Growing up as a kid in the 90s, toys coming alive were all the rage, but you had to choose a team. Were you the fun-loving, aw-shucks, meat-and-potatoes “Team Toy Story”? Or, were you the cap gun-wielding, frog-catching, grass-stained pants-wearing kid on “Team Small Soldiers”? As a man (kid) of principal, I, of course, chose team Small Soldiers. It is a cinematic masterpiece, perfectly depicting how the power of the human (Gorgonite) spirit can always overcome oppressive forces, as long as we have our friends by our side. On top of that, It was also just cool as hell to see toys burst out of the box and battle it out with each other. So cool, in fact, that I always pondered how what happened on screen in that film could translate into a video game.
There were some previous attempts at a Small Soldiers game made with a PS1 entry that focused on the universe the toys came from, removing the entire “toys-to-life” aspect the film was known for. A more strategy-focused PC game was also made, but it removed a lot of the fast-paced action, which was all 8-year-old me cared about at the time. Then there were, of course, around 50 Army Men games released back in those days, but the sense of scale was never quite there for me. Alas, after all of this time, my dream of a toy combat game had somewhat died on the vine. Enter, Digital Cyberberries, a team that aims to make the game 8-year-old me always wanted with Hypercharged: Unboxed. Will it live up to the vision I once had I had so long ago, or should it have stayed a forgotten memory?
I Love The Smell of Polyurethane In The Morning
Hypercharged: Unboxed is somewhat of a viral hit as I feel like I have seen the trailers show up in my social feeds for years. In fact, almost all of the previous knowledge I had on this title was gained from doom-scrolling through everyone’s favorite X-bird app. It was admittedly nice, having bits and pieces of the game’s trailers provide some levity to the eternal hellscape that website can be. This marketing actually led to a bit of a surprise for me as I had assumed, based on the videos, that this was a PvP-only game. In actuality, a large portion of the game is a horde shooter. You play as your own fully customized toy soldier in either first or third person plastic-on-plastic combat.
Under the command of Sgt Max Ammo, you will battle against the hordes of enemies, led by the game’s antagonist, Major Evil, defending everyday locations, like bathrooms, bedrooms, toy stores and more, as the forces of Major Evil try and destroy the game’s prized mcguffin: “hypercores.” The game does an admiral job of trying to accent the gameplay with little bits of narrative in the form of the aforementioned faction leaders, along with some pre-game comic book-style cut-scenes. However, as charming as it is, it is very much just window dressing. To the game’s credit, though, I never felt compelled to skip any cutscenes, at least the first time through, so it was interesting enough. They also did get a chuckle or two out of me. The main course and what the bulk of the development work went into here was clearly the gameplay and the game’s world.
Complete In Box
Upon stepping foot into the world of Hypercharged: Unboxed, though, it is immediately apparent that the team members at Digital Cyberberries were also on team Small Soldiers, or at the very least found their own path to sharing the same vision I had for a game like this. You know, great minds and all that. The level of detail and dedication to that vision put on display throughout the game’s presentation is extraordinary, from the 90s action figure aesthetic to the toy models and militarized soundtrack. Even the small touches like being able to not only customize your toy soldier part by part but even customize the box they come in really stood out to me. Most impressive of all, however, is clearly the game’s many maps and locales.
When building a game like this, the most important thing to nail is the sense of scale, and the team handles that very well. From bedrooms to playgrounds, all of the maps are recognizable locations, and the feeling you get when viewing them from this shrunken perspective was easily the most memorable part of my time with Hypercharge. I think the team at Cyberberries anticipated this, as they cleverly added a ton of both cosmetic and power upgrades all over the maps, incentivizing you to explore them. These power ups are important if you want to survive the later, more difficult waves, so you will want to seek them out. It’s also a brilliant way to really showcase just how densely populated these maps are with tons of little details scattered around, really adding to the immersion. When a game can couple two different aspects like this and have them both elevate each other recursively, that is good game design.
Everything Else Is Just a Toy
Once you get passed how well visualized the world is and how much they absolutely nailed the vision in terms of spectacle and perspective, some of the game’s cracks begin to show. The ambition showcased in Hypercore‘s presentation, unfortunately, is not matched by the gameplay and shooting mechanics. While far from being “bad,” the game is missing a lot of the comfort features that make playing an FPS on console feel good. The gun diversity is decent, but a lot of different guns feel very similar to use. They all share the same reload animation and do not feel very responsive to fire. Things that normally help this, like audio feedback, hit markers, and firing animations, are just “okay” here.
I realize that it is a smaller budget game, so it’s not fair to compare it against AAA heavy hitters in this regard. And it is certainly passable during the horde defence PvE modes, but this really stands out as a problem in the game’s PvP mode. And it’s a mode which, in my experience, also has to deal with a lot of connection issues, lag, and long wait times to find matches, the former of which has seen improvements further out from launch. There is fun to be had in PvP, but I just cant shake the feeling of this aspect of the game being more of an afterthought in terms of its design.
Aside from simply shooting at hordes of evil toys in the PvE modes, there is also a defense building system to help defend the hypercores. Currency earned and collected through exploration is applied to very specific placement zones near the cores, and you can build things like turrets or fences. Overall, the system is necessary to engage with to ensure success in each mission; however, it feels very half baked. You are extremely limited in where you can place defenses, and there is also not a large variety of options to choose from.
It’s A Small World After All
Hypercharged: Unboxed is an ambitious project from a small team with a strong vision that is mostly realized, albeit with some struggles along the way. The gameplay might not be polished to an unbelievable sheen, but the presentation is a sight to behold for anyone who has ever played “war” with their action figures as a kid.
