The Switch’s ever-expanding library of games is slowly but surely bringing more and more FPS titles into the fold. Juggernauts like Overwatch and Alien: Isolation rule the roost, but there’s definitely a conspicuous gap in the market for a true co-op FPS game, and that’s where Hypercharge: Unboxed comes in. Channeling the spirits of Toy Story and Small Soldiers, Digital Cybercherrie’s sophomore title sees you fight off wave after wave of enemies in a bid to protect toy-kind from being forgotten by their human owners.
Taking place within a typical suburban household, you’ll be exploring bedrooms, bathrooms, gardens and more. This might sound a bit mundane, but in practice, the stages look pretty remarkable. You play as a 5-inch tall toy soldier, so naturally everything else around you looks absolutely massive in comparison; you’ll be jumping on top of toilet bowls, sprinting across desktops and diving off the edge of a vast bookcase.
What’s even more impressive is that the game actually looks pretty incredible, too. Opting for style over realism, you get a real sense that you’re taking part in a CGI movie, and the framerate stays at a solid 30FPS at all times. It’s a shame they couldn’t have pushed for higher, but we certainly appreciate the efforts to keep the gameplay at a level pace. The lighting effects are also really nice, with plenty of variety from sunsets leaking through window blinds to cold light from a computer monitor illuminating tabletops.
With the ability to play on your own or with friends locally and online, you’ll need to protect what the game calls ‘hyper-core’ systems dotted around the maps. The waves of enemies naturally gravitate towards these, and it’s up to you and your comrades to defend them. Along with standard weaponry, you’ll be able to construct fortifications between waves with Build Mode, utilising coins picked up during gameplay to purchase more effective blockades. As you progress, the waves get more and more intense, with a definite increase in both enemy numbers and variety.
Of course, if you’re not particularly keen on co-op play, Hypercharge: Unboxed also offers the ability to play PvP with friends, with additional support for split-screen play across all modes. Split-screen works as intended with minimal technical disruptions, and the additional modes – Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Plague Mode – are decent additions that compliment the main co-op mode if you’re looking for a bit of a change.
The first thing you’ll want to do upon booting up the game is change the default button layout. A rather bizarre decision was made to map the sprint and jump abilities to L and R respectively, which quite frankly feels completely unnatural. Thankfully, whilst there are only two button layouts available, the alternative is much better (and of course, you’ll want to invert the Y-axis, since everyone knows that’s how FPS games should be played…).
There’s plenty of opportunity within the game to customise and enhance your characters as you progress. You can pick up gun upgrades within the maps themselves – provided you have enough coins – and be rewarded with more permanent upgrades to your armour and fortifications as you work your way through the stages. The games doesn’t immediately make any of this particularly clear, as there’s a distinct lack of any tutorial to start your off, but we’ve been assured that this will be patched in by the devs at a later date.
There are a few key areas where the game falls down a bit, unfortunately. The overall gameplay is great for the most part (and the inclusion of gyro aiming is very welcome), but jumping up obstacles can often prove to be a bit tricky. Taking cues from more modern FPS titles, you can scale up objects by tapping the jump button again, but doing this often causes you to mistakenly jump too many times, resulting in you accidentally leaping off the object you tried to climb in the first place.
Additionally, and perhaps more crucially, there’s never a real sense of danger in the game. There are plenty of tense moments when you’ll need to really scramble to defeat the attacking forces, but they’ll rarely actually attack you, so you can more or less wander around without much fear of dying.
On the flip side though, considering it’s more-than-reasonable price, Hypercharge: Unboxed is a neat introduction to the world of co-op FPS action. There’s more than enough here to keep you occupied for hours on end, provided you have like-minded friends who can join you. If you’re looking to play on your own, however, then you’re best off looking elsewhere.
Conclusion
If you consider the fairly sparse selection of FPS titles on the Switch, Hypercharge: Unboxed is a genuinely tempting prospect, boasting solid gameplay that is an absolute blast with friends. There are a few issues with the gameplay that may need addressing with patches, and as a whole the game feels like a bit of a walk in the park for the most part, but otherwise it’s an impressive, unique title that you’d do well to check out.
Comments 80
"and of course, you’ll want to invert the Y-axis, since everyone knows that’s how FPS games should be played…"
-Ollie Reynolds
Mr. Reynolds you just shot to the top of my "trusted reviewers" list.
