Hypercharge: Unboxed Review (Kleppi)
I will be adding occasional, concise updates regarding changes significant enough to mention in the comments on this review to keep information up to date without making this review a multi-page essay.
Summary
HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is a pleasant surprise. I absolutely love Co-Op wave based survival games and tower defense games so seeing this pop up on Steam's Upcoming was exciting. I decided to just go for it with semi-low expectations and pick it up on release for $15 and I'm honestly glad I did. In it's current state, an early pre-alpha, it doesn't offer a lot in terms of content or replayability but what it has in copious amounts is potential. The visuals are incredible, mechanically it's very solid, combat and movement is polished and fluid, has a great and fitting soundtrack and overall the audio is pretty good. Digital Cybercherries have also heavily emphasized community interaction and personally working with them to make HYPERCHARGE the best it can be. The foundation for an incredible game is here and what you'd be primarily paying for currently is an investment and support in the development team as well as a chance to watch this game and its community grow. I have owned my fair share of Early Access games and a lot of them have been abandoned or failed to become a worthwhile game but based on what HYPERCHARGE has and the commitment promised from the developers I have a lot of faith and excitement for this games future.
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Pros
* Visuals are impressive, almost a bit surreal. They really nailed the toy store aesthetic between the plastics, toy boxes, visual effects, sounds, and overal scale.
* Though you are usually confined to the isle of a toy store, there's a whole new level of freedom when you're the size of an action figure. You're able to climb up through all the boxes, racks, and hangars making the toy store feel more like a jungle, adding an unexepected depth to the isles.
* A lot of little easter eggs and comedic design hidden throughout the game. Exploring the map and checking out all the various toys on the shelves is pretty entertaining.
* The mechanics, movement, and gunplay are really solid and surprisngly well polished. Overall the game feels great to play.
* There's a fair amount of customization for your player model and they executed it very well. The models are very well done, from the color schemes to the general design and you can have the color scheme persist to your weapons and turrets.
* It runs well. Rarely dip below 60 FPS max settings @1440p with a GTX 780.
* Comprehensive settings menu for graphics, controls, audio, and some gameplay.
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Cons
Keep in mind, this game is pre-alpha. The developers have stressed how early in development this game is so expect the usual lack of content, bugs, and general quirks of a pre-alpha game. I will use strikes and italics to represent changes since I wrote this review
* There's not a lot of content or replayability at the moment. There's no progression so the entirety of the game currently consists of playing on also not a lot of progression yet, mainly consists of upgrading defenses but there is an inactive exp system for future updates. Currently there is only 4 maps with 5 weapons and 5 mostly cosmetic attatchments to choose from. and a few turrets. There are now 11 buildables, added traps.
* There are some bugs. The most notable so far are the audio for the MG turrets will frequently get stuck on an infinite loop until you restart and enemies can sometimes get stuck outside the map requiring you to restart the match. Word from the developers is this has been fixed.
* Multiplayer can be a bit laggy. Not unplayable by any means but it's inconvenient at times.
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Conclusion
Should you buy it? Short answer, Yes, if you don't mind the typical Early Access investment of buying an incomplete in development game. HYPERCHARGE does what it sets out to do very well so far and if a Co-Op survival tower defense game is up your alley then this is the game for you. If none of the above applies to you I recommend either skipping this one or keeping an eye on it as it recieves more updates. However, you can tell easily within the first two hours if it's something you'd want to keep, giving you the option to pick it up and refund it if you don't want it.