HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed PS5 Review

HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed has finally arrived on PS5 after being on PC and Xbox for quite a while now. The shooter has grown in popularity thanks to social media, where gameplay often goes viral thanks to its nostalgic toy figurine setting. However, while the game rides the popularity of TikTok videos praising how “back” things are, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is often as simple-minded and boring as the creators that share content around the game.

There’s nothing much going on in this game other than tedious and dated gameplay skinned with a toy box theme. The potential for an addictive shooter with longevity exists here, but sadly, after grinding through the repetitive missions that leave much to be desired, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed feels like a game with good ideas that are never fully realised and often stuck in the past.

You take on the role of plastic toy action figures and blast through a series of maps themed around real-life locations. As you’re a small toy, the world around you is essentially scaled realistically, and the sheer sense of depth here is delivered right away. Running behind books, under beds, and leaping from a toilet seat really brings the idea of a “Grounded-like” setting to life. I have nothing but praise for the map design, even if they do start to blend together after a while.

If you ever played warfare with your action figures as a kid, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed ticks the box when it comes to recreating what you imagined in your mind. Enemies span across some familiar-looking types such as the green army men, Beyblade-like spinners, and even large bombing planes, killer robots, alien flying saucers, and more.

As the action figure with the gun, gameplay basically revolves around defending a set area in the map from an onslaught of bad toys. Some maps have simpler objectives like surviving a set amount of waves, but most of them are tower defence.

You have your gun, and throughout the campaign, you can earn some stuff to build around the objective in order to keep the bad toys away. Turrets that shoot rockets, ivy traps, poison puddles. The usual cliché builds.

While this all sounds great on paper, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed falls flat in its general progression. There’s just nothing happening here. Action figures have no unique abilities, gun unlocks are on a per-stage basis, and even fortifications feel uninspired and dated.

Each map comes with a set difficulty; however, the scaling means you’re just getting tougher enemies that deal more damage while you’re still using the same crappy weapon and fortification. There are also no rewards worth dealing with that for because unlockables cover new action figures, skins, and some fortifications which, sadly, are all weak and unreliable.

The idea of HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is fun for the first few hours. Maps are cool to play through. Each map also comes with a plethora of side objectives to complete that you need to finish within that mission. They are pretty basic though. I had to complete a parkour run, collect a set number of gold coins, find stickers, kill enemies a certain way. Nothing groundbreaking at all.

If I completed enough of these, I would then unlock a new map. It would then be the same rinse and repeat process. Throughout it all, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed delivers the same simple-minded, and honestly boring gameplay. AI enemies are incredibly stupid, gunplay feels clunky, and as soon as a level starts to get intense with a bunch of built fortifications and weapon attachments equipped, it is over.

As a player, you never feel like you’re improving in any way. You’re just doing the same thing over and over again, and that “same thing” doesn’t do enough to keep you enticed. A new action figure skin isn’t enough here, and the level design and basic flow of each match feel like a mod that is tacked onto a better game, but the “better game” doesn’t exist.

Granted, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed, if you have patience and expect a game that virtually does nothing to enhance the experience over a few hours, can be fun in co-op and for completionists. Each map does have that list of objectives, and co-op always makes a game better, but sadly for me, even co-op becomes a pain to play when you can’t see your teammate on the HUD, and they don’t track pickups and challenges as you tick them off.

You can likely finish this game in a day or so and complete all the map objectives. There’s also PvP, which is a team deathmatch mode where you fight other players across the same maps as the tower defence mode. It is fun for a mission or two.

I can’t say HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is worth its asking price when it falls short in so many ways. There was some potential to create a really in-depth shooter here with some addictive gunplay and tower defence themes that could evolve as you play and get deeper as you take on the challenges. However, we pretty much got a basic shooter that has been copied and pasted across different maps, and sadly, it all goes nowhere.

Perhaps co-op might be a selling point here, but even then, at times I felt like I was forcing my friends into playing a boring game instead of doing something more constructive with our time.

This HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed review is based on a PS5 code send to us by Thunderful Games. The game is now available on PS5 for R569. The game is also available on Xbox and PC.