This looks to be about what I expected. It's the multi-player that I was most concerned about. Hopefully, it won't be too hard to find other people playing the game so you can form a group.
It's a shame that the single player isn't better, I was hoping it would be more fun to play on my own. Not a fan of online multiplayer these days so I am going to wait for them to patch this game up, they said they were going to improve the solo experience after a few patches down the line. This is definitely a game to wait and see how it turns out, as it seems to be releasing early.
Thanks so much for the review, we really appreciate it!
Just to address some points that were made:
“but jumping up obstacles can often prove to be a bit tricky”
We understand jumping up obstacles may be tricky, but this is our intention. We want the player to think about each jump, it’s not supposed to be easy. Once you get a real feel for the jumping mechanic, you soon realise just how far you can push it. We may need to make this clearer, but holding down jump continues to boost you further / higher, which helps a lot when navigating the environment.
“as a whole the game feels like a bit of a walk in the park for the most part” “The game lacks an overall sense of danger”
There are three difficulty modes, Casual, Regular & Expert. With expert of course being much more difficult, and certainly not a walk in the park. It requires you to really think about what type of defenses you place, and what weapons and attachments to use, and overall having the near-perfect strategy. Depending on how far you got into the game, as you progress, each level becomes more difficult. (Garden is hectic!)
“A bit of a waste if you're playing on your own”
We personally believe this depends on what type of experience someone is after. If online-co-op isn’t their thing, there’s no difference between single-player and online. (in terms of content) Everything you can do online, you can do when playing offline. The only difference is the balancing on single-player needs to be tweaked.
For those who have read this, I sincerely hope it hasn’t come across as defensive, or think we’re making excuses. We’re honestly not. We fully realise the game is not perfect, and genuinely appreciate all feedback. We just wanted to provide a little more information about the concerns listed above.
Our game isn't just a sloppy Switch-port, we truly care about it and want it to succeed.
We will of course take on board all feedback and work closely with the community to improve the game on and after launch. We're a passionate five-man team, doing our best.
Hopefully see you in-game soon, small soldiers! 😊
Edit -Many of you are asking why there is no mention of PvP in this review:
It is a shame that there was no mention of any of the PvP game modes, as this is a crucial feature for many Switch players. We hope we haven't missed out on a potentially higher rating because of it not being mentioned. But yes, the game does support PvP! (Deathmatch, Team deathmatch, and Plauge-mode. 😊
Day one. Love it on PC, and since it's a solid port, I really want to support these folks.
@D_Cybercherries Well, you have my interest, I'll be sure to pick it up hopefully on the first day it comes out. I'm hoping for it to be the TF2 of the Switch.
My big question that this review didn't address is the deathmatch mode. I have no interest in the tower defense mode with waves of enemies to kill.
However, the devs told me the game has proper deathmatch and team deathmatch modes. If that's true, this will be an instant buy for me.
Did you get to try those modes? Or is that part of what is coming in future updates?
@sketchturner The games does support Deathmatch and Team deathmatch. (with server rules) - We will be adding variants in the future, i.e - Capture the Flag, but with a twist. And let's not forget about Plague-mode! That's a real blast with friends. So tense!
@D_Cybercherries
Glad to see that you're on here and answering questions. I'll be grabbing this game soon. Can we expect to hear updates from you all about changes you all will be making to the game based on player/review feedback?
@D_Cybercherries Thanks. I guess I'm confused why reviews never seem to mention those modes 🥴
@Solomon_Rambling Thank you, that's very kind! Definitely, we actually released a Roadmap last night, can be found here: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/01/hypercharge_unboxed_dev_says_all_the_games_updates_will_be_entirely_free
The environments remind me of Toy Commander on the Dreamcast.
@JayJ Hi there! It all depends on what experience you want.There honestly is no difference when comparing single-player to co-op. Everything you can do online, you are able to do offline.
Our advice is, if you love co-op play with friends, then you'll get the most out of this game. But if you just like playing offline, you'll still have a bunch of fun, but won't get to experience teamplay. (which is where the game shines) I hope that makes sense.
@Kanbei Well, it was one of our inspirations when designing the game!
Kind of reminds me of the Army Men series.
@Robo-Knight That's so nice of you, thanks for the kind words!
@PhilKenSebben Thank you! We truly appreciate it.
@D_Cybercherries awesome. Toy Commander was one of my favorites on the Dremacast!
