Good old-fashioned fun, with a co-op partner or by yourself.
Hypercharge: Unboxed is the toy game where you run around and shoot other toys, and it is glorious. It’s like your hands have been deleted from the scene and you’re controlling the figures yourself. It feels like Toy Story or Small Soldiers come to life, and fun is this game’s middle name.
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Hypercharge: Unboxed Review: Small Soldiers Come to LifeWant to play it? Grab it on the Xbox Store or see Where to buy.
Story
You defend the Hypercore, an ancient power source that holds people’s beloved childhood memories of their toys. If Major Evil destroys it, those memories disappear forever. Listen, that’s all the story I need to start shooting up other toys. The campaign opens in a toy store with your action figure popping out of the box, and the story plays out in comic-book style. That approach taps into childhood nostalgia and makes everything you do feel more engaging.
Gameplay
This is where Hypercharge truly excels. The gameplay is smooth and fun, and it feels like an old-school game. They cut the fat: there are no battle passes and no hoops to jump through. You buy the game and play it, and nothing is held back to squeeze more money out of you.
You can play in first or third person, and choose which shoulder the third-person camera sits on. Both work extremely well. Couch co-op is the highlight, with up to four players on the same screen, and it took me back to being a kid. Two-player split screen can be vertical or horizontal, and I’m a horizontal guy. Beyond PvP there’s a campaign you can play solo or co-op, plus cooperative online play that turns the game into something close to tower defense, with waves that get harder and breaks between them to regroup and rebuild barriers.
There are plenty of guns to find around each map, but I’m basic: I love the standard assault rifle, especially its secondary mode on Y that turns it into a shotgun. The jetpack is one of the best-controlling jetpacks I’ve used, and I could aim and shoot seamlessly mid-air. There’s a decent amount of aim assist, which keeps things fun rather than stressful. Capture the battery mode is a huge back-and-forth that the maps really elevate. You unlock action figures by playing and customize their colors and weapons. If you don’t have a full squad, bots fill in, and they’re fantastic: they defend the base, rebuild destroyed pieces and actually play the game. At times they did better than random players online.
Once you’re in a match, time disappears and you play round after round. The variety of modes and maps gives it high replayability, and the developers keep supporting it with content updates. It feels great on the controller, as if it was designed with Xbox in mind.
The issues are all outside the action. Lobbies run on individual hosts, so you can sit waiting with no idea when a match will start. The default control scheme was confusing to me, though the settings offer the standard shooter setup you’d expect. Two-player split screen defaults to vertical, and it took me a while to find the horizontal option. A simple prompt for these choices up front would help new players.
Visuals
Right off the rip, the art style impresses and brings the world of toys to life with an almost CGI look. Shelves are packed with knickknacks, and the environments feel lived in. The lighting is a standout: dark scenes get intense when you rely on small lights, and outdoor scenes are dynamic. The frame rate was super solid, even in split screen, with minimal hitching that didn’t affect gameplay. Kudos on that.
Sound
The audio is as detailed as the visuals. Every gunshot is impactful, you feel it when someone gets hit, and you can hear the plastic when you hit them, so it sounds like you’re playing with toys even while you’re firing weapons.
Verdict
Hypercharge: Unboxed reminds you that games used to be built to keep you having fun without all the extras: good old-fashioned fun, with a co-op partner or by yourself, in the campaign or online. Getting into matches can be frustrating, but once you’re in, it’s just good.
Image: Digital Cybercherries
More on OnPoint: Minecraft Dungeons II Review: Finally, a World Worth Living In and TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants Review: A Trip Down Memory Lane.
The verdict: Great
Good old-fashioned fun, with a co-op partner or by yourself.
Pros
- Pure fun with no battle pass
- Four-player split-screen couch co-op
- Toy-world visuals and solid frame rate
- Excellent bots
- Great jetpack and gunplay
Cons
- Host-based lobbies leave you waiting
- Confusing default control scheme
- Split screen defaults to vertical with no prompt
Platform played: Xbox
Where to buy
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