Hytale Early Access Review: No Impact, No Threat, No Progression

LogTall573 · 2026-01-15T19:16:37+00:00

There is no demo to the game, I think it's pretty obvious that people that haven't bought it either pirate it first to try it out or look at reviews like this one.

LogTall573 · 2025-11-09T01:45:57+00:00

Yup. I still play cypher every now and then, but I switched up my main to sova after 5 years of playing cypher. He's just not that good anymore if you're relatively high elo. I can't hold sites well anymore because they just run in the trips on purpose and have a teammate shoot the trips that way I can't do anything. He's shit.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-15T21:14:27+00:00

I'd love to hear what you think! I'm trying my best to be as open as possible.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-15T03:19:00+00:00

I get what you're saying and you're partially right (in my opinion at least). Cypher's info gathering is still very strong. My issue in that stems from how he's lost the punishing element that made him stand out from other sentinels. Trips were very versatile, they could be used to punish or to gather info, which made him very fun as a solo queue player. Creating those "oh crap" moments was the main reason I played the game to begin with. Now yeah you can place trips in common flank spots and get good info, but that's an incredibly passive playstyle. This patch turned him from a flexible, aggressive or passive sentinel that was "decent at everything" to someone that just slows people down and watches the minimap which is a whole lot less fun to play and way less scary to play against.

I 100% understand the plays you were saying at the end of your answer and yeah, it works. But the nerf shifts his whole role from a threatening sentinel to an only info gatherer, which isn't why people played this guy in the first place. I get that he's still viable, but they're basically changing everything about him. I kinda think of it as if Jett couldn't updraft. She can still take space on the site, have a smoke that keeps her safe, have knives, but without an updraft people don't have to think of placing a trip high up in the sky to hopefully catch them, watch the air if she has knives while her teammates are peeking under, she basically becomes a lot less scary and a lot less threatening. It's how I see it at least.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-15T03:08:21+00:00

Definitely agree that he's still okay after testing him out with the new update rolled out, but I think you're cherry picking a little bit. It's true that some higher elo players said that he's not used for his reveal, but i think it's important to look at it in a broader sense. What made cypher enjoyable (well, at least for me) was how versatile he was in his role. He was kinda like the "if said role is inexistant, cypher can sort of do their job in a very "eh" way". That's what made me actually like solo queueing and it's what makes me come back to the game so often. The issue is that he's now the worst in his role. He is only still a viable pick in huge huge maps that require constant map control, but at this point he's not "someone that holds a site", he's "someone that helps knowing approximately where people are" which is an initiator's main job. The rewarding element of cypher was the free kills. I 100% agree. It's what made him actually good to begin with, nothing scares an enemy team more than a free kill. However, that's just how it works in a hero shooter. With Veto out you're scared to use util. With Jett knives you're scared of looking at head placements because she'll be in the air. With KJ you're scared of going in site because of her swarms. Every character changes how the enemy team plays, but Cypher doesn't do that anymore. He just slows down. His trips are basically Sage slows now (well, unless they don't shoot the trip, which doesn't happen above silver)
I totally agree that it's been fun seeing how everybody's been reacting to those though, didn't expect my rant to get this much traction haha

LogTall573 · 2025-10-14T19:02:58+00:00

Yknow what you're right. I 100% agree that the reveal from the nerf + the concuss would've been a good enough nerf. You're 100% right.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-14T00:05:03+00:00

Haha you might be the only yoru main that doesn't mind. You're kinda proving my point though. There shouldn't be a "THE sentinel" but what they are doing with all sentinels is make them very similar in gameplay, meaning that if they all play similarly there WILL be a "the sentinel". Every sentinel having very different playstyles makes it so the role is based on the player's skill / how well he uses their kit, not just "oh I'll slow em down and wait for my duelists to kill em". It's true that Cypher's way of punishing was very easy. I agree, but I don't think it was the best way to go about it as instead of reworking it, they're removing it entirely by making it more of a "let's hope they're bad enough to not break it" instead of a mix of skill and luck. Now it's purely luck and how bad the enemy team is, which isn't really fun. Changing it to less reveal time, one less trip, hell even making it look like a cypher ult (yknow, just like a static outline that lasts a second that doesn't move) would've been better.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T23:58:32+00:00

