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Consider this post an in depth review on the current state of Hyper Scape. It will be long, but I hope it serves as a constructive review of how I think the game currently is. There will be a tl;dr at the end, but if you choose to read through the entire thing (and I sincerely hope somebody at Ubisoft does), thank you.
I'm an Xbox player, and started playing the game shortly after the first season released (when I actually searched for it myself, as I hadn't heard anywhere that the game had come out of beta). I saw it on the Ubisoft showcase and it was one of the games that caught my eye most, as while I wasn't usually a BR person before, I took an instant liking to Apex and have been playing that regularly since it released, and this seemed to have a gameplay style that rewarded aggression and made camping difficult, which in my opinion makes for much more fun. Side note, you'll see a few comparisons to Apex Legends as it's the only other BR I've put a whole lot of time into.
The game looked fun from the Youtube videos of it I'd watched, and when I picked the game up, it lived up to it. Sure, it only had Squads and Solos, and I initially feared the game had officially released incredibly soon after the beta and there may still be major issues, but I still found the game fun and the aggressive, fast paced design to be lived up to.
Of course, as a console player, problems persisted, and I began discovering other problems with the game too. When I first started playing, games wouldn't take too long to fill, and would usually get more than 90 people. Now, I wait for a good few minutes, but the player count per game rarely goes above 30. So what happened?
CONTROLS
Getting this out of the way now, because I can't speak for how this plays on PC, but this game controls like somebody put honey under all my controller triggers. Firstly, incredibly crucial settings like fully customisable button binding and an FOV slider (the FOV is gross, I can't even see the top of my melee weapon) are just totally absent. Secondly, trying to aim is much more trouble than it's worth. There's such a disjoint between vertical and horizontal camera movement no matter how much I fiddle with the settings, and even if the settings have received extra options since launch, what is usually a beginner friendly game with a simplistic yet satisfying design forces you into camera controls that feel bizarre if you've ever played any other FPS.
The camera feels as though my character is on ice. And if you have to slog through a series of menus and settings to make the camera useable, rather than in any other game where usually you'd just drag a couple sliders to your preferences, that isn't good design. It means everybody's first impressions of how the game controls is "clunky and slippery".
GAMEPLAY
As already mentioned, I think the game's fast-paced action works incredibly well, and the simple loot system actually aids it and proves that a complex and deep loot system isn't always necessary. However, the game is completely lacking of some defining niche that sets it apart.
The BR market is INCREDIBLY saturated, with almost every triple A company throwing their hat in the ring. Hyperscape's core design may be solid, but there's no unique mechanic or appealing factor that draws people in. If people want a fast-paced BR, they have plenty other options. The closest thing the game has to a unique mechanic is the crown rush, which the game makes a big deal out of, but is realistically just a way to end extremely late game stalemates and not a lot else.
CHARACTERS
The game tries to have interesting characters like Apex does, but as they're mostly just, simply put, "regular dudes", they lack a design or lore that I feel inclined to care much about. They may be relatable, but while Burns' Scottishness may be charming and fun to listen to, he isn't nearly as interesting as an anxious dude with dreams of making it big in the games, but using a semi-act of snobbiness and only caring about himself to hide it, not wanting to leave his mother with dementia alone if he may die competing, only to be gifted technology that allows him to create decoys of himself and turn invisible at a whim and told to follow his dreams. Mirage, if you're unaware.
Burns' profile even states "When he does engage in battle, he is a defensive player, adopting a protective role towards squadmates". What is the point of this information if it does not play into the gameplay whatsoever? Clearly giving characters totally unique abilities isn't the game's design, but I think characters would benefit at least from some kind of passive affect to set them apart rather than to purely be skins of each other. Using Burns as an example, perhaps he could take 5-10% less damage when close to a squadmate, or have a slightly reduced cooldown of the Wall hack by default. Nothing major or hugely meta-defining, but SOMETHING.
MONETIZATION
Hey, remember when I mentioned characters just being skins? Let's talk about skins.
So overall, this game honestly is nothing super graphically impressive. It looks nice, the promotional artwork especially has this clean and sharp neon look to it, but that doesn't at all hold true to the game itself. The game as a whole looks desaturated, and there's nearly no reason to prefer dropping in one zone over another because buildings take up one of I think three base designs and just slap loot into the same place.
That was a tangent. That's not what I'm meant to be talking about here, I'm meant to be talking about the skins. Hyperscape is a F2P game, it makes all the money off the battle pass, and the store.
So tell me, why do the skins look like this
By that, the only thing appealing to really spend money on is the battle pass. And the battle pass is also...
MOTIVATION TO KEEP PLAYING
The game has no base account level up system, just the battle pass. While I would never suggest lootboxes as a way to draw me in to play more since lootboxes are a touchy subject, the game needs something else, desperately. If you haven't purchased the premium battle pass, there is surprisingly a decent amount of stuff you can unlock, and even currency which I commend them for, even if nothing in the store is appealing enough to spend it on. However, much of it is locked to being a prime member, and much of what's left is, again, unimpressive skins. Even as someone who has purchased the premium however, it's still hard to find motivation when so many rewards are stuff that either looks mediocre, or is sprays and emotes that I won't use because the game only gives me three slots as opposed to something like Apex having a whole communication wheel.
Nothing on this battle pass makes me say "Oh, I need to do these challenges, I gotta grind for that sweet sweet reward". The gameplay may be solid, but with the almost complete lack of anything unique, I feel no reason to continue investing time into this game when I find others much more interesting.
tl;dr
- The game was released from beta too fast and retains a lot of issues like bad FOV and terrible controller situation by default make first impressions of the game a matter of overlooking these obvious issues in hope the gameplay is solid.
- The gameplay IS solid, thanks to the fast-paced nature, but it totally lacks staying power due to a total lack of a unique, defining trait in a highly oversaturated market.
- The game tries to have an assortment of characters, but with no difference between them, no connection from character to character, and no interesting lore or unique traits, they're hard to care about.
- This game is free to play and attempts to make money from the store and battle pass, but the game as a whole is nothing graphically stellar and the skins are possibly the worst offender, and very little on the battle pass is particularly attractive.
Ubisoft may be trying to fix most of these issues in season 2, but the game has gotten stale incredibly fast and the player numbers have plummeted. The game isn't talked about whatsoever outside of the small playerbase, and Ubisoft themselves just do not advertise it.
I love the fast-paced, core gameplay, and find certain weapons very satisfying to use, but with nothing to work for and characters I don't have a reason to care about, it's very hard to find the motivation to stick with the game over others and it seems for others, that is often the case too.
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