HyperParasite

[h1] 🌎 Overview 🌏 [/h1] An isometric Roguelite that masters the mechanics of a twin stick shooter and its interesting premise, but uses them in frustrating ways. There is also not enough content to make it enjoyable and replayable, there aren’t any interesting combos that can cause the game to go crazy and change, and there isn’t any real customization to speak of in terms of skills or upgrades. [h3] 🌟 Overall 🌟[/h3] 👍 [u]Pros[/u] 👍 Unique premise 👎 [u]Cons[/u] 👎 Repetitive gameplay Disappointing upgrades Frustrating difficulty curve [b]Score is at the bottom of the review, while you are down there, leave a like if you enjoyed the read![/b] [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37072886/]Great reviews can be found at our curator page:[b] Devils in the Detail[/b]! Follow our curator for more great reviews like this one![/url][/quote] [h1]Game Breakdown[/h1] [h3] 🎮 Gameplay 🎮[/h3] [u]To be an alien parasite[/u] Being an alien parasite that can take over human minds to enslave them to its will isn’t easy. For one, an alien parasite’s body is made of gelatinous goo that explodes with the slightest poke, let alone a baseball bat strike or a bullet, but that is why the fleshy meat sacks are so important. Hyper Parasite puts the player in such a situation where they must pilot this odd creature in an isometric twin-stick shooter which has strong and interesting mechanics but fails at my three Cs of a good Roguelite. I include in this review what must be included for it to be set alongside the hall of fame greats. [u]Bodies & Difficulty Spike[/u] As previously mentioned, the parasite itself is very weak, which is why the main mechanic focuses on taking over bodies which each have their own individual health-pools, normal attack, and special ability. Starting out, the player is only able to possess a few enemies but when killing the ones yet unlocked, there is a chance their brain can be obtained and stored in a lab adjacent to the shop. Money can then be invested in unlocking their DNA so that they can be possessed, opening up new possibilities in terms of abilities. This implementation does cause some issues when moving on to the next level, of which there are five, when it turns out that all of the bodies for the next level are locked behind the brains that have only a chance of dropping. This causes an intense difficulty spike which ends up being extremely frustrating. The reason for this is that by the time the player is able to reliably get to the next level, they will have unlocked almost all of the characters from the previous level, making the latter extremely easy because every time the player’s host body dies, the game spawns another one which ends up making it nearly impossible to fail. To then be hit by everything to be locked again feels like an unwelcome surprise. [u]Upgrades[/u] Another disappointment arrives in the form of upgrades. They can be bought at the shop or rarely dropped by killed enemies. These upgrades come in three different categories such as single use items like a sentry turret, damage over time, or a stat up. The single use items are rather costly and not especially helpful as they take away from the main currency of unlocking bodies which makes them feel useless and ultimately, in most cases where the player buys them, detrimental. Damage over time upgrades can be helpful, especially when there aren’t a lot of stat ups in a run, but as, upgrades they ultimately leave a lot to be desired since they are only useful in the early game. Finally, the most important upgrade to talk about would be the stat ups. They come in three flavors: extra life, more damage, and more defense. The only one I found to be useful would be the damage up as by the time the player has started to master a level, the game is throwing so many enemies – also known as free lives – at the player that they don’t have to care about anything defensive at all. It certainly won’t help a player going to a new level, as it will only end up prolonging the inevitable death. Damage is also the most important stat to have, as if the player doesn’t take attack constantly, most bodies that aren’t heavy hitters start to deal menial amounts of damage that will end up requiring the player to sit around circling a normal enemy for a whole minute, which is neither satisfying nor rewarding. [u]What are my roguelite three Cs[/u] I now get to the three [b]Cs[/b] of a good Roguelite, and as someone who has found that rougelites are their favorite genre of game I can say that I think these three things are what establish a masterful and top tier roguelite game, whether that be through a mix or mastery of a single [b]C[/b]. [u]Content[/u] The first [b]C[/b] is content, the it is the backbone of most roguelites as they are procedurally generated. Hyper Parasite is quite lacking in this department and I did get tired of constantly seeing the same bodies and the same rooms which made it feel repetitive. I got tired of playing the same level to unlock things to get to the next, as every run felt almost entirely the same. This is contrasted by a rougelite master of content “Enter the Gungeon” which has so many guns that there is always something new to look forward to in the next run. [u]Combos[/u] Combos are important and can often change the game around in new and exciting ways. Currently there aren’t any real combos in the game so everything feels very static. The bodies inhabited never change, and neither do their stats or abilities. One way I would have loved to see the game enhance to main mechanic of taking over bodies would have been if they could be fused in the lab to get a new body. One such example could be the gang guy who throws a chain and the hobo who performs a light melee attack. Fuse them together and you have the gang hobo who pushes their cart forward with chains attached to it and then it comes back to them and the distance is based upon how long the player charged the attack. Sadly, once the player sees a particular body, they know exactly what to expect which adds to the repetitive nature of the game. A rougelite great for this would be the Binding of Isaac, also a personal favorite of mine. [u]Customization[/u] This focuses on skill trees and making a run unique. It would have been fun to potentially unlock characters to take over every time but make them much cheaper and have skill trees that allowed some enemy bodies to do better than others. This might alleviate the issue of any body being good every run. The king of this style would be Tales of Maj’Eyal or ADOM. [h3]📚 Story 📚[/h3] The story is simple and only really explains why the events of the game is occurring, which is normal for a rougelite. [h3]🎧 Sound 🎧[/h3] The sound design is all right but once again repetitive. The one aspect of the sound design I did enjoy however is the announcer. His boisterous and excited pronouncements at the amount of slaughter and carnage on the screen help to make it feel more interesting and provides a sense of power in the player’s actions. [h3]📺 Graphics 📺 [/h3] The graphics are good, as every unique body is pretty easily distinguishable which helps to know what their power is from the start. [h3]⌨ Controls ⌨[/h3] The game controls best on a controller. [h3]⚙ Performance & Bugs ⚙[/h3] [table] [tr] [td][u]Specs[/u][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Cpu:[/td] [td]AMD FX-8350[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]GPU:[/td] [td]GTX 1080[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]RAM:[/td] [td]16 GB [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]HDD:[/td] [td]7200RPM 2 TB[/td] [/tr] [/table] [u]Easy to Alt-Tab[/u]: [b]Yes[/b] No real bugs to speak of. [h1] 👑 Final Rating: 4.5 👑 [/h1]