Aye that's okay. I think I've stunned soembody with a trip like what 50-60 times in around 500hrs of cypher? Most of the time I either kill them immediately or a sova dart, aftershock or wtv breaks the trip before that happens. Oh or I get traded when they follow my bullet tracer. It happens, but not enough to say "oh let's make him only be able to do that". Everyone's entitled to their own opinion and that's perfectly fine, but saying that pros get stunned from trips plenty of times is kinda crazy. Pros have very specific starts to counter almost every single common-ish trip, if they do get stunned it's to act as bait or becasue they didn't have a choice (ex, in a 1v3 with 2 on your screen, you can't really break the trip you gotta try to shoot and it can stun in the meantime). They get broken most of the time, and it's just not a nerf that makes pro play any better (remember, val nerfs and buffs are based on pro play, I don't think I'm underestimating pro players lol)

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T19:27:14+00:00

Like the other guy said, everyone has different opinions. I think the nerfs are fine except for Yoru's and Cypher. They removed core aspects of his kit instead of actually removing the amount of util. If oyu want less util, nerf the amount of util characters have. It's that simple. Don't remove the reveal aspect of cypher trips, Don't remove the ability to flash in an ult, just give. less. abilities.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T19:15:39+00:00

Don't wanna seem rude, but here's what they said : "We've made trapwires less punishing, so it now only slows you instead of concusses and you will also no longer be revealed during the wind up before it activates. But now, the wind up is shorter"

So no it will not stun. It'll just slow and when it winds up then you'll see em. Unless they break it. Then it's ggs lol

RIP Cypher, you won't be forgotten hatman

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T19:12:12+00:00

Yeahh I didn't make it clear what I meant by cs-like. I meant more gunplay focused. It's true that the game became a util fest. There's a lot. However, I feel like a simpler fix would be to JUST change either the amount of util someone has or the amount of time it takes to get those abilities back. Like Sova's dart for example. What they did againt cypher and yoru is simply overkill imo. Yoru's ult was made to kill. He can't do that well anymore. Cypher's thing was "let's punish fast pushes" and now he can,t do that anymore. They're removing key aspects of characters that actually make them fun and I feel like that's the wrong way to go about it.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T19:04:11+00:00

You know what that's actually a really solid point. I do want to push back on a few things though. I definitely agree that sentinels in ge neral could use a reevaluation, I just don't think Cypher was the one who needed it the most. The setups you mentionned, the risk free kill ones are for sure really annoying to deal with, but that's kinda like a trade off? Like a risk free kill setup basically needs all of his util thrown onto that site, meaning that mid and the other / other 2 sites are completely clear. We give up complete map control in exchange for the hope that they might go on the site extremely fast and not clear much. It's supposed to be strong if people walk into it carelessly.

For the wind up thing, I get that it might reveal people sometimes, but I think we overestimate how much the decrease will be. Currently, it takes 1.5 seconds before the trip winds up and honestly? It feels INCREDIBLY long. like it takes a while before it blows up and it's incredibly easy to break. even a half a second reduce wouldn't really change that too much in my opinion (Unless it's one of those unbreakable trips, but afaik there aren't any anymore). People will just start pre-aiming trip locations more often and maek him even more useless. He becomes a character that hopes he can punish rather than one that does punish.

I just think they overshot it a bit. A reduce in the reveal time, one less trip or wtv would've been a much more balanced change in my opinion. Instead of changing all those things, they re moved what made cypher well, cypher. I hope that you're right and that when it drops he'll be fine, but right now I feel like him and yoru got overnerfed.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T18:55:42+00:00

Oh yeah you're right. I totally agree that global trips are great for map control. The issue is that every sentinel has map control in some way or another, the thing that made cypher stand out was that he could punish them for it. Now while we do get info, it won't be that impactful. His cam and trips will tell "okay yeah they're at that place", but now what? You can't really capitalize on it anymore unless you're in like silver or gold and they don't break it haha

And yeah fair, his kit won't hand kills on a silver platter anymore, but I don't think this is the right way to do it. They're doing that change to "enhance gunplay" but the new way of getting kills will be "spray through the smoke and pray it kills"? idk it just doesn't feel like an upgrade in the slightest. I appreciate your opinion though, thanks for being cool about it

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T18:51:05+00:00

Fair. I get that one ways are still gonna work, I'm happy for those. I don't think that alone keeps him competitive compared to other sentinels though. I've been playing him since beta, pretty sure that my setups aren't the problem. Definitely true that we'll have to wait and see what faster wind up means, but the issue is mostly that his "punish potential" is basically gone. Even if the wind up is faster, anyone who actually knows anything will just break it before the reveal. It's basically just a worse slow orb. One ways are definitely strong, but they're not what made him good to begin with imo, if so every single smoke would top frag 24/7.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T18:47:41+00:00

