5th Cell has been known for making stylish, hand drawn puzzle and role playing games that many Nintendo DS gamers should be familiar with. On the surface, their games (particularly Scribblenauts) have a lot of technical depth to them, allowing users to create their own means to an end. The amount of freedom their games provide fills that void created from simplistic, straight-line objective gameplay that you find in just about every other adventure, platformer, and role playing game out there.

 

Given their history of creating games that stand out stylistically as well as mechanically, much is to be expected of a game like Hybrid. The game’s title itself rings of the kind of mashup creations you can bring about in Scribblenauts. However, on some fronts, Hybrid doesn’t quite live up to the track record of this prolific game studio. 

 

The easiest and most reasonable way to approach Hybrid is at face value. The core mechanics are that of a third person, cover-based shooter. But the great big exception, and likely the only thing that keeps this game unique and enjoyable is the fact that you don’t move from cover to cover by walking there. You use a jetpack... because why not?

 

Instead of controlling your movement around field, you mark and execute which coverpoints you want to land in, after which the game takes care of the rest. Players can strafe a fair amount in the air and manipulate their speed slightly using the boost or aiming down the sights of their weapon, but they are locked in motion until they land. Additionally, you can pick a new side of the cover or a different cover point (as well as retreat back with a push of a button) with relative ease. Cover can be on the walls and ceilings of a map as well, so learning the ins and outs of a map become vitally important like any other game.

 

Once you depart from that movement controls, you are faced with a familiar cover-based shooter. Each match consists of two three-player teams and before every match, players pick their primary weapon, one ability (tied to a cool-down), and one specialization. Game types range from the standard (and very popular) team deathmatch to slightly more complex games with moving capture points. 

 

To keep the combat focused and a bit more ruthless, the game incentivizes you to kill other players as well as any enemy NPCs during a match. Building up consecutive kills (or, conversely, being fodder for the enemy team) result in access to bots which can be deployed at will. Stalkers, unlocked after the first kill, follow you closely around the map and fire at your targets at a slow rate. Warbringers unlock after 3 kills and bring heavy armor and firepower but put around the map at peddleboat speeds. Upon 5 frags, the fast and lethal Preyon will rush out to an enemy and kill them with one strike, vanishing afterward. 

 

If you’re one of those super-reductive jerky-jerks that views all of the parts on their own, then you’ll see Hybrid as just another third-person shooter, with the only major addition being the unique method of taking cover. However, when taken as a whole, the game makes a compelling argument for your attention. The many ways to flank and overwhelm the enemy ensures the combat moves briskly, even with three living players at the helm. Weapon loadouts can vary from player to player, often revealing their true nature by what weapon stats and abilities they favor above others.  One pistol allows for a one-shot kill that at random either kills the intended target or the shooter. Another weapon, a light machine gun, fires without the need to reload, but in the classic style, will overheat. Some abilities can slowly steal life and even turn your lovely bot friends against you. Though weapon selection might seem simple, the loadouts you pick and the way you employ them can bring real variety and fun to each match. 

 

Unfortunately, even with a compelling core, the game does have a few blemishes. Server problems, ranging from host migration to sync issues, have popped up a number of times during my experience and proved to occasionally be very disruptive to the gameplay. However, one of the hairer issues is the option to buy unlocks. As was stated earlier, you are given unlocks as you level up, but you can also buy them outright with actual money (a.k.a. Microsoft Space Bucks). It may not be an essential part of the game experience, but the fact that this free-to-play mechanic has infiltrated a $15 game has me a little unnerved. While I don’t think either of these gripes detract from the experience, they were prevalent enough to warrant discussion.

 

As downloadable games go, Hybrid features many simplistic game mechanics that are easy to grasp for a player of any skill level. What makes it stand out is how many simple parts are working together without overcomplicating gameplay. The use of cover on a variety of surfaces brings new levels of verticality to an otherwise stagnant genre, while simplified loadouts help keep the game manageable to hop in for a few rounds. It still remains to be seen whether it will remain popular in the long-term, and future support of the game remains unknown, but as it stands, Hybrid remains one of the most competent cover-shooters available on Xbox Live.