Difficult in unfun ways, even with the "everything is unlocked" mode. The concept of taking over enemies is great, but in practice as a naked blob you are so incredibly weak that it's almost never worth the risk to leave a body to try to grab a new one without getting killed. The "how it's meant to be played" mode is particularly infuriating because when you enter a new area you have no bodies unlocked so you can't even take over anyone, and as your unlocks progress it is not clear which bodies you can take over which makes it even more frustrating. Either way the core mechanic of the game is not fun.

单人玩一般般，同屏多人才是王道

Recomendado 100%! Especialmente si te gustan los roguelites. El juego puede resultar difícil al principio, pero mediante vas desbloqueando hablidades y personajes se convierte en una maravilla. Ideas muy creativas y un gameplay brutal!

Una pasada de juego. Me encanta la idea de ser un parasito espacial y las mecanicas de cada cuerpo que puedes poseer estan MUY bien pensadas. Los guiñazos a la cultura pop son maravillosos y el estilo artistico es un homenaje a los 80. Merece cada centimo si te llama la atención no lo dudes, no lo lamentarás.

Since 2019 the release date of this game, me and my brother loved playing it but the game always crashed by the boss in Act 3 with the background that has the clock. We replayed the game a dozen of times hoping the crash was finally fixed all the way to 2022. Finally on the 26 April 2022, I decided to purchase the game on steam and boom. The game is not crashing anymore and even has our save data. Thank you to the developers for making this game. It's really one of the best multiplayer rogue games I've ever played and seen. I've seen some negative reviews and I'm assuming it's from the people who hasn't played it as long to the point where you can absorb body after body and just play around without worrying about dying that often. I love this game and I really hope the developers decide to make a part 2 and/or even more games that are multiplayer. We already got all the characters in Act 1, 2 and 3. We just need the truck driver in Act 2 and a lot in Act 4. We haven't seen Act 5 yet besides on the YouTube videos. Finally can finish this game without crashes getting in the way. Thank you once again to the Dev team. You guys are one of the best indie developers... Hands down. EDIT: Finished the game today but still have 5 more characters to unlock. I really love this game and hope they make a part 2. : )

Grind is mandatory if you want to play the game. As soon as you enter a new area if you lose your possessed host, it's pretty much game over unless you were somehow able to unlock enough new hosts in the new area before your host died (which is impossible since the option to unlock hosts is RNG so you'll have 1 unlocked host IF YOU ARE LUCKY). Each area has its own hosts so it doesn't matter how much you grind one area, you start from scratch in the next one. There should be at least 2 default unlocked hosts in each area. The parasite is pretty much useless beyond the first area and if you end up without a host (which happens a lot as you progress in the game) you'll get sick of kitting enemies and hitting them dozens of times until they die and you move on to the next room to kite more enemies and hit them dozens of times until they die. There are no permanent upgrades beyond unlocking hosts, this is a rogue-like, not a rogue-lite. Also, did you want to buy powerups? Better forget about unlocking that host. Oh did you think you'd have enough money for the powerup in the first shop because you cleared the level and broke all the breakables (which is going to take 50% of your playtime, unless you hate money)? Guess again, the currency drops are so low that you probably can't even afford it. On the other hand, playing the wrong millenium mode where everything is unlocked feels too much like cheating.

Super glad I forked out for a high quality controller for my PC because damn there are some top-notch twinstick games coming out lately. Right now I'm hooked on HyperParasite. It's a progressive roguelike set on 80s Earth, and you play as the bad guy. Loving it. Awesome progressive twinstick brawler. Switching characters instead of weapons while facing a diverse range of enemies in random environments makes Hyper highly replayable. Challenging and addictive. For more niche curation, follow me at: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27440015-CSH-Picone/

The system where you can't use the game's fundamental gameplay mechanics on Act 2+ (without significant grind) is absurd.

好玩