Turbo Hyper Over-violent

The retro-inspired FPS market is getting extraordinarily crowded, and standing out is turning into harder than ever. Hyperviolent doesn’t actually do a very good job of doing that on the floor. Even the identify is as interchangeable as Turbo Overkill and Ultrakill. It advertises violence, which you will get just about anyplace.

However taking the time to truly get into Hyperviolent reveals that it’s not simply one other retro-inspired FPS. It’s not simply explosions and heavy metallic music. It’s not as frenetic as Doom or Nightfall; it’s really extra akin to the unique System Shock.

Because it makes its delayed touchdown in Early Entry, Hyperviolent reveals that it could possibly stand out. Nevertheless, there’s nonetheless lots of work to do to truly make it value enjoying.

System Shockmaster

Whereas Hyperviolent gained’t beat you over the top with a story, it does attempt to provide you with some context. You’re some dude who solutions a mining colony’s misery sign and finds everybody has determined to alter professions and develop into monsters. There aren’t many cutscenes, and lots of the textual content is elective, which is nice, as a result of the interface isn’t superb.

I discussed the System Shock roots, however Hyperviolent isn’t an immersive sim. It primarily simply gives a listing and units you thru a collection of ranges that aren’t solely linear however possibly ought to be. Typically you get keycards and should take them again to locations you’ve already been, which is type of like Doom, however includes extra pointless backtracking. Typically Hyperviolent will spawn in additional enemies to make your backtracking extra eventful, however that’s not a very good factor. It’s intrusive, synthetic, and noticeable.

Well being and ammo are additionally extraordinarily restricted. Your weapons aren’t completely correct like they’re in some retro FPS video games, however when coupled with restricted ammo, this is usually a bit irritating. It’s one factor when your shotgun sprays however you will have 200 shells. It’s one other factor whenever you don’t know when the following time you’ll see a shell is.

What’s worse is that the weapons have an odd perspective to them. They’re angled in such a manner that it makes it really feel like they aren’t really pointing towards your reticle. I didn’t even know this was doable. I’m considering of all of the low-resolution weapons I’ve seen in my day, and I positively don’t know the way my mind ever interpreted, say, the pistol in Duke Nukem 3D to be pointing the place I used to be taking pictures. Nevertheless, it labored, however for Hyperviolent, I simply can’t recover from the visible disconnect.

Double-fisting

The enemy ranks are closely populated by zombie dudes who simply run at you. The AI is extraordinarily unimpressive, which isn’t stunning, however I see completely no purpose why it is best to use a gun on the zombies when it’s very simple simply to hit them with one thing. I bought lots of mileage out of getting a pistol in a single hand and an axe within the different. Complete courses of weapons went unused as a result of the pistol can headshot most ranged enemies, and any melee weapon is efficient towards the zombies.

The degrees in Hyperviolent are sparsely populated but nonetheless handle to be complicated at occasions. There are lots of moments the place I’d activate one thing within the setting and do not know what impact it had. This could lead me to simply wander round, in search of an space that opened up.

At one level, you must create a grenade, then use it to blow open a cracked wall. This seems like one thing that ought to result in a secret space, however there’s a obligatory keycard behind it. In the meantime, the grenades don’t work on doorways blocked by vines. Regardless of these doorways being extra conspicuous than a cracked wall, I by no means discovered a technique to get via them. I believe there isn’t one.

Pushing it

One other large letdown is efficiency. I actually don’t know the way a recreation like Hyperviolent could cause such bother for my system, however I’d get lots of slowdown at occasions. It’s doable that it simply pushes the usually 2D Gamemaker engine a bit too far out of its consolation zone, but when that’s the case, it wasn’t definitely worth the alternative of engine. It additionally feels prefer it will get extra unstable over time, with stuttering getting worse and menus turning into extra unresponsive.

It’s additionally buggy, particularly with regards to the stock which has each duplicated and eradicated issues on me. At occasions, after loading a checkpoint, I’d lose most of the sound. Hit detecting isn’t nice, with bullets colliding with partitions removed from the place they’re really drawn. Hyperviolent can simply be actually messy at occasions.

Hyper-promising

Even with these issues, there’s lots of promise present in Hyperviolent. A whole lot of the problems it has might in all probability be resolved by operating over them with the ground polisher. I just like the aesthetic and the slower tempo in comparison with most FPS video games as of late. If somebody created a brand new entry within the Blake Stone collection, that is how I’d need it to play.

Actually, I can see Hyperviolent maturing into an incredible recreation, however proper now, it feels extra like a proof of idea. I assume I’m principally frightened about it, since there’s a recreation I need buried right here, however it should take effort to get to that time. I don’t need the developer to settle with “ok” as a result of, with sufficient work, it might be nice. If you wish to incentivize the developer to get it to that time, it’s value getting it in Early Entry, however in any other case, you would possibly need to wait.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}