Hypercharge started off to be a fresh and unique take on the tower defense genre, not necessarily redefining it by any means but it definitely stands out from the crowd. The idea of being a toy soldier defending Hypercores against a multitude of various toys was a charming experience. However the further that you progress into this title, the more obvious it became that some core mechanics were either overlooked completely or restricted compared to other tower defense games.

• A variety of different enemies with different variations
• Each level is well designed with a lot of attention to detail and secrets
• The majority of weapons were decent and fun to use
• The idea of being a toy fighting against different enemy toys was quite a charming factor
• Lot of replay value if you have a full team
• PVP is also available if you’re interested in that

• Lacks and restricts basic tower defense mechanics
• Games difficulty doesn’t scale with the number of team members, solo players won’t survive
• There are fixed positions where you are forced to build towers, with little to freedom
• Sometimes the game feels too RNG based, sometimes you’ll get OP weapons that spawn and other times you won’t get anything worthwhile
• The range of turrets is represented by a number but it never shows how much a unit is in the map

• Sometimes towers to me were damaged but to other players, they weren’t damaged at all
• An instance happened where the wave wouldn’t end so we were forced to restart

Like any tower defense game your main objective is to protect your base of operation, in this case you’ll be defending Hypercores. Depending on which map you play on, there can be anywhere between one to four Hypercores to protect. It isn’t necessary to protect them all though it does affect your rating on the level which can unlock new towers.

Upon starting a level you’ll be given three minutes to explore the map, collect money, build defenses and find batteries. Exploring these maps was always enjoyable the first few times, though some maps were more platform heavy than others, there was still a lot of secrets and collectibles to find as well as references and jokes scattered around the map. Three minutes barely seemed like enough time for a team of two and we usually fell short on time to do all the necessary preparations for the upcoming wave.

This title definitely brings new mechanics to the tower defense genre that makes it unique. Whilst your defenses primarily slow down and shoot nearby enemies, the majority of the firepower will come from the weapons that you acquire. There’s a decent amount of weapons that you can find that can mow down most of the enemies, though some were clearly more superior than others. Unfortunately finding these weapons comes down to luck whether they spawn in a shop or around the map.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2089443139

In order to progress through the game you’ll need to obtain medals to unlock other levels. Depending on how many Hypercores you protect will depend on what medal you will get. On expert difficultly, it can be very challenging to get the diamond medal and it got to a point where it felt impossible to progress with just a team of two.

As you progress through the game you’ll undoubtedly encounter a lot of different enemies from different toy sets. You’ll be fighting against toy soldiers, robots, spinners, bouncy balls and various other enemies along with different variations of them on the harder difficulties. Some defenses were more effective against specific enemies (for example fire traps were good against spinners) but it was more of a trial and error system to find out which ones were best against what enemy. Spinners were a primary concern if you built walls since the walls were hollow if the spinner could get inside then it would destroy the wall in seconds and leave your Hypercore exposed.

However, Hypercharge seems to overlook some of the most basic tower defense mechanics or make them more restricted. One of the more annoying restrictions is the fixed positions that you build your defenses on, there’s little freedom to where you can place your towers, and although the harder difficulties give you more places to build it still felt rather restrictive.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2089443200

To add more frustration there isn’t any indication as to were your enemies will be coming from. This becomes problematic since you don’t know which Hypercores to protect with more defenses and which ones you don’t have to bother with on that wave. It punishes the player despite not giving information that they need to effectively spend their money and choose which defenses would be the most effective.

One of the more noticeable flaws with Hypercharge is the fact that it doesn’t seem to scale its difficultly depending on how many players are on your team. Solo players will definitely have a hard time getting through the more difficult levels because of the sheer amount of enemies spawning or because of the size of the maps. It seems that Hypercharge was definitely created with a full team in mind, punishing solo players or teams below four in a number of ways. You can join random people through servers however, you do need a level of communication that doesn’t seem possible when playing with random people.

Another overlooked mechanic is yet again more information that is withheld from the player, being able to know what enemies will be attacking on what wave is vital to keeping the Hypercores alive. Hypercharge doesn’t seem to have this basic feature, on more than one occasion we had to restart because we didn’t have the defenses required to effectively take care of the enemies on that wave. This would usually result in a Hypercore being destroyed or heavily and having no choice but to restart since it would affect our rating for that level.

Playing in the perspective of a toy soldier was very appealing, being able to climb the familiar environments of the bedroom, kitchen and gardens was a joy. Every map has a lot of detail both in the textures and references that you’ll find by exploring the maps. Enemies are all designed to be just like classic toys and some are obviously plain knock offs of classic toys from your childhood that adds to the charm of the game.

Hypercharge definitely brought some interesting mechanics to the table, its just unfortunate that it forgot about some of the more basic ones. Playing this game solo is practically impossible up to a certain point and even with another friend you won’t be able to get through the entire game without a full team. If you and some friends can team up and play this game together then I would definitely recommend this title. If not then I would wait for an update until it balances some of these issues so it can be possible to play solo or with a friend.