@LaytonPuzzle27 Small Soldiers, Sarge's Heroes, Toy Story and Toy Commander inspired us to create this game. Oh, and also de_rats.
@Kalmaro Fingers crossed the game can make some noise and sustains a healthy player-base!
@D_Cybercherries will there be a playable demo?
@D_Cybercherries Wishing you guys the best!
@sketchturner It is a shame that there was no mention of any of the PvP game modes, as this is a crucial feature for many Switch players. We hope we haven't received a lower rating because of it not being mentioned.
@Velocity90 Yes, we are hoping to add a demo later this year.
@Kalmaro Thank you!
@D_Cybercherries Yeah I don't think you guys are being lazy, if anything the contrary, you seem to be doing what you can to refine it. I would just prefer to get this after you have completed that work, but I can see how having people play the game would give you more information to improve upon.
@D_Cybercherries I figure so long as you provide bots that I can customize in some way, especially when it comes to difficulty, and they do everything that players would do, I should be fine.
Since this is on a portable console, there is a good chance that I will be mostly playing this offline which is why that is a big concern for me. Well that and I am simply not really into competitive gaming.
@JayJ I completely understand what you're saying. We do have plans on adding some type of AI when playing single-player. Having the option to customise them... That's a really nice idea!
Got it preordered on both me and my son's Switches. Love Toy Commander and FPSs like Timesplitters, Battleborn, Overwatch, Stranger's Wrath. Can't wait to play this one.
@D_Cybercherries Nice! I am glad you guys are listening to the community and considering our suggestions, definitely makes me want to buy this game all the more. I look forward to seeing how this develops!
@D_Cybercherries thank you for the reply. Good to see you replying here yourself and listen to the end users reminds me of 2 of the best switch games (Hat in time and Celeste)
Not an FPS fan but the setting/theme intrigues me. Will add to my wishlist to pick up later.
@AJ81 Haha, awesome! We hope you have a blast when playing. TimeSplitters is one of my all time favorites. Do you remember the Virus game mode? Well, we have something similar, called Plague-mode.
@Ryu_Niiyama Glad you think so, and thank you!
@Velocity90 The communication between developers-and-fans has really gone down hill. It's a shame that not more devs interact with their fans or those interested in-general.
@D_Cybercherries have you thought about a mode where you spawn enemies against other players in a form of a scaling spawner mode or a mode similer but against ai people.
Will this come to Ps4 eventually? And with a higher frame rate?
@D_Cybercherries when i saw you guys commenting i did think it would come across defensive- shame that's the assumption. Like you say communication has gone downhill. I shall give it a try and report back. Looks like a great game
@D_Cybercherries Your game really interested me after ive seen the streamer Vinesauce play it with his friends. Love the concept and im definitely gonna try this game out after the roadmap!
The reviews mentions coins for upgrades. Are there elements of paid upgrades in this game or is it strictly based on goal completion?
I believe the PC version has a pvp mode, does that carry to this version?
@D_Cybercherries Is there an option to play against AI-controlled opponents offline in the different game modes?
....is this game finished? I have it on my Steam wishlist and it's still listed as 'early access' and not yet final. This is the single reason I haven't purchased it there (I'm not into paying for unfinished games or paying to be a tester), so I'm wondering if the Switch port is also 'early access'.
@Ultimategamer132 Unfortunately not yet. Though, this is a highly requested feature and something we may look into.
@Cotillion Yes, the game is finished. The Nintendo Switch version will release first on January 31st, 2020. Steam version is set to officially launch soon after.
@NinjaWaddleDee Yes, the Nintendo Switch version has all the PvP game modes.
@Zidentia You unlock everything via hard work in-game. No Pay-to-Win.
@D_Cybercherries
Ok. thanks
@D_Cybercherries disappointing that it’s not there currently, but at least you’re looking into adding it, as you said. Thanks for the response and your time.
@Zidentia Just to confirm, did you mean in-game currency? As in, you collect coins to purchase defenses, etc?
@Ultimategamer132 You're very welcome!
@D_Cybercherries so there are no bots?
@sixrings Not for PvP. In PvE, you fight against A.I. Although, we may look into adding some type of bots in the future.
@D_Cybercherries Thanks for clarifying that. I've been watching this game for a while (first saw it as an Imgur post, I believe) and waiting for the official release.
