Hyposphere (PC) Review

Hyposphere really is a collection of abstract worlds, surrounding a marble game. Each of these worlds is a short level set in some sort of metaphysical plane beyond conception. Initially, this seems interesting, but slowly becomes just one cumbersome backdrop after another. None of the cool background art matters, because the ball will fly right through it. Some of the environments, like one with floating chess pieces, are still pretty cool despite not being interactive, but in general, a lot of the backdrop is plain boring.

Of course, there's nothing to the actual level art besides various "types" of platforms. While each type might lead to a different movement speed, none of the platforms feel any different than the next one. Therefore, as players guide a marble through each level and safely to the exit portal, they can expect to really only need to know one thing: move and jump to the end, or die.

Dying is to be expected, as the lag in here is somewhat noteworthy. Sometimes, everything seems to run a little slow, but not enough to really ruin the fun. However, when too many assets are on screen, it all slows to a crawl, so uncomfortable and slow, that it becomes unresponsive.

Watching a marble fly towards an abyss, and the keyboard not responding to your movements until it is several seconds too late, is ridiculous. This on top of other technical problems, like the menu being unresponsive at times, and the horridly unpredictable jumping mechanic which sees the player jumping too short or flying half way across the map, leads to a wildly inconsistent product.

The real shame is how boring the game is when it does work properly, however rare that is. After a brief tutorial level that teaches the player how to move the marble and not much else, every level is viciously inconsistent with the last one. One level could feature a series of tough as nails jumps, while the next is just a ramp with a single jump involved. The lack of any real consistency not only means that the player will have to constantly change their understanding of the game, but a sense of progression is almost nil. Couple this with the weird, almost pompous way this visually designed, and it leads to an experience where it feels like the only antagonist is the designer.