HyperParasite Is One Heck Of A Good Time – Review (PC)

In the not so distant past, World War 3 is all but imminent. A parasite from outer space landed on earth hellbent on taking over the body of the President of the United States in order to launch their nuclear weapons on the rest of the world. You play as this parasite, with the ability to take over the body of anyone you come in contact with – the unsuspecting public will never know exactly who you are. Your goal, as mentioned, is to make your way to the POTUS, Ray Gunn, in attempt to bring about a nuclear winter on this foreign planet.  Aware of your plan, President Gunn evokes Martial Law and thereby allowing all the United States citizens the ability to take arms and defeat this parasite at all costs.

Set against the backdrop of an alternate 1980s, the world is on the brink of collapse and will look to earth’s citizens for a hero that can destroy this parasite before it achieves the endgame, total annihilation.

HyperParasite is a rogue-lite shoot ‘em up where nearly anything goes. Every enemy from earth can be taken over and used as a weapon. Everyone from the police, firefighters, basketball players, and even bums with shopping carts can be taken over and weaponized. The amount of weapon variety based on which skin you inhabit is quite extensive. You’ll want to try all of them. There is something incredibly rewarding about hitting someone with a shopping cart and watching the life leave their body as result. Sure, maybe that sounds sadistic, but in the context of the game it’s a blast. You’ll ram, shoot, chop, and even throw balls at your enemies in order to take them out.

As you go through the game you’ll be able to recover brains from your victims, these can be taken back to the shop and used to reanimate different varieties of enemies that you can defeat and thus use as a weapon. With over sixty characters available to unlock… you’ll have plenty of different character options to play.

Scattered throughout the levels are powerups that you can use in order to boost your defense, weapons, and other items. You’ll want to find as many of these as you can. Also spread throughout the levels are bosses that are dead set on ending your reign of terror and any advantage you can have against them will help you greatly. Each boss is a hilarious take on some 80’s pop culture phenomenon. At times you’ll have to make sure you focus on the fight at hand since each one is so hilarious that it’s easy to become distracted. Since this is a rogue-lite, death means starting over, and nothing is more frustrating than losing all your progress. Fear not though, some of the items and experience you gain throughout each playthrough stay with you throughout the entirety of the game, so all is not lost.

As you clear each area, new doors unlock and enable you to continue to kick earth ass. You can traverse the world in multiple directions until every area is cleared and the act is complete.

With the money that you earn you’ll be able to buy upgrades along with the other enemy types. Sometimes you might get lucky and be the customer of the day and everything in the shop will be half off! Coin can be hard to come by, so spend it wisely.

HyperParasite is rogue-lite at its best. Never one to flock to the genre, I kept coming back for more of the hyper action and colorful cast of characters. Every weapon feels great. Complete with a campaign playable alone or in co-op along with daily challenges, there is plenty of content to keep you occupied for quite some time. For fans of the genre this is a no brainer. Anyone else reluctant to play a rogue-lite should give the game a shot as well. You won’t be disappointed.

Check out our Review Guide to see what we criteria we use to score games.

*HyperParasite was given to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*