Intuiting the lore of this world was rewarding, and got me invested in the game's setting, even though I was certain much of my analysis was probably wildly inaccurate. Every single screen of every area in Hyper Light Drifter has a purpose and a history, from the ancient libraries of the Northern avian scholars to the crystalline weaponry of the Western Forest's bear warriors. And, as a plot development strategy, it absolutely works, thanks in large part to the remarkable amount of environmental storytelling developer Heart Machine has put into the game. That hero is shown to be a capable sword-wielder, but seems to be plagued by some horrible malady that causes them to cough up bright pink blood with troubling frequency.Īny specifics beyond that - where you are, who you are, what happened to this world, what's hunting you - are entirely up to interpretation. Most of the exposition comes from the game's gorgeous opening cutscene, which shows Hyper Light Drifter's caped protagonist surviving some apocalyptic attack on their home world, only to be confronted by towering, dying titans and a shadowy monster that seems to pursue them through the whole game. The UI, map and menus feature arcane symbols and characters of a fictional language. Seriously, none: Dialogue with the NPCs you meet in the game is presented exclusively in pictographs. Here's a fact to set the scene: Other than a handful of tooltips explaining what buttons do what, there are no written words in Hyper Light Drifter. I'm hesitant to break down the backdrop of Hyper Light Drifter, because its plot, setting, characters, history and world-building are so ethereal. Hyper Light Drifter's specifics are entirely up to interpretation
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Learning how to swing a sword and dodge fatal attacks is easy enough - finding your place in a world that tells you virtually nothing about itself is a far more involving challenge. Its larger, more imposing request is how you have to interpret literally everything else that happens in the game. Progress isn't promised in Hyper Light Drifter it can't be earned by grinding or executing cheap strategies and exploits, only practice, practice, practice.īut the mechanical difficulty, the tense, balletic, close-quarters battles that punctuate your exploration of the game's gorgeous setting, is a relatively small component of what Hyper Light Drifter demands. It tosses roadblock after roadblock at its protagonist with no easy way out. It's a brutal and colorful delight.Hyper Light Drifter demands things from its players that few games are even willing to request. Such a moment: So short, yet so satisfying, stylish, and empowering, is the epitome of all that is Hyper Light Drifter.Īlthough a fairly small package, Drifter feels like a concentrated mixture of everything good in a Zelda-like adventure game. The satisfying thud of your character throwing their sword into the ground after a long fought boss battle provides a wonderful burst of joy. This game believes in the player, and does everything with confidence. I never grew frustrated with the exploring, and the questions I had about where to go and what to do naturally unfolded itself in front of me. It felt like I was discovering things at a good enough pace, and was being rewarded well for doing so. This is not to say exploring was easy, but discovery never felt cheap. It has extremely satisfying combat, a mysterious world, and provides one of the most natural senses of discovery I have ever seen in a game.Īs someone who usually grows annoyed and exhausted with adventure games which require a lot of exploring, I still never went and picked up a walkthrough. This game looks and sounds fantastic, especially with the new 60 fps patch. Beautiful in its simplicity, yet complex and haunting in its atmosphere.
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