Hyper Demon review – Doom on acid

metro.co.uk:

The most enjoyable first person shooter of the year is also the strangest, with a psychedelic speedrunner that demands ‘just one more go’.

Hyper Demon is a first person shooter but it has precisely nothing in common with Call Of Duty, Fortnite, or any other big name franchise you might care to mention. A swirling storm of light and colour envelops you the further you progress into its surreal depths. It might seem intimidating at first, and it is, but the feeling of power and invincibility from a great run is genuinely euphoric.

There’s no gathering of new weapons, no levelling up, no trading, just learning how the game works and the best tactics to destroy as many enemies in your path as you can, in as quick a time as possible. Despite how unique it seems, though, Hyper Demon is actually a sequel. Its predecessor, Devil Daggers, was all about survival and staying alive, whereas this experience is concerned with how fast you can kill.

You’re thrust into a blank, open space filled with eerie, multicoloured enemies that will relentlessly throw themselves at you. With limited mechanics to defend yourself, it becomes a race against time to rack up enough of a score to stay in the fight.

There’s no story in Hyper Demon, which is refreshing in itself, just the knowledge that every kill you get extends the in-game timer, which starts at 10 seconds and begins ticking down immediately – with the goal simply to have the most time left on the clock when you die. Killing enemies spawns more enemies, as your reflexes and your ability to crowd control are tested to their limit.

From the moment the game starts, Hyper Demon is ethereal, weird, wonderful, and exciting. The music is captivating, the oil slick colour palette swirling within the