Combat in Hyper Light Drifter is fast, fun, and occasionally frustrating. The world may be dying, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous. This is an arrangement I am perfectly happy with. Hyper Light Drifter doesn’t seem particularly interested in answering those questions, it just wants them to occupy a spot in your brain to stake out a little encampment in your mind, and in turn leave a part of yourself in its melancholic neon world. Maybe they’re in there somewhere, tucked away in the many secrets I failed to unlock, or the New Game+ mode I’ve yet to tackle. What happened to the world? Why are you following this Anubis look-alike dog? Who is the man is the mask? Is he you?īy the time I saw the credits roll (roughly seven hours of game time), I had more questions than answers. World details and astoundingly beautiful pixel art tell small localized stories here and there, but the overarching plot is shrouded in mystery.
Everything is impressionistic and dreamy, expecting the player to fill in the gaps and supply their own ideas. There are short vignettes, troubling visions, and one-sided, pictographic conversations from the few friendly faces in the world, but no words. No words are exchanged in Hyper Light Drifter. Which is good, because that mood does most of the narrative heavy lifting. It all blends together to create one hell of a mood. It’s all very isolating and spooky, the kind of music fit for wandering around a dead person’s house (which I imagine is the intended effect, given the wrecked nature of Hyper Light Drifter‘s world). Much of it is moody and atmospheric, with sad stray notes and the occasional punch of percussion punctuating ominous synth humming. The soundtrack from Disasterpeace is every bit a match for the impressive visuals. Every single image in the game is positively gorgeous. Even the menus and shops ooze with style. Hyper Light Drifter revels in its style, taking frequent breaks from the action just to bask in a glorious vista, some sad tableaux of an ancient broken robot in a forest, or a disturbing massacre of a primitive tribe. The vibrant colors, intricate anarcho-future design of the settings, and super-detailed character spites grab the eyeballs and never let go. Honestly, you can’t take a bad screenshot of this game.
The visual presentation of Hyper Light Drifter is second to none. The backtracking never feels like a burden because this is a game to take your time with - to explore and really soak in the splendor and beauty of its design. There is no penalty for backtracking, and getting around the world is easy with centrally located fast-travel points in every area. Like some cheap Robert Frost knock-off, you’ll often be presented with two, three, four paths (and an invisible bridge) at once, and sorry, but you could not travel them all. Hidden paths, tricky routes, and invisible platforms abound, and it’s best to embrace the wandering mentality early. You’re not expected to know where to go the game delights in that uncertainty.įrom the macro-level of not really understanding the critical path, or even your overall goal, to the micro-level of discreet portions of stage design, exploration is key. After waking up in a quaint hamlet set square in the center of the map, a tool-tip may nudge you towards the north, but there isn’t any reason you can’t go west, or east, or south, or just hang out in the village and marvel at the character and design of its shopkeeps. Hyper Light Drifter sets the player off to explore a dying world without much direction. Released: Ma/ TBA (PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One) Hyper Light Drifter (PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One) The end of Hyper Light Drifter‘s world is more than interesting, it’s downright captivating.
A kind of heartbreaking sting that is at once nostalgic and completely new. A longing vision of the end times through the lens of idealized 8- and 16-bit games. Set on just the wrong side of an apocalyptic event, it brings beauty, style, and mood to the end of the world. It’s hard to make the end of the world interesting again. But, Hyper Light Drifter manages to find a way. We’ve seen it all: zombies, mutants, raiders, and hell, even dinosaurs. The post-apocalypse is the new WWII - the overused, thoroughly played-out, exhausted setting that too many games and movies muck around in.
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