nature that bad at all. It was a lot of fun and it didn’t take much to achieve a few silver medals, plus the levels are very short as Jesse mentioned.
I don’t get the controls at all, why put jump and discard on LT and LB when A, B, X and Y are all sitting there doing nothing?
I can’t get into the flow as I keep discarding when jumping and vice versa. Haha.
So that you never have to stop aiming with the right stick
Lol, yeah you’re right. I am getting more used to it, but still feels like jump should be on the bumper and “discard” on the trigger.
Getting the flow is immensely satisfactory though
This game is a lot of fun, and I love the traversal. I think adding time trial element for each level adds to the replayability which is cool. I am early into the game, but its a blast moving around and trying out different stuff to improve your score.
I think I might buy this when on sale. I’ll probably just wait for it to leave the service since it seems to be play anywhere, but I highly recommend this game so far
@Doncabesa alright I get it, I get it, this game is absolutely fucking rad.
I’m hooked. It’s really fun to play!