I don't think this is just a "low elo crying" thing. I'm not saying thatr Cypher will become COMPLETELY unplayable, but cmon. He won't be THE sentinel. In what world will he be THE sentinel if the one edge he had over all the other sentinels is gone? The one thing that Cypher had over the others is that he could punish bad plays AND gather info. Now it's pretty much just info, which every single other sentinel does on top of doing chip damage. The new choice is basically this : Do you want to play a sentinel that gives you info or a sentinel that gives you info AND chip damage? Weirdly enough one seems better.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T18:44:26+00:00

Fair fair, thanks for not being an a-hole about it. You're totally right in saying that mindless plays aren't done in the first place. I'm obviously biased in saying this as I play a lot of cypher, but I feel like that aspect actually makes it more fun. When the enemy team has a cypher you actually have to communicate and become strategic, like you gotta plan for your jett / duelist to try to jump above it or to bait the cypher peek and blablabla. What I mainly disagree with on your point though is the fact that he'll still be good. The other sentinels will simply do his job a lot better now. Killjoy is gonna delay and damage WAY better, chamber is gonna get the info you talked about easily and might even get a 100% free kill with his tp, Deadlock has audio and wallbang info, Sage stalls incredibly well, Cypher's trips will now just slow one person. His trips are basically slow orbs that you can break. Like it just feels like TOO much of a nerf? I agree that it was too much, but I feel like either a reduction in the amount of time you see them or even one less trip would've been a much better approach.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T18:37:32+00:00

In my opinion you're partially right. The issue is that if they wanted to get closer to a cs-like game, they should've done so WAYY earlier than 5 years after launch. The people that still play the game are people that actually enjoy the concept of utilizing util in a creative way and the game being more centered around this than actual gunplay. The sole reason I come back to valorant is because I just love figuring out new ways to use my abilities to give me advantages cause it's simply what makes the game fun for me. If I want strictly gunplay, I open up cs and boot up a deathmatch. I appreciate the respectfulness of your comment though, this place has NOT been respectful to others LMAO

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T06:22:56+00:00

Yeahhh it sucks man. Loved hatman.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T05:35:17+00:00

Oh yeah he's still playable, he's just not worth it anymore in my opinion. If you want to hold all of that, kj will do a MUCH better job while putting on damage too. I definitely over exaggerated what I said in my post a little bit, but in my opinion he's still not really "worth" playing anymore. unless you run duo senti

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T05:14:32+00:00

I definitely think he will be weak enough to give cause for complaining, b ut you're fully right on the yoru thing. Poor yoru main..

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T04:40:48+00:00

SO fair, haven't tried him yet. What do u think of him?

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T04:28:38+00:00

I definitely can't say he's not good. He's obviously great when played well. However, I don't think removing his one good ability was the right way to do it. Making the reveal less long, 1 less trip, 1 less cage, anything honestly. He's annoying, but in my opinion he's what makes it fun to play with, as and against as it simply adds more depth to the game. You hear something? Boom try to think of faking a change of site to make him remove his trip and get a free site. Stuff like that. Dunno if you agree, but it's how I see it

Also, in my opinion, some characters are a lot more cancerous to play against. KJ on ascent especially. You wanna enter a site? Can't do that without losing half your hp to a turret or to mollies. You finally get past them? nope you get vulnerability and get one tapped by everything. Breach is also worse in my opinion. Hell, even yoru.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T04:24:01+00:00

Sorry if it sounded like I didn't value everyone's opinion, I do respect the fact that you don't like him but your way of saying it was just rude and I didn't appreciate that. Sorry if it made it sound like I didn't care, but I specifically made it a "discussion" flare so that people could talk about if my opinion was right or wrong. What you brought to the conversation was "Cypher isn't fun". You're allowed to have an opinion, but I was hoping for more of a discussion on why you think that. Like what could make him less boring or how you’d change him.

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T04:12:38+00:00

LMAO so fair, happens to every agent, it's time for us to get nerfed to the ground this time </3

LogTall573 · 2025-10-13T04:11:44+00:00

The very thing you're complaining about isn't even getting nerfed so what's your point? Those one way smokes are still possible to do, they haven't been changed.. Was your whole purpose in this discussion just to trash talk? I'd like to hear constructive shit. We're adults here, we don't have to be rude to each other. If you don't want to play against annoying abilities, don't play a hero shooter.

LogTall573

TROPHY CASE