HYPERGUN

There’s still plenty of potential left in the rogue-lite and I doubt these kinds of games will be going away anytime soon. As video games grow and evolve, we’ll come to remember the select few roguelikes that truly shook up the genre and presented a polished, ultra-satisfying product. Hypergun will not be one of those games.

n many ways, HYPERGUN is like an unfinished house. It is held up by a solid foundation and looks good from the outside, but once you step inside you realize so much of what makes it function is still missing. The 80s neon aesthetic and soundtrack are great, and the fast-paced gunplay has an almost doom-like feel to it, which adds to the frantic energy. Nevertheless, that doesn’t excuse the numerous balancing issues.

Hypergun is filled with exciting boss fights and tons of different weapons, but the overall experience is short, repetitive and buggy. Yet, it can be considered a cheap ($15) alternative that may be fun for a few hours.

Hypergun is not perfect. However, it actually is the best roguelike shooter we have seen. Thanks to its delightful gameplay and its AAA quality gunplay, the few cons fall behind these outstanding pros.

While the game is random, and there are characters, abilities and weapon attachments to unlock, the repetitiveness of the gameplay will eventually wear out its welcome. Fortunately for Hypergun, the challenges presented are more than enough to keep players entertained for dozens of hours.

Hypergun is an entertaining shooter best enjoyed over short bursts. While there’s a seemingly endless variety of creatable weapons, grinding run after run gets old fast. Like DevTech’s inability to make the perfect superweapon, Hypergun lacks the punch and polish needed to elevate the game to greatness.

HYPERGUN isn’t frustrating for any genuine sense of difficulty, but because it fumbles game-feel and sports some obscenely long runs, averaging about an hour and a half for a full clear with no option to save and quit.