Hyper Scape is fast-paced and brutal, more like a Quake-style arena shooter than a Battle Royale. In my beta review for Hyper Scape (on PC) I talked about how exhausting the game could become over a one or two-hour session.
The game feels just as intense on the Xbox. But there is a problem.
It’s simple: there are just so many free-to-play Battle Royales. Warzone, Fortnite and Apex Legends have dominated the dialogue over the past two years.
They appeal to their own dedicated communities, and for the most part, peacefully co-exist. But does Hyper Scape have enough to carve out its own slice of the market?
It’s a difficult question to answer. And honestly, Hyper Scape feels just okay on consoles.
Nowhere near as slick as the gunplay was on PC, and let’s not even get started on how much trickier it is to use some of the Hacks effectively with a controller rather than Keyboard and Mouse.
Sure. The game is fun. Don’t get me wrong. For a free title, it’s wonderfully polished, unique and boasts a unique art style.
But it lacks a lot of the character and a lot of the staying power of a game like Warzone or Apex.
Will I come back to play Hyper Scape again and again? I don’t think so.
Hyper Scape plays like a fast-paced arena shooter. The map is always shrinking and everyone drops onto the map to fight each other
However, to the game’s detriment, that’s where its similarities with the intense and adrenaline-inducing atmosphere of the Battle Royale genre ends.
Those intense final circles? Forget it. This is non-stop action. People are flying up and down all over the place, going invisible and dodging your bullets as you try and hit them with decidedly dodgy analog sensitivity problems.
For some reason the game was on a ridiculously high sens for me when I first logged in – maybe it’s telling me that I need to get twitchier to actually play this game.
The combat is relentless, and as I’m struggling to get my aim down with the analog sticks, I wish that I was playing on mouse and key again.
Despite the game’s flaws on consoles, and even though I think everyone might forget about Hyper Scape in the coming months, there is something to be said about its fresh take on the genre.
There is no downtime, the Twitch integration makes it more fun to watch Streamers, and the combination of guns and Hacks is pretty fun.
With the arrival of the Season 1 Battle Pass it’s clear that Ubisoft is trying to introduce more character to its sci-fi world, but without the established fanbase of Fortnite or the lore-lovers over at Respawn’s Apex, I don’t think a few cosmetic skins are going to be enough.