Hypercharge: Unboxed Review (PS5) – Like Toy Soldiers

It’s fair to say at this point I’m an old gamer. I certainly don’t feel it, my love for video games spans all the way back into my early childhood when a SEGA Master System was under my TV, but looking at the age brackets now of signing up to whatever, I have to scroll down to find mine, and it’s taking a toll on me. I’m not the gamer I used to be. My reflexes are nowhere near as fast, I can’t stay up for hours and hours anymore working my way through my favourite campaigns and I certainly don’t have the energy for midnight launches, but I guess the passage of time was always going to catch up to me. I’m young at heart, old at damn near everything else. 

So I can proudly proclaim I was there when video games were just that. When we bought a cartridge, we stuck it in our system and just played it. And what a glorious time. Taking your controller over to your mates house and getting stuck into GoldenEye for an entire evening. Slaps only. No Oddjob. Those were the days. 

I only bring this up because Hypercharge reminds me of those wondrous adventures. When gaming meant just having fun with your mates and not called profanities in lobbies. I love modern gaming, but there’s certainly an itch Hypercharge scratches that most other games do not. 

Digital Cybercherries appear to share that sentiment, and with Hypercharge they’ve promised a full on no bullshit video game experience. No battle passes, loot boxes, microtransactions, persistently changing worlds. Here it’s all in the box and you go until you’ve unlocked everything and then you go again and again. Paying homage to a bygone era, the joy of Hypercharge is knowing there’s very little else like it around anymore. 

So throwing together Toy Story and Small Soldiers into a tower defence game set in different rooms of a nondescript household may not seem like the idle ingredients for a joyous time, what transpires when you have the controller in your hand and you’re facing off against the Major Evil, everything clicks into place and it feels like you’re fifteen again. Mind you, you’ll only get that kinda feeling if you’re old. Like me. Ugh. 

And it’s one hell of a way to teach players about tower defense. Now Fortnite care so little about their Save the World mode they’re not even promoting it in their shop anymore, Hypercharge picks up the ball and runs with it, showcasing the might of strategy and tactics by placing coins all around the level which you’ll need to purchase upgrades and new tower defenses, including plastic walls and traps surrounding your most precious Hypercores. The Major Evil will be coming to attack them in the hopes of destruction, it’s up to you to make sure that doesn’t happen. 

And the gameplay is fast and furious. You’ll have a generous amount of time to prepare before each wave of Major Evil, and when the game kicks in the buttery smooth FPS mechanics begin, and you’re mowing down an army of action figures and jumping toys all wanting to get their grubby plastic hands on the Hypercores and destroy all that you’ve built before your very eyes. In solo, it’s manic. In multiplayer it’s hilarious. With a team of up to four friends you can each defend your own base and call for help when you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, which only adds to the chaos. The rounds last for as long as it takes for you to mow down every enemy coming your way, and you can only hope that your Hypercores are still in one piece to achieve that all important victory screen. And yes, there’s local co-op. Huzzah!

And the gun mechanics are surprisingly solid, perhaps more-so than I was expecting. You’ll have your standard shooter fare of guns to choose from (assault rifles, snipers, shotguns etc) but finding attachments in the level will allow you to add a gun on top of your gun for extra gunningness. For example, you could begin with an assault rifle and then add a shotgun which will enable you to choose between the two during the match. Lovely stuff. 

Over the course of 14 levels Hypercharge has an array of enemies from soldiers to the aforementioned bouncy balls, tanks and even planes that will fly around the room in the hopes of tearing down your defenses. Parachuting soldiers also are super fun, and if I’m around don’t particularly last all that long. In these levels a number of them include bosses which include robots with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads or a Mecha-Rex, a super cool enemy that as you can imagine is just a supergiant robot dinosaur hellbent on destruction. 

Beating them though means you’ll normally get a gold rating for your efforts. Each level will rate you on your performance and this open up a ton of customisation options. In the main menus you’ll have a blast making your Hypercharge soldier as unique as your imagintion can make it. 

Online, Hypercharge remains just as buttery smooth as the offline component, offering a slew of classic modes including King of The Hill, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Free-For-All and more. It’s naturally trickier online so younger players may want to jump off until they really get good, but it’s a super fun time if you want to relive some classic gaming modes with a bunch of toys. 

I’ve played Hypercharge on Xbox, PC and now PS5 and I haven’t found anything from the technical side that could be construed as an ‘issue’. You can tell Digital Cybercherries have poured their heart into this game and it shows with the detail of the environments and the careful, thoughtful gameplay. I kinda hoped they would have cleaned up the UI a little more, as it still takes a little while to navigate around and get used to the positioning, particularly on console but it’s not a huge gripe, it still feels solid and you can easily find a game mode to play, it just takes a second to get there if you’re not familiar with the set up. 

That being said Hypercharge does it what it sets out to do – create a super fun PvE shooter that harks back to the classics of the genre, and brings it to life with vibrancy and the saturation turned right up. There’s nothing grim or bleak about Hypercharge, and for me that makes it stand out even more amongst its modern competitors. I’m super excited to see the game reach a bigger audience on PlayStation and this port demonstrates just how much they love this game. 

Give it a chance. You probably will too. 

Hypercharge: Unboxed is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5 (review platform) and PC.

Developer: Digital Cybercherries
Publisher: Digital Cybercherries

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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