@D_Cybercherries Hey no problem. I can get behind a developer who openly communicates with people & a game that has alot of hard work put into it. I've been trying to get into/back into making video games myself for quite some time, at least doing paid testing again.
Washington State sucks kids.
@D_Cybercherries Giving this PvP bots would really go a long way. I have been looking for a good on-the-go PvP shooter.
The default button layout is bumper jumper, which I think feels pretty nice. You can jump without taking your finger off the joystick.
@D_Cybercherries Apologies if this was asked already but will there be a physical?
@D_Cybercherries How much will the game cost at launch?
Is this coming to Ps4 as well??
I have been stoked for this one ever since I saw it in a BeatEmUps video! Can't wait to give it a go!
@D_Cybercherries An FPS that does not have any microtransactions whatsoever?
You, my good people, are truly a light in these dark times. Godspeed and good luck!
@D_Cybercherries Hey, you guys are on a roll answering these questions, but one thing I'm curious about is(and it may sound stupid considering the nature of this genre) but is there an option to switch the view to third person to see your avatar and surrounding areas? This is something that Paladins did that really was unique to me when playing matches until the recent update. Not that I have any problem with first-person, it's just a preference and I'd also love to see my little toy soldier in action. That's just me, tho.
Also, will there be motion control support soon and new maps in the future?
@D_Cybercherries Thanks for providing some extra information that the review (unfortunately) did not cover. It's always a good sign when the time is taken to address the community's concerns. I'm definitely interested in this game now and will probably pick it up soon! 😀
@Dakka-Dakka Thank you, you're more than welcome. 😊 It is unfortunate PvP wasn't mentioned, as I believe we would have received an extra star, and just made 8/10. It offers another alternative to those who are not interested in PvE, and overall is great fun!
@TheAwesomeBowser Hello, $19.99 😊
@Dakotastomp Yeah I agree, having a choice between first or third person view in Paladins was a good option. I've been looking for a good third person shooter on the eShop lately but haven't really found anything that has grabbed my attention.
Fingers crossed for big and healthy online community.
Man this dev really wants a last hurrah on Switch don't they.
@D_Cybercherries guys, not only my interest but you can count my beloved money as well... Yesterday I showed this game to my wife ( I'am trying to teach, push and bring her to videogames). I wanted to have an experience MORE OR LESS like left 4 dead / the CoD zombies. Since I saw NL other post that you guys will give fully support throughout months and now, I see your answer here... I'm definitely willing to give a try!
@VN1X Hi! We're not after one last hurrah. When we originally set out to develop games, we wanted the focus to always be on our community / players. It's important to us that we do our best to respond and communicate on all social platforms. This is something you unfortunately don't see very often, it's rare nowadays. We want to build and expand upon the game with our players. We value our community and those who share their feedback. In the end, yes, it's us the developers who design the game, but it's the players vision that truly make it into something special (if you let them) 😊
@rex_rex That's very kind of you! Thanks so much. 😊 I hope you and your wife have fun playing!
@D_Cybercherries
Yes as in free to play but real money needed to upgrade quicker.
How far did you get in the game? Why no mention of the amazing plague mode? When everything gets an 8 for being crap how has this objectively good game got a 7 when you had no real flaws?;
Not worth it for single player - nonsense, it can be great for a single player.
No real sense of danger - again, absolute nonsense you didn't play enough of the game. You've not gone with the different difficulties and clearly not reached the latter stages.
People respect you guys, but it's getting very apparent that you're rushing these out without checking the play time of your reviewer. Also, did 4 of you play this together? I hope so.
"and of course, you’ll want to invert the Y-axis, since everyone knows that’s how FPS games should be played…"
We, sir, are kindred spirits.
This looks like a great PvP FPS.... been waiting for one on the switch so my son and I can battle it out. I’m pre-ordering now as I can’t imagine missing this!
Ai during pvp battles would be a great addition if possible. Even just a couple to add some cannon fodder whilst stalking friends.
@SirWalrus
What's single player like and how is it?
I agree with you that a lot of the reviews these days here tend to be short and actually not detailed enough about even just basic information like game modes and what systems are in place in the game itself.
I just wanted to say I'm having a blast with this game. I love having an FPS with so much focus on platforming and verticality. It feels awesome!
@D_Cybercherries are there any female character options in this game?
@D_Cybercherries not often that developers take the time to comment on reviews. This truly shows that you care.
This is an old thread so wanted to find out what improvements your team has put forward since this review?
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