Why Did Hyper Scape Shut Down?
A great idea, backed by a large publisher’s marketing, and with promising innovation in an overly-saturated game genre, has long been believed to be a recipe for success. This had shown promise in plenty of titles that stayed long despite how the odds were stacked against them.
Until it couldn’t.
Hyper Scape was one of Ubisoft’s attempts to break through the increasingly popular battle royale subclass of shooters. A free-to-play live service game with a bombastic initial promotion in the form of streamers and other social media pitches was sure to lower the entry bar for people to hop in. But something happened during its run that eventually led to its shutdown in April 2022.
Here are the most likely reasons behind the closure of Ubisoft Montreal’s sci-fi shooter:
Generic and empty setting
Don’t get it wrong, the terrain designs and overall environment Hyperscape blew other shooter titles out of the water. They made for great screenshots, but that was it. It didn’t stand out, given the Tron-inspired appeal this shooter game was meant to have. Players would have mistaken this as Random Shooter X if it were to be simply looking at these in-game stills.
How the cast was characterized didn’t help much in making the game stand out. They were more of what-you-see-is-what-you-get people with easily telegraphed qualities. While players wouldn’t be getting much personality from what would be regarded as shooter avatars, a bigger fan base could have been generated had the characters had more depth.
Underwhelming game mechanics
There was so much promise at the start. Dashing with special effects, a zero-gravity shooting environment, and 70+ ability combinations meant to fuel all manner of crazy plays possibly no other battle royale title would dare offer. This read and sounded quite great, if not revolutionary. Until it got to the part about how guns work.
There was hardly anything unique to learn from the 10 weapon systems available to players. The guns offered little strategic use, nor were any proper skills to develop to optimize their playing style. Weapons with simple point-and-click mechanics weren’t meant for long playing periods, and that was a negative for something like a 100-person battle royale. Universal ammo also took away challenges when it came to shooting. Part of the fun in survival shooters was where to get more bullets in case you empty your mags too early. One ammo type for all guns took away much of the needed tension.
Questionable weapon balancing
It would be nice and refreshing to always stay alert because one would never know what an opponent would use to dish out pain. In the case of Hyperscape, some weapon combinations were better than anything else. Few things were more frustrating than being forced into a single meta. Map layouts didn’t help widen gameplay options earlier. For a game whose maps offered a lot of closed spaces, sticking to burst damage play styles was almost a no-brainer. Any kind of experimentation in predictable arenas was simply a vain attempt at either being hip or wasting time.
In conclusion, there were simply too many battle royale options when Hyperscape entered. What gimmicks it had couldn’t cement its place in a field of more polished titles.
