A Surfers FPS with almost great movement and short but wacky campaign
Super Buff HD is one of the FPS games, specifically one that aims to be kinda like those surf maps you'd see in like in Source games. At least that's where I'm familiar with the idea of "Surf Maps". The year is 202020 and all the buff dudes, seemingly in existence, are now against society and YOU gotta stop them! The game makes ample use of making a varity of short, but typically dense enough levels to run and surf around in. with a smidge of FPS gameplay on top. It's main shortcomings with this scope is the movement occasionally just feels awful, in certain scenarios.
Gameplay wise, Super Buff HD never has one set goal usually for it's levels, typically your objective is usually something different each up and/or updates during the level. Like one might be to get to the end, another you might need to collect times, fight a boss, or a variety of objectives. And with the constantly shifting level themes there's typically something new to enjoy. Now it's main selling point is the on foot movement. The movement is float-y on purpose and heavily momentum based as to obviously imitate the effect of surfing constantly. You're also able to wall run and use rails to also gain speed. Rounded off with a double jump and singular dash move. You're also able to straight up surf into enemies and proceed to surf upon them to gain more speed and extra jumps. Despite all these features, the main issue I personally had with the movement was the double jump and strafing being extremely sluggish. To the point that you often barely even move at all while air-born. Now normally this is a non-issue since the game is very generous with having multiple ways to get across the map, and being pretty chill with falling down pits. The main issue came with purposely trying to aim somewhere and being a smidge off cause the jump does not give you enough height as you'd would expect it to. This mostly was annoying with gaining the collectable BUFF letters, which are scattered throughout each level to collect. And you're absolutely encourage to do so since getting all of them grants a triple damage, ahem, buff for the rest of the level. There's also a few that require a enemy surf to reach. Which since each enemy type seemingly has different amounts of how long you can use them before they expire, it would have also been nice if there was a meter tracking that. Speaking of, the actual combat is insanely easy if you're familiar with other retro shooters. As while there is hordes of enemies in each level, your 4 weapons, each with altfires, get the job done. To the point I'm pretty sure you could beat the whole game with your melee weapon with how effective it is. Bosses are a somewhat similar case of just shooting it, but they do make up for that with spectacle or just their design, which leads to...
Stylewise, it's weird to describe it this way, but, it feels like you're thrown into a world out of some middle/high schooler's sketchbook. Everything from the wacky character designs, the 2D art and childish gags, and the choice of scenarios and music really feel like it's something of that range that brought to life. You also get a surprisingly amount of level themes each with unique level assets which is pretty neat to see. As the game uses Unreal Engine the game does have that kinda weird disconnect where the lighting and reflections look way too detailed in compared to the purposely amateur art style, though it does make the HD part of the title make sense. Though sometimes when the game gets busy, usually with large amount of enemies. It does tank the performance, which is a tad awkward with the game looking as it does, you'd expect it to run like butter almost all the time.
Overall, Super Buff HD is certainly a unique FPS. As someone who hasn't really dabbled in surf maps or anything of the sort that extensively, I absolutely adore the concept of applying that kind of movement to a proper level-to-level set up for a FPS. I personally just wish you had more aerial control, cause there's nothing more frustrating in my experience when you're just out of reach of a Buff letter and the jump is just not giving you any height. While yes you can use the enemies to boost you up, it still feels off when you JUST can't make it up. It's also a fairly short campaign. As even going back to levels to nab missing Buff letter and other misc achievements I still only clocked in about 3 hours. Although the game is ripe and meant to be picked apart with speedrunning, to the point there's even a boot camp level specially to teach you how to speedrun the game which take note of some obscure mechanics. Honestly this game is more of a Float Person Surfer than a First Person Shooter if you think about it more.
