Next-Gen Reviews

 Gameplay

 

You play on the side of the variant (Red) or Paladin (Blue) in an attempt to take over the world.

 

Once you have chosen your faction you will need to concentrate on your loadout according to your play style.  Within the armory you are able to customize your character.  There are a selection of helmets, weapons such as sub machine guns, shotguns, heavy pistols, sniper rifles, special, light machine guns and assault rifles, abilities such as enhancements, team support, attack and defence and finally extras consisting of xp boosts, faction, clan and elite status (Similar to prestige in COD)

All of these can be unlocked once you have earned the ability to do so through playing the game.

 

So the gameplay it self…  Hybrid is 3 on 3 fast paced brutal gameplay.

You’re unable to move around with total freedom in Hybrid and instead can only move whilst behind cover or whilst moving from cover to cover using jet packs.  Although I say you don’t get total freedom, you get more than enough to not feel that you are being restricted.  Whilst moving from one cover to the next you can move around as you please but you will always be moving towards the cover you have just selected.  If you decide you need to go back to the previous position just tap B and reverse you go.  If you decide that the cover you are going for is not the one for you and you can see another cover you’d prefer, just tap A and you will constantly move.  You can do this indefinitely as long as you can see the cover therefore making you constantly flying.

 

Once behind cover you can pop up and down to take shots or throw grenades, blind fire or wait for an enemy to approach you and show them what for!!!

 

You can gain killstreaks during your fight and they are stalker which is a small drone, warbringer which is a large bot and harder to shoot down than the stalker and finally preyon which is an assassin type bot that will pretty much guarantee you a kill with its samurai type sword.  These bots add great stress to the opponent because they now have to rid the area of enemy bots as well as human enemies. 

If the bots upset you and start to grind on you why not put on the hacker ability and take control of the bot for your own pleasure.

 

One thing worth mentioning is that no matter how bad you are winning or losing, it can all change if the loser reassesses their tactics.  Never think you have definitely won or lost and always be aware of what is going on around you!

 

Hybrid is all about the persistent world war.  Paladin and Variants are trying to take over each are of the world and in doing so be rewarded with dark matter and the earth to continue how you want it to. 

You will have to constantly fight in each area until you gain or lose dark matter.  Once the area has been taken over there will be a flag representing the faction that owns it and you will be unable to take it back until the next world war starts.

There will often be hotspots where most of the action is taking place and it is wise to fight there first so that you can get the bonus 150xp.

Once all areas have been taken over the world war will start again and the process will need to be repeated.

 

Before each war you can select a challenge and if completed you will gain the amount of xp stated before you selected it.  This will also keep you motivated to do better than the other team because everyone wants to be rewarded for their efforts.

 

 

Game modes

 

 

All modes are team based.

-Team Deathmatch: First team to 30 player kills wins.
-Overlord: You gain a level for each kill you get (player or drone). You lose half of your levels when you die. When you kill a player, you gain their level (if it's higher than yours). The first team with a player who reaches L21 wins.
-Tactics: You have one life per round, and for each round there are attackers and defenders. The first team to win 4/7 rounds wins the match.
-Kings: There is one piece of cover (or two very close together) that you have to occupy. The first team to reach 100% wins. You can't capture the area if an enemy is at the same cover.
-Crazy Kings: is exactly the same as Kings but the cover moves every 30ish seconds.
- Artifact: Teams are fighting over control of an artifact. If you pick it up, you start gaining points for your team. If you die, it is given to your killer. If you killer is a bot, it drops at the cover you occupied and can be picked up by anyone. First team to 220 points wins.

 

All of these game modes are great fun and as you can see there is something for everyone.

 

There are 10 playable maps in Hybrid each offering a fresh and unique look. Hybrid runs at 60fps and so we would all expect very smooth gameplay and lovely looking areas and luckily Hybrid does not disappoint.

 

One thing that annoyed me about Hybrid is the lack of quick match.  Some of us do not care where we fight and just want to get straight into a game but Hybrid does not allow this.  As I mentioned above you have to select the area that you would like to take over and if no one else is selecting it you’re in for a long wait.

 

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Overall I love Hybrid.  It’s fresh, unique and offers some of the smoothest gameplay found in a 3^rd person shooter. 5th Cell could have played it safe in this very familiar 3rd person genre but they didn't and it paid off. If you have a group of friends that are into 3^rd person shooters you should definitely buy Hybrid.

 

9/10