An online only third person cover shooter from 5th Cell, makers of wordy puzzlers Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life? It sounds like a bizarre route to take and Hybrid certainly offers a fair share of gaming oddities. In many ways, Hybrid feels more like a mobile gaming distraction than a fully fledged title which I fear will condemn it to obscurity all too soon.

Much of this risk taking stems from the fact that Hybrid is a solely online game. While the tutorial is playable offline, everything else is dependent on other players being around to play. History tells us this isn't a great idea. A cursory glance at Breach and Nexuiz shows us that great ideas still struggle against the tour de force of the Call of Duty, Halo and Battlefield series. For now, Hybrid has a more than thriving community but at less than a week old, so it should. The slow matchmaking juxtaposes awkwardly with the speed in which matches can be completed and I can see it already beginning to grate with regular players.

Leaving on a Jetpack

Echoing the quick bursts of fun that mobile games are famed for, Hybrid doesn't provide huge sprawling landscapes to explore. Instead, players are pitted 3 versus 3 in tight, small maps littered with specific platforms to use as cover. There are immediate advantages and disadvantages to this. It's an easy game to dive into for a couple of matches, while still feeling as if you're achieving something. It's also a game that lacks variation with it easy to mentally merge all the maps together. Choke points are there but it's always possible to get around them, losing a strategic touch that shooters are known for. Cover is the key behind everything.

This is because cover also defines movement. Unlike every other cover shooter, the left control stick doesn't affect where the player runs to. Instead it controls the speed of boosting from cover to cover, and dodging bullets. The right stick is used to position a cursor behind a section of cover with a tap of the A button initiating the leap across. It sounds immensely awkward but it works quite well after a time. It also gives Hybrid more of a personality of its own, rather than sticking to the tried and tested formula of something like Gears of War.

Equipped with a jetpack, action is quite fast with Y and B buttons supplementing movement. Y enables the player to hop behind a piece of cover, while B allows them to retrace their leaps at speed in a retreating manoeuvre. Combat is of the typical 'hold RT' down to fire variety but it rewards blind fire much more so than is typical, with it proving particularly effective when an enemy is right behind a neighbouring piece of cover.

There'll be lots of jetting around to be done during each match

Despite 3 versus 3 sounding limited and potentially very dull, the use of bots helps immensely. Initiate a killstreak by killing one or more opponents and you're given the use of a bot. These bots can't be controlled directly but they work well both as defensive, diversionary tools and also as oppressors themselves. The simple Stalker bot, unlocked after one kill, might not be a power house but it easily distracts other players from attacking yourself. Other bots include the Warbringer and Preyon, with the Preyon providing a practically unstoppable force of one hit kill wonder. Players can stack bots with each team member allowed to have one of each bot active at any time, potentially creating a very frantic match.

Hybrid doesn't stop there when it comes to doing things differently. While there are a mixture of game modes that will seem familiar, such as Team Deathmatch, a twist on King of the Hill and an Artifact game type, there's also variety to be seen from Overlord and Tactics. Tactics involves planting or defusing a bomb, depending on which side the player is on, and crucially gives each team member only one life. Overlord is a weighted game mode with players gaining levels for each kill they achieve. Each level means a 2.5% extra damage boost, with the first to level 21 winning.

A steady supply of unlockables will also keep players happy, with new weapons, armour, abilities and equipment all up for grabs the further the player progresses. Most of it is quite typical but nonetheless useful with items such as grenades opening up early on, followed by hack tools for enemy bots and a way to see through cover. Many of these have clearly been influenced by other FPS games and their perk systems, but it fits into the Hybrid theme well.

Controversially, it's possible to unlock such items faster through the use of iOS style micro transactions, with similar purchases available for experience boosts. The morals here may be loose but it'll be intriguing to see just how popular such bonuses become. It's something I can see turning quite familiar in the future.

Expect lots of industrial landscapes to duck and dive around

The focus and storyline behind Hybrid is that a war is commencing via Paladins and Variants, with players taking sides in a quest to dominate the various countries and continents of the world, almost like Risk. It's explained quite poorly though so most players will just stick to anywhere that gives them an experience boost due to being a 'hot zone'. It's an interesting way of making players feel as if they are part of a much bigger battle though.

Interesting is the best word to describe Hybrid. I enjoyed much of my time with it, even despite the slow matchmaking. It offers some familiarity but also just enough variety to keep things different. However, it's walking down a treacherous path being online only and offering some quite forgettable maps. The lack of bot play means that the 1200 point asking price could end up being all for nothing in the future, which is quite a hefty risk to take.

Top Game Moment: Throwing a grenade, leaping from cover to cover and watching as the grenade and flurry of bullets take out all three enemies.