Review — Hyper Light Drifter — A Masterpiece Worth Playing

This is one of those masterpiece games you play, complete, and afterward feel deep in your bones that something has changed for the better…

This is one of those masterpiece games that you get hooked on for a couple of weeks and feel deep in your bones that something about your existence has changed. Hyper Light Drifter is a culmination of so many excellent and unique ideas, on every level of its design and execution, that you can’t help but feel it’s some higher level of art that can only be experienced in this medium of video games.

I think something that immediately stands out right from when you start the game is that there isn’t any voice acting… and there isn’t any dialogue or readable language anywhere in the game beyond the start menu and the pause menu. The story is masterfully crafted and told through visuals alone, and the environmental storytelling is so rich that you can clearly connect some dots with the world-building, the ancient civilizations, and the struggles of the inhabitants of the land. It is hard to explain without playing it, but it’s something I appreciated because I felt like I was the one putting the puzzle pieces of the narrative together as I recall flashes of images and the environment and string them together into a crazy weaving plot. Very cool.

Speaking of environments, these are breathtakingly beautiful. All the sprite work is phenomenal as well. There are some spots where I just sat looking at how pristine the landscapes were. Man. They did such a good job. Very beautiful game.

The soundtrack is another thing. Incredibly atmospheric. Sets the tone exceptionally well. You’ll hear a few background instruments hum mysteriously as you traverse the dreary land, and you’ll hear a couple more frenetic yet excellent-sounding battle tracks, and a couple of tracks in between. In any case, you can be certain that your time in Hyper Light Drifter will be well-accented with appropriately delectable music.

And what is it that you’ll do in Hyper Light Drifter? I’ve yet to mention the combat, and besides exploring and some simple platforming puzzles, it is the bread and butter of the game. It’s simple to learn, but hard to master. You have limited ammo and a couple of gun types for long-range attacks, and you have a sword for short-range attacks. Landing sword hits returns ammo to your equipped gun. There’s also a dodge that makes you briefly invincible. You’ll traverse the world fighting enemies and getting upgrades (in a very very loose metroid-vania fashion), with your main task being to collect 4 of an item, to face a final boss.

Combat is fast and fluid. The enemies are unique and it’s fun learning to counter each one and their move sets. Bosses and mini-bosses abound and they are really fun to challenge. But if you find this to be too easy, you get a much harder difficulty after your first completion of the game. I found the difficulty curve on normal to be perfectly paced, and when I finished I did think I was well prepared to try the more challenging difficulty.

Ultimately, I fell in love with Hyper Light Drifter and would recommend it to just about anybody. These days you can find it for pretty cheap, as it is quite a few years old now, but it is such a good game that I think it’s well worth your time, and your money. If you’re on the fence get it! I believe it is worth the journey and experience, and I hope that many more people continue to get the opportunity to play it.

Originally published 27 Jun 2023 at https://www.backloggd.com.