The latest from the studio Cyborn arrives in the world of the PC VR in the form of a space saga with sweet airs of action, science fiction and well polished graphics, made possible by the game engine UnrealEngine 4. After trying it for the NextFest of Steam, we were eager to test it in its looks. A great surprise ?
Open your peepers wide, Hubris is beautiful, even very beautiful!
Hubris immerses us in the shoes of an agent in training of the “Order Of Objectivity” (OOO)sent in disaster in the heart of a system of twin planets in terraforming, accompanied by luciathe ship’s pilot. In this new hostile environment, we are responsible for looking for the mysterious agent Cyanha in order to complete his mission. Barely disembarked Hubris brings us the red carpet and dazzles us with its graphics, its atmosphere and ultra-slick decorations, enabled by the game engine UnrealEngine 4. The developers have brilliantly exploited photogrammetry with technology Quixelbut also the motion capture for character modeling.
The adventure, lasting between six and ten o’clock, constantly flatters our retina, whether in outdoor or indoor environments (big crush for the realization of the loft and the battle of the crystals). The change of scenery is assured in this local flora, mixing the aridity and the verticality of the canyons, with the pockets of water that must be crossed. The whole thing reminds us of a certain Kayaking RV. This is a saga and we only discover a priori a tiny part of what the license as a whole will offer, but the current tables are already making our mouths water. While some are grandiose, others are dizzying. As long as your PC configuration VR allows you to increase game resolution in Steam settings VR or in theOculus Linkit is clear that you will not be disappointed.
The story, fully subtitled in Frenchtakes us alongside luciathe captain of our ship, and dunwakan engineer from Vion Corp, in the footsteps of the mysterious agent of theOOO, Cyanha. The different protagonists are our guides and will help us through the different stages of the game, without getting too wet. The dirty work remains at our expense. But while they’re our only company for most of the game, it’s a shame the devs didn’t make the choice to explore their personality or background in more depth. We don’t know who they really are and history doesn’t tell us any more. The same goes for theOrder of Objectivitycentral figure of this first episode, which remains an enigma from beginning to end, just like the presence of Urons on the planet. We are dropped on a planet that we do not know, but that we would like to discover through a logbook, notes here and there, or through a set of things to scan, but none of that offers to us… Our only goal is to find Cyanha by all means, but for what purpose? And who is she really?
We enjoyed the gameplay and the dynamic offered by travel. Be careful, even if the vignetting is present to limit nausea, there is no teleportation in Hubris.
The game is not a long calm river, we have to climb, swim, jump, dodge enemy fire and too endearing critters.
After being literally thrown into the deep end from the first scene, serving as a tutorial, we get an idea of what the planet has in store for us. Let those who are afraid of water or dizzy move on, because to progress you will have to trudge, jump over the void, swim or drive motorized vehicles. If we are also not in phases of parkour, the title is still quite dynamic and puts our reflexes to the test to move from one place to another. The presence of Urons also forced us to use the scenery and its verticality to take the advantage, or take cover during the phases of gun fight. Even though we can’t count only a handful of different enemiesit was not always easy to overcome. The soldiers, just like the combat drones, are extremely good at aiming and will come to flush you out if you remain hidden for too long. The AI is doing pretty well at this level, but remains heterogeneous depending on the situation.
The title gives us four unique, one-handed weapons that we can improve (without visual distinctions) thanks to the system of craftingwhich however did not give us real feelings of power. The resources (fibers, plastic, metal, etc.) allowing these improvements are always the same and are found here and there, in crates or on shelves. There is nothing to loot on enemies. Some, from the local flora, allow us to make our own potions and healing items, such as space hot dogs. All this aspect crafting and harvesting materials is not without reminding us Seeking Dawn at the time. Overall, the model of crafting would have benefited from being pushed further in order to offer more possibilities. We are thinking in particular of visual improvements to our weapons, more choice among them, being able to exploit close combat with blunt weapons (a little nod to Slice), but also to be able to improve skills and/or our combination, or even create potions with effects, etc.
Hubris does not reinvent the action/adventure genre or even the mechanics of a game of this type in virtual reality. He left us wanting more, but also amazed us with the beauty of certain scenes. Without being very good or bad, it looks like the devs have put the package on the graphics, while leaving a fairly empty game in terms of its mechanics and the depth of its story. The beauty of a title does not make it good. Although we understand that this is a first episode in the license, the lore (background) of the game is clearly untapped, there really isn’t much to discover or see, except to follow the story and its almost anecdotal characters. The game would have deserved a real deepening to make it richer, more lively, more attractive. It would have been nice to be able to interact with the sets and the few rare objects. This is the basis today in a game of this style in 2022. Physics takes a prominent place. The bestiary is also too sparse and the crafting is also too light for our taste. It is certainly a small development studio, but Hubris does not keep all of its promises. The title is very pleasant to read from start to finish and the developers are listening, but this feeling of having only flown over this new universe and its possibilities, and facing already known mechanics, is not enough to make this first episode the game we were hoping for at the end of the year. We expect a lot more from the next episode.
Most
- Very neat graphics and modeling thanks to photogrammetry and motion capture
- Crafting and resources
- Some handling of motorized vehicles
- Dynamic battles
- A measured difficulty
- Subtitled in French
The lessers
- Characters that are not very charismatic and not highlighted enough
- The lore (background) of the game is completely untapped
- A gameplay too little used
- Only a handful of different enemies