Hyper Scape is the new Ubisoft battle royale

On Thursday, Ubisoft Montreal revealed Hyper scape, a new Battle Royale game set in a cyber future. The game’s heroes enter the future equivalent of the Internet to fight for glory, basically the Oasis of Ready Player One, if that helps you.

In a previous event on June 26, I played a few hours of Hyper scape, and I learned that this actual battle is more about looting than shooting.

What is it Hyper scape

Hyper scape It is a battle royale game for up to 99 players, played in squads of three players or only through a solo queue. When the match starts, players drop to the ground in their customizable landing pods. The other players in the preview event and I never had a problem reaching even the farthest areas of the map during our descent.

Hyper scape it only has four equipment slots: two weapons and two “hacks”. Hacks are abilities that can do all kinds of things, from healing you and your squad to becoming a giant ball that can bounce around an area. There are no health packs or armor kits, no grenades or vehicles.

If a player picks up a copy of something they already have, their weapon or Hack will get an update. This is called “fusion,” and the weapon upgrades that result from this can be devastating and game-changing. For example, the sniper rifle starts out as a two-shot headshot killing weapon, but when fully upgraded, the sniper can kill an enemy with a single shot in the head. Hacks are merged to reduce the cooldown, allowing players to use them more frequently.

Image: Ubisoft Montreal

Death in Hyper scape It is also a little more forgiving than the typical Battle Royale game. When you die, you become a ghost who can then roam the world, exploring enemies, so you never have to release your mouse or controller. When enemies die, they become a ghost like you, but they also drop a spawn pad. Allies cannot drop these pads, but all enemies can. If a living squadmate and a ghost ally meet at some spawn point, the living player can revive his ally, albeit without all of his loot. Due to the number of enemies that die in each game, a spawn point is never too far away.

In describing this revival mechanic, Hyper scape Creative Director Jean-Christophe Guyot said: “We are still modifying the formula a lot … One thing we wanted was to make sure there was never a pause in the game.”

Like other Battle Royale games, the goal is to remain the last team or player to stand, as the map gets smaller and smaller. In In this game, the different districts of the city begin to disappear, in this case, what is known as “decadence”, which restricts the play area to only one block from the city. But in Hyper scapePlayers can also pick up the crown. Holding on to the crown for 45 seconds wins the game, but it has a massive target on its back as it does so.

In each game, the NPC host of the Hyper scape Arena will also display different types of events in the game. Some events cause more loot to be spawned, while another reveals all enemies on the map, and yet another turns off the game’s gravity. All of these familiar parts of the Battle Royale gameplay are blended thanks to Ubisoft Montreal’s Twitch partnership. If someone in your game is broadcasting, audience members can vote which event will take place. If your favorite broadcaster is on a high-octane chase around town, perhaps the chat will vote for low gravity, or something more damaging, like the revealing event.

Hyper scape it’s a free game, but it will sell cosmetics like Fortnite Yes, and players can opt for the game’s Battle Pass. But with so many free, fast-paced, first-person battle royale games, what makes Hyper scape different?

Playing Hyper Scape

Image: Ubisoft Montreal

If you are familiar with Battle Royale games, Hyper scape will remind you immediately Apex Legends. The speed, the animations, the glide. I move fast on Hyper scape, and the urban environment means I’m climbing flights of stairs, shooting out of windows, or using jump platforms to get to the roof.

My most successful fights took place over a long distance, with a sniper rifle in one hand and a Healing Hack in the other. These fights were slow, with two teams occasionally shooting at each other from two different buildings. If I hit someone, they’ll duck behind a fireplace and start to heal, so I’d need to reposition for my next shot.

The fights on the ground were hectic and a little more difficult to track, although he was not yet familiar with the map. The explosive nature of many of the game’s weapons meant a quick end to one-on-one battles. But weaving between buildings and windows, chasing someone, or escaping, felt smooth and polished. It has the mobility of Apex Legends, except I had to choose my ground character’s powers instead of spawning with them.

At first, the Healing Hack felt almost mandatory, but as I had more scratches, I found that powers like armored ball or wall were of great help. If I needed to get away from a group of enemies, I could jump on the ball and bounce, living to resurrect my teammates and fight another day. Or I could use Wall Hack to protect my allies while resurrecting them, or lock a door, trapping an enemy inside with me.

Still, the current tools in Hyper scape I felt a little limited. There was a more suitable weapon or power for each situation, instead of multiple tools that provided multiple ways to get out of different scratches. If you were close to an opponent, you wish you had the shotgun; if he were away, the sniper. I could paint a similar situation for each of the powers and weapons in the game, which left me disappointed with the limitations of the items I’d collected in a given career, rather than eager to test the versatility of a weapon.

A more passive battle royale game

Image: Ubisoft Montreal

If I’ve learned anything about Battle Royale games over the years, it’s that aggressive play is the key to victory. Hiding in a bathtub or slowly looting a warehouse can only take you so far. If you hope to make it to the end, you need the best weapons and a sea of ​​consumables to stand a chance. And the best way to collect those items? Eliminating competition and stealing your shit.

In my couple of hours with Hyper scapeIt seemed like a much more passive experience. After trying to fight teams again and again, I wondered what I was gaining from those encounters. Shooting experience and knowledge of the map, of course, but loot? No more than you would find in a nearby building.

My best games came from looting a big, empty place with my squad. Because it can only contain four elements, it was relatively easy to find exactly what you wanted anywhere on the map. I regularly found two or three versions of my weapon, producing good fusion forage, before going into combat. In rare cases, my teammates and I would find a completely improved weapon breaking a box, no murder required.

There are no consumable items to loot; The player’s health will regenerate on its own as long as it is not damaged for a certain period of time. Combined with the ease of bringing someone back to life, Hyper scape I felt very forgiving compared to other Battle Royale games. Did you get into a bind that you can’t win? As long as someone on your team runs away, your team can survive, because that person can revive them all. Losing a battle only means more time looting in the shadows, which is more lucrative than fighting enemies anyway.

The “show” aspect of the game was a huge selling point for Ubisoft, and given Twitch’s in-game support, it is clear that the designers want this game to appeal to both viewers and gamers. But seeing people search for weapons in a large building isn’t exactly fascinating. Of course, Ubisoft is still working on Hyper scape, and the designers’ focus on the show probably means they’ll try to find ways to incentivize players to play aggressively.

In my limited time with the game, that action-packed incentive isn’t there yet. Hyper scapeThe fast, fluid feel is better to run away from a fight than to run into one. But a lot can change about a Battle Royale game after a beta version, and even after a release, and Hyper scape It plays well to say the least, the hardest thing to fix after launch.

Hyper scapeThe technical test will launch on July 3, and players can sign up for a spot on the game’s website. Ubisoft will probably do a beta in the future, but it is unclear when it will launch. The technical test is for PC gamers only, but Hyper Scape will eventually hit PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Guyot also hinted that Hyper scape It will eventually hit next-gen consoles, though it’s unclear if it’ll be available when those consoles launch later this year.