For all its minor flaws, Hypercharge Unboxed is a fantastic game.
The Xbox Series X|S edition of Hypercharge Unboxed it was a long time in the making – I previewed it back in March 2023, fully expecting it to drop in the coming months, but it took over a year from preview to landing. Fortunately, the wait is worth it.
HyperchargeThe Xbox’s arrival caps a seven-year journey since PC Early Access. It’s not the most inventive or innovative game, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. It also delivers on its promises: it delivers plenty of replayability, a fantastic mix of single-player and multiplayer action – with up to eight players online and four via couch co-op – and best of all, no microtransactions.
This Little soldiers and Toy Story-inspired first- and third-person shooter turns you into an action figure tasked with preserving the memories of childhood toys that are stored in ancient energy sources known as Hypercores. However, a twisted toy – Major Evil – seeks to destroy them with his legions of possessed toys.
It’s a simple but effective idea, and developer Digital Cybercherries succeeds in creating the ultimate toy-based shooter – for the most part. While it takes some getting used to, there’s a lot of value in this $30 package, especially when you have a few friends willing to lend a hand.
Hypercharge takes place in various rooms of a suburban house, with trips to a toy store, an arcade, and a rental apartment thrown in for good measure. It is Tinikin, if the world is full of devil-possessed plastic. Play these battles you created with your own toys as a child; it’s a game full of Proustian beats.
At its core, Hypercharge Unboxed is a PvE horde mode in over a dozen levels. You’re tasked with protecting these all-important HyperCores from an ever-growing, real-life-inspired army of evil toys using defensive installations, upgradeable weapons, and crucial teamwork with your fellow action figures.
A strong start
From the moment your character emerges from his plastic case at the start of each battle – an effect that never gets old and sets the scene perfectly – you’re treated to a gorgeous-looking game that runs at a near-constant 60 frames per second. Pop-up graphics are minimal – usually limited to the first two seconds of a loaded map – while lighting, colors and scene building can be impressive. It doesn’t look true to life, but it doesn’t try.
As you adjust to the game in its tutorial, it’s confusing at first. First and foremost, Hypercharge UnboxedThe default controls on are confusing – they don’t look like any other FPS and worse – but they are mercifully interchangeable with the more natural secondary loadout. You’ll probably make other adjustments, specifically the ability to toggle running, since there’s almost no reason to walk. Given the number of objectives you’re tasked with, you can’t take things slow.
Hypercharge Unboxed is divided into two main modes: build and battle. During these waves you have primary and secondary objectives, mostly completed during the downtime between each horde. Some are sequential – collect secrets, place stickers, get all the coins in a level – while others rely on finding level-specific items (cookies, rings, map pieces) or destroying specific targets like spider webs or price stickers. This is easier said than done.
Navigation frustrations
Even when you’ve perfected your controls, Hyperchargethe platform of is inconsistent. Some sections may be too narrow to land comfortably; the vault ability to cast characters is hard to time and doesn’t trigger as reliably as it should; certain protrusions within the range are not scalable. It forces you to learn planned traversal routes, which wouldn’t be too annoying if they weren’t so frequent.
The maps are littered with routes, but it’s a real task to figure out how to navigate them.
As a result, attempting 100% completion in single player mode with AI compatriots requires absolute perfection. This is especially true in medium to large environments because there is not enough time to research and protect everything. Facilities must be built, items must be discovered, coins often appear sequentially after you find the first one in the set, and point-to-point challenges can be brutally timed. Your AI friends are not programmed to collect; for solo graduates, this can be plastically heavy Helldivers 2.
Hypercharge UnboxedThe AI isn’t brilliant – you’re usually the savior, even if the end-of-level rewards rarely reflect that. Your teammates are pretty tasty in combat and can pick up and move the all important AA batteries for defense, but you still do the heavy lifting. Fortunately, up to platinum level, you only need to protect all cores from damage; you only need to keep them intact to get the all-important gold coins to unlock the final stage. Regardless, a few levels require a bit of luck – the loft and the back garden come to mind.
A comfortable fight
However, the combat is very reliable. Aiming is hard to get used to at first – there’s a level of auto-aim to consider – but you soon get into the groove, upgrading to your preferred weapons alongside your defensive gear. The smaller weapons—the shotgun, machine gun, and sniper—can be swapped out for your dual-slot pistol, but you can also pick up game-changing dual-slot weapons like the minigun or the one-shot, chargeable freeze beam.
Enemies are inventive but generally manageable. Once you know the limits of each threat, you can adjust based on your surroundings and plan defenses for future waves. Some quickly become the bane of your existence – drones swarming you, spinning gravitas, and bosses that are impossible to find for minutes at a time.
Drones in particular are a nightmare.
Hypercharge Unboxed it forces you to learn each wave carefully. You won’t get it the first time. In some cases, you won’t get it the fifth time. You still learn, you go again and you get better. Offense is the best defense; planning against the bad guys at every stage is vital; anti-aircraft is usually the priority.
Amidst all the battles, you unlock new characters, skins, outfits and defenses – even naming conventions. The random name generator is one of the game’s strongest points; I played as Captain Rainbow Speed, Mister Fancy Finger, and Super Weirdo Girl and was inspired to create marketing plans for their action figures while playing.
The whole time, Hypercharge Unboxed is associated with a delightful soundtrack and good sound effects, even if these can be undermined by repetitive voiceovers that become particularly annoying when things are going well. Having Sgt Max Ammo repeatedly tell you to restore defenses on attack (you can’t until the round is over) or change a node’s battery (even though there aren’t any) can make certain enemy waves unbearable.
There’s also a lot of childish eagle-eyed humor. Props, in particular, go to the fake Scalextric kits, which boast chains including ‘Pen Island’ and ‘Flaccid Peaks’ – shaped like cartoon gentleman limbs.
Sometimes it’s actually good to have the lowest common denominator.
Hit the target
Hypercharge Unboxed it’s not perfect, but it’s the type of PvE game that will shine in couch co-op or with online friends, not solo. There is real potential for a strong online community through both standard PvE and several PvP options including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Battery, Infection and King of the Hill.
Digital Cybercherries has done a great job bringing to life an idea that many of us dreamed of long ago Toy Story and Little soldiers, but have since required. With a few post-release tweaks, this should be a cult classic that all ages can enjoy – even if it’s rated as a teen. Maybe it’s because of the dick jokes? In any case, it’s worth it.
