HyperParasite - Review

There are many genres out there, that seem to be all the same, with just a new theme overlayed on it, the Twin Stick shooter is one of them, honestly, how varied can you be when the genre is the controls, but turns out that there is more that you can do, if you have an alien parasite to mess around with. But messing around with aliens seldom goes well, is this another instance of mans hubris, or is it a game you need to play?

The story is a fairly straightforward one, you are an alien that has found yourself on Earth, the people of Earth, more specifically, the eye-patching wearing leader of America, does not like that, so the rest of the country is stirred up into a frenzy, with the goal being to eradicate you. Of course, that could have been plenty, but the world is layered with additional details that make it stand out more, but also help make the world feel more layered than it might have been otherwise, for example, the game is set in the 80’s which presents a unique touch to everything from the character designs, to the world, but more than that, the game is set after World War III, with the people still skittish from those events, which is how martial law has been easily implemented, in order to deal with this new alien threat, or you. It is a simple idea, which paves the way for why random people would be out attempting to kill you, thankfully, it also gets out of your way, so you can just enjoy the gameplay.

The gameplay is based around two very significant points, the first is that each time you die and have to restart, the world is created all over again, meaning no two runs will be the same and the second is that, while you can shoot and move as the alien, your best bet is to takeover another human. The two elements alone could have easily been just enough, a twin stick shooter that randomly changes up the levels, could have been fun, but with the people that you can take over, it adds in another layer, which helps keep things fresh and fun. The characters that you can control vary, depending on the stage you are in, the first stage is all about the downtown area, so police, hobos and such are the bread and butter of it, but you will also see ghost hunters, basketball players and more, when you enter the second stage, Chinatown, you will get a new range of people to take over. Because the game is also presenting new characters all the time, you have to constantly adjust to their attacks and once you can take them over, learn how to use their skills and options work for you.

The game also has a pretty interesting way of restricting how you can take people over as well, while you can easily take over the basic folks, those who have been training at things, like police, ghost hunters or so, have a stronger mental fortitude, which means you need to find a way to learn how to take them over. The games way of that is kinda silly, you need their brain, occasionally when you kill one of those enemies, their brain will remain behind, if that happens, you need to take it back to the shop and then the guy running it, W, who is also an alien, will help you unlock how to control them, for a fee of course. Knowing which enemies, you can take over and those you can’t is made easy, thanks to a padlock symbol being shown above the head of those who you are not able to control, is something you need to keep an eye out for. Because when you are not inside a human host, you can take only one shot, before you die, so you need to keep taking over humans, if you want to survive, but that is not to say that you are without your own skills, you can attack and dodge in your own form, you just have a less health.

The game does allow for upgrades though, some are permanent and follow you through each playthrough, others though are just for that run, so you need to ensure that you are doing all you can to give yourself the best chance you find. As you explore the world, you will find glowing patches of blue ooze on the ground, which when you collect them, will allow you to upgrade yourself on that run, and while it might be tempting to upgrade your attack, you should always upgrade your hit count, giving you two hits when just the parasite. The other upgrades are more around the characters that you can possess, in that you can decrease the time it takes their super attack to recharge or increase their health. These are permanent and do carry over between saves, the other thing that carries over are your unlocks, so if you spend all your hard-earned cash on them, you won’t lose them when you have to restart.

On top of the random encounters though, are mini bosses and end of stage bosses and while the latter are easily identifiable by the giant red skull above the door to them, the others tend to pop up, if you walk into their room. The mini bosses are the same size as regular enemies, just with a few extra tricks up their sleeves and while you can ignore them, taking them down is the fastest way to earn cash, but they will make you work for it. The big bosses are required in order to move on and they are even more of a challenge than the minis, most of that comes down to the fact that you have to not only target them, but also keep an eye on the smaller folks that like to emerge from the sewers and door around the place. The areas that you enter, before you get to a boss, should help train you up for them, but there are times when the bosses attacks, plus all the smaller enemies firing, will have the game feeling more like a shump, due to how crazy it gets.

One particular area that is crazy, but in the best way possible is the visuals, as the game is set in the 80’s there is a lot of mullets and neon littered around the world and no singular element stands above the rest, they all work together. There are some odd presentation issue when it comes to overall themes, but they are based on a design choice, that I just don’t understand, though they still look fine. The characters that you encounter, while all contain unique names, are all the same basic look, there is little to distinguish one paper girl from another, or the same for sumo’s or any other class, while similar themes would have been enough, a little colour variety would have been welcome. The stages themselves, still manage to lay themselves out in fun ways, thanks to the games building tools, there is never a singular room that has a connecting path that goes nowhere, it really is a welcome that everything clicks.

On the audio side, things are just as welcoming, if you like 80’s synth, then you will like the music, though not something I could listen to on its own, it does suit the game wonderfully. The lack of spoken dialogue in the midst of battles is a little odd, given that the game opens with a gruff monologue about what is happening. In fact, apart from that opening speech, the rest of the game does all other explanations with text, which is not an issue in the grand scheme of things, just seems that they could have selected one method and stuck with it, rather than splitting it. The enemies make the odd grunt and groan when you shoot at them, but the thing that had me smiling was when you managed to take down a host of enemies at once, hearing a voice cheer, ‘Slaughter’ just made me think of old school games and that was great.

HyperParasite is a game that I can suggest to anyone who loves the twin stick shooter genre, or like me is bored of the standard entries in it, there is enough of a change here to draw new folks in, but also enough of the core of the genre to keep fanatics enthralled. Because the game creates new stage layouts each time you try to get through, you will never get tired of attempting to beat the game, but there is enough consistency in them, to ensure that each time you progress a little further, you learn a little more. There are some oddities sure, but they won’t make your time with the game wasted and there is enough challenge here to test the most devoted gamer, so take a shot, you won’t regret it.

Review code provided by HoundPicked Games