This product was reviewed using a free key provided by the Developers

[h1]🎤Introduction[/h1] [b]Hypercharge[/b] started off to be a fresh and unique take on the tower defense genre, not necessarily redefining it by any means but it definitely stands out from the crowd. The idea of being a toy soldier defending Hypercores against a multitude of various toys was a charming experience. However the further that you progress into this title, the more obvious it became that some core mechanics were either overlooked completely or restricted compared to other tower defense games. [h1]✔️Pros[/h1] • A variety of different enemies with different variations • Each level is well designed with a lot of attention to detail and secrets • The majority of weapons were decent and fun to use • The idea of being a toy fighting against different enemy toys was quite a charming factor • Lot of replay value if you have a full team • PVP is also available if you’re interested in that [h1]❌Cons[/h1] • Lacks and restricts basic tower defense mechanics • Games difficulty doesn’t scale with the number of team members, solo players won’t survive • There are fixed positions where you are forced to build towers, with little to freedom • Sometimes the game feels too RNG based, sometimes you’ll get OP weapons that spawn and other times you won’t get anything worthwhile • The range of turrets is represented by a number but it never shows how much a unit is in the map [h1]❓Bugs[/h1] • Sometimes towers to me were damaged but to other players, they weren’t damaged at all • An instance happened where the wave wouldn’t end so we were forced to restart [h1]🕹Gameplay[/h1] Like any tower defense game your main objective is to protect your base of operation, in this case you’ll be defending Hypercores. Depending on which map you play on, there can be anywhere between one to four Hypercores to protect. It isn’t necessary to protect them all though it does affect your rating on the level which can unlock new towers. Upon starting a level you’ll be given three minutes to explore the map, collect money, build defenses and find batteries. Exploring these maps was always enjoyable the first few times, though some maps were more platform heavy than others, there was still a lot of secrets and collectibles to find as well as references and jokes scattered around the map. Three minutes barely seemed like enough time for a team of two and we usually fell short on time to do all the necessary preparations for the upcoming wave. This title definitely brings new mechanics to the tower defense genre that makes it unique. Whilst your defenses primarily slow down and shoot nearby enemies, the majority of the firepower will come from the weapons that you acquire. There’s a decent amount of weapons that you can find that can mow down most of the enemies, though some were clearly more superior than others. Unfortunately finding these weapons comes down to luck whether they spawn in a shop or around the map. https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2089443139 In order to progress through the game you’ll need to obtain medals to unlock other levels. Depending on how many Hypercores you protect will depend on what medal you will get. On expert difficultly, it can be very challenging to get the diamond medal and it got to a point where it felt impossible to progress with just a team of two. As you progress through the game you’ll undoubtedly encounter a lot of different enemies from different toy sets. You’ll be fighting against toy soldiers, robots, spinners, bouncy balls and various other enemies along with different variations of them on the harder difficulties. Some defenses were more effective against specific enemies (for example fire traps were good against spinners) but it was more of a trial and error system to find out which ones were best against what enemy. Spinners were a primary concern if you built walls since the walls were hollow if the spinner could get inside then it would destroy the wall in seconds and leave your Hypercore exposed. However, [b]Hypercharge[/b] seems to overlook some of the most basic tower defense mechanics or make them more restricted. One of the more annoying restrictions is the fixed positions that you build your defenses on, there’s little freedom to where you can place your towers, and although the harder difficulties give you more places to build it still felt rather restrictive. https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2089443200 To add more frustration there isn’t any indication as to were your enemies will be coming from. This becomes problematic since you don’t know which Hypercores to protect with more defenses and which ones you don’t have to bother with on that wave. It punishes the player despite not giving information that they need to effectively spend their money and choose which defenses would be the most effective. One of the more noticeable flaws with [b]Hypercharge[/b] is the fact that it doesn’t seem to scale its difficultly depending on how many players are on your team. Solo players will definitely have a hard time getting through the more difficult levels because of the sheer amount of enemies spawning or because of the size of the maps. It seems that [b]Hypercharge[/b] was definitely created with a full team in mind, punishing solo players or teams below four in a number of ways. You can join random people through servers however, you do need a level of communication that doesn’t seem possible when playing with random people. Another overlooked mechanic is yet again more information that is withheld from the player, being able to know what enemies will be attacking on what wave is vital to keeping the Hypercores alive. [b]Hypercharge[/b] doesn’t seem to have this basic feature, on more than one occasion we had to restart because we didn’t have the defenses required to effectively take care of the enemies on that wave. This would usually result in a Hypercore being destroyed or heavily and having no choice but to restart since it would affect our rating for that level. [h1]🎨Graphics[/h1] Playing in the perspective of a toy soldier was very appealing, being able to climb the familiar environments of the bedroom, kitchen and gardens was a joy. Every map has a lot of detail both in the textures and references that you’ll find by exploring the maps. Enemies are all designed to be just like classic toys and some are obviously plain knock offs of classic toys from your childhood that adds to the charm of the game. [h1]💭Closing Thoughts[/h1] [b]Hypercharge[/b] definitely brought some interesting mechanics to the table, its just unfortunate that it forgot about some of the more basic ones. Playing this game solo is practically impossible up to a certain point and even with another friend you won’t be able to get through the entire game without a full team. If you and some friends can team up and play this game together then I would definitely recommend this title. If not then I would wait for an update until it balances some of these issues so it can be possible to play solo or with a friend. [i]This product was reviewed using a free key provided by the Developers[/i]