Battle royale has become massively popular, but does Hyperscape set itself apart?

The battle royale genre is a saturated market to be sure, so the announcement of Ubisoft’s Hyperscape a few weeks ago took a lot of people by surprise, myself included. I was lucky enough to land a key into the technical test and give it a try, and I have to say, I actually enjoyed myself. Now that the beta has launched, there’s even more time to get hooked with an even bigger group of players.

Personally, I dig the Tron/Cyberpunk aesthetic BIG time, and synthwave is my go-to chill music, so I may be a bit biased coming into it. Fortnite’s cartoony look can keep it fresh, but sometimes you want something a tad more “down to earth” to look at. Call Of Duty has that gritty feel, but the gameplay and art will always be restricted by it’s “realism.” Hyperscape offers an extremely broad range of opportunities to go nuts with game modes and maps, which I think is going to make it stand out from the crowd. The map is literally a version of virtual reality, so the limits of what changes Ubisoft can make to it and have it still feel like Hyperscape are only limited by the gameplay.

One of the biggest design changes from most others is the sheer verticality of the gameplay. For those of you who remember the days of Quake multiplayer, you’re going to get some serious deja vu. There’s no fall damage, and there are plenty of launch pads around the map to boost you hundreds of feet into the air. Coupled with a few abilities called “hacks” and you will spend a lot of time floating around, looking for the next opponent. Some people might compare this to Apex Legends, but you don’t do much attacking in the air in Apex; it’s usually just meant for fast travel around the map. Hyperscape leans into attacking from air, which can also be a downside, as I’ll explain in a bit.

There are 9 weapons in the game, plus your basic melee baton. What’s interesting is that instead of collecting cash or materials to buy or craft an upgrade, every weapon and hack can be upgraded by picking up the same weapon. As it levels up, you get increased mag capacity, damage, or cooldown time, or a combination of all three. I think it’s an interesting change to the RNG looting of a BR, even if ultimately it’s still the same idea of keep running around the map to find better weapons.

There are also 9 “hack” abilities, which range from shields to healing to building a wall. Upgrading the hacks is the same process as the weapons; locate the same hack on the map, and you upgrade up to a total of 5 times.

Another thing I found as an interesting twist is that the map doesn’t shrink in the typical circle fashion. As the game progresses, areas of the map called sectors will break down and disintegrate. It appears that these sectors are chosen at random, so there’s no anticipating the center of the storm like in most BRs. It’s not a major change, but any little thing can add up to distinguishing it from the crowded BR space.

Speaking of, Hyperscape has also introduced an in game integration with Twitch. Viewers can vote on different game events, ranging from low gravity, infinite ammo, revealing players, and more. It speaks to the awareness that Ubisoft has that the streaming audience loves battle royale, and encouraging this as a stream friendly game increases the odds that someone does stream it, thus capturing the attention of the streamers audience and potentially turning them into a player as well.

One of the coolest changes to the standard BR formula is the revive function. Instead of the usual "card" that drops when you're eliminated, which requires a teammate to bring to a revival spot for you to re-deploy, you become an "echo." Basically, you're a ghost. You can't use weapons or hacks, but you can still move and see everything on the battlefield. This offers an ironic strategic advantage, because you can scout ahead and find enemy positions without them seeing you. To be revived, you go to a spot where an enemy was eliminated. They leave a small pad that you stand on, and one of your teammates comes and "activates" the pad, bringing you back onto the field. I think it's a very clever way of keeping downed players involved in the game, and with no limit on how many times you can be revived, you can still be a benefit to the team by being the invincible scout.

Now, there are some downsides. The current game mode is called Crown Rush, so it’s not just a last man standing BR. When the players have been whittled down to the last few squads, a crown spawns on the map. At this point, you can win the match by either continuing to eliminate players, or by capturing the crown and holding onto it for 45 seconds. There are some ways to abuse the hacks and basically ensure a win once you have the crown, like turning into a ball and hiding in one of the destroyed sectors. There’s no doubt that it will be patched and somehow nerfed before launch, so it’s fair that it’s being explored in the beta, but it’s still something to be aware of. There are definitely balancing issues between the weapons as well, but again, that’s the point of beta testing.

It’s also possible that the Twitch integration ends up being abused. If a big streamer is in your match, then it’s not only possible, but very likely, that they ask their own large audience to vote in a certain way, in order to give their streamer an edge. The events are randomized, and only occur a few times a match, but the possibility of being railroaded by an event does exist. I don’t think that this will be a big issue though, since events are a part of the overall gameplay and should be expected, whether anyone in the match is streaming or not.

Probably my biggest criticism and concern right now is the map itself. Like I said before, the game leans into the verticality of gunplay; you spend a LOT of time in the air. Where this starts to present a problem is that the map itself just kind of blurs together. There are a few major landmarks that are the hot zones for the best loot, but once those have been emptied, the rest of the match tends to be rooftop battles, and all the roofs just look the same. It seems odd for a game that has such vertical ability that there are no real high points on the map; it appears as just a standard cityscape. Personally, I couldn’t tell one area from the next, and it also makes it difficult to call out locations to your teammates, which is critical in squad battles. Sure, the ping system is here and works well, but nothing beats being able to immediately communicate via voice chat.

Even though I feel the map is currently a little bland, this is something that can be easily fixed within the lore of the game. It’s hard to critique a battle royale game without comparing it to the juggernaut of Fortnite, but if nothing else, Fornite has proven how popular in-game events can be, and how those events can shape the map. Hyperscape can and should embrace these crazy, over the top events as well, without taking itself too seriously, else it will just feel cheesy. Call of Duty lacks these events, and if a new map is introduced, it’s just through an announcement and a patch change. I think the virtual reality that Ubisoft has created has a lot more potential for some really fun world events that could easily rival Fortnite.

Overall, I’m excited for the game. I love the look of it, the gunplay is satisfying, the abilities are fun, and it already feels like a polished game. Add in the fact that they will have crossplay enabled at launch, and it’s looking like a solid contender in the BR category. Whether it’s enough to carve out a significant following from the major players remains to be seen, but I think it has a lot of potential.

Prime Status:

Hyped!!!

--> Excited

Interested

Bored

Pass

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