Hyper Light Drifter (2016) is an Indie Gem Worthy of Acclaim

The world Heart Machine crafted and let loose in 2016 is one of the best in the indie scene. From its color choice, to its visual effects, to its hand-done animations, no piece of Hyper Light Drifter feels off. Everything in its crumbling world was placed intentionally to provide little clues as to what happened in its history prior to the time you step in.

Grasping for the light, the opening sequence of Hyper Light Drifter sets the tone for an experience that separates itself from the rest of the indie scene with its visuals.

There is no dialogue. There is no text, aside from the “New Game” button on the main menu. Everything is visual, and this focus on aesthetics and environment design is what separates it from the rest of the crowded indie scene. Its cryptic and mysterious nature made me want to find out more about its inhabitants and its past. It’s an 8-hour ride that I remained on for 65, until there was (literally) nothing left for me to see. It’s rare that I care to do this, so rare in fact that for me, there was never before an experience I cared enough about to bother embarking on such a quest for completion.

The color choice in this game is vibrant and tasteful. The visual design on display is top-notch stuff.

Heart Machine captured some magic in a bottle with this gem. I’m not sure what exactly makes it so, or really why it called to me. But it did, and I won’t forget any inch of its world.

Crispy Top-Down Action

Hyper Light Drifter plays with tight, heart-racing resolve. Despite the pretty pictures you’ll see about it on storefronts and other review sites, this is not an easy game, and its no Legend of Zelda.

When it first released, there was no easy mode to fall back to; there was normal mode, and a much harder “New Game+” difficulty only accessible after a first completion of its story. There were many moments of frustration, but provided infinite retries and usually generous checkpoints, you could make it past anything, so long as you were willing to put in effort to persevere.

Combat is hectic, requiring persistence and precision. Depicted above is a small slice of gameplay from the northern boss, a mage who bombs his arena in various geometric patterns.

The uninitiated in adventure games would have an even harder time than those accustomed to secret-searching titles, as nearly all of the game’s best items are located in entirely optional locations that require you to be meticulous in your analysis of its environments. You don’t need any of them to win, of course, and despite not knowing any of them existed on my first run, I didn’t run into too much difficulty without them. On subsequent play-throughs, finding new capes and swords was a fulfilling side-journey that gave me an incentive to further explore and apply new combat strategies. Knowledge of where things are is pretty crucial to the completion of the hard mode, where your measly two pips of life, as opposed to an upwards of 6 pips on easy or normal, means stronger enemies can kill you with a single well-placed strike, if you’re not careful.

You can upgrade your gear at shops in the central hub of the game world. Even in the menus, you’ll find no text or other words of any kind. Upgrades are literally described through visuals.

Your first few weapons will be your sword and pistol, which will serve you well throughout the entirety of the experience, if you put them to good use. Up close, your sword makes quick work of lower-strength hostiles, striking in combinations of three, while your pistol can stun and kill harder-to-reach enemies from afar. Use them together, and you’re in for some hectic, crisp, top-down action.

You can find coins on your journey, which are a limited resource that can be used to purchase upgrades. Such enhancements include simple boosts like being able to hold more healing items, to rechargeable grenades, to advanced abilities like chain-dashing, deflecting bullets, and charge-attacks, which all temporarily consume your quickly-recharging ability meter.

With each successful sword swipe on your foes, you earn a bullet for your gun, allowing you to effectively alternate between ranged and close-quarter combat on the fly. This dynamic is excellent, and one of the game’s highlights in gameplay design; it rewards aggressive play, and puts you in the mindset of how The Drifter is meant to fight.

There are quite a few firearms you’ll encounter on your journey, and each one serves a unique purpose, sometimes even explorative ones. As you obtain and become familiar with them, you’ll find one that suits your style, helping you get comfortable with combat and fight more effectively.

A Doomed World

The environments of Hyper Light Drifter heavily suggest a cataclysm of some kind occurred before your arrival, and the visions you receive in its introduction allude to what might have happened.

In the introduction, the protagonist is depicted fighting an uphill battle against the darkness, destined to engulf him.

Having been granted your powers after being chosen by Anubis to carry out the defeat of Judgement, the primary antagonist, you are also infected by them, making you terminally ill. You know not how long you have to live, but glimpses of your sickness become more and more common the further you go. What starts as a simple cold becomes a violent coughing of blood, until you cannot go on.

The map is split up into five regions, a central city that stretches out into wilderness in the four cardinal directions. Each region houses new enemies, a unique boss to conquer, and new equipment to discover. To the east, you’ll find The Lake, ruled by The Emperor Toad, responsible for genocide against the Otter people. To the north, The Mountains lie, housing cultist Vultures lead by The Hierophant, a dark mage. To the west, the Crystal Forest awaits, a battlefield from long ago wiping out its previous inhabitants, with the only remaining souls being Raccoon scavengers lead by The Hanged Man, who still wanders its woods. Once you best these three tyrants, the doors to the Barren Hills open in the south, where you’ll explore the abandoned underground factories that gave way to the weapons of mass destruction that were used to reduce Hyper Light Drifter’s world to ruins.

The environments themselves could be wallpapers in their own right. If you’re a screenshot-addict, you’ll love this game; there’s plenty of scenes to capture for those inclined.

Heart Machine’s attention to detail and commitment to fill every nook and cranny with character and lore is what makes the world they crafted pop in a way not many development teams have been able to accomplish. Couple its aesthetics with a Lo-Fi soundtrack by Disasterpiece, and you’ve got yourself a trippy, unique experience that’s second to none in the indie space.

Though there’s no dialogue, story beats are revealed to you via visual conversations that literally show you memories from the characters you meet along the way. Though simple at face value, they are crucial to figuring out why the events that transpired came to be. All text in-game is written in code, whose symbols can be translated to English if you’re willing to put in the work. The transcripts of the world’s many hidden monoliths will provide you with the bulk of the story. Discovering them all will net you a huge reward in a hidden location on the map.

The environments of Hyper Light Drifter tell its story. If you rush through everything, you’ll miss many of its more interesting locations and lore-bites.

Like Death Stranding and Rain World, this game is very visual-heavy, and words alone cannot describe everything it has to offer. You must play it for yourself if you want to experience it.

Difficulty to a Detriment?

The friendly visuals are bound to draw in many players expecting an easy-to-complete game. They are misleading if you interpret them as such; Hyper Light Drifter’s combat, while no Dark Souls, is definitely not an easy pill for most to swallow. It is a huge point of turnoff for the uninitiated, and the primary reason for its lackluster review scores among major journalists.

Despite this, Hyper Light Drifter does not provide an unfair experience. Many of its harder engagements are hinted at, allowing you to ready yourself for the events to come. The plentiful tools at your disposal also make for many ways to tackle such engagements. If you feel your pistol is to weak, try a shotgun! If there’s too many fodder enemies in your path, throw a grenade to instantly wipe them all out! If you find yourself always running out of med-kits, maybe you should go back to previous areas you’ve completed and search for items to make your life easier.

Taking the time to fully explore the game’s world will net you many useful items and cool areas to immerse yourself in. If you don’t stop and take a look around every once in a while, you’ll miss most of what this game is about.

Really, the game expects and generously rewards your exploration. The more upgrades you have, the easier time you’ll have besting your foes. The order in which you tackle its regions also has bearing on difficulty, too, as even though you can go anywhere from the start of the game, different areas will be harder than others, and success in different locations will reward you with different tools.

There’s no reason to skip out on this game if you’re worried about it being too hard, as if you play on easy mode and take things slowly, using your eyes and ears to find the hidden goodies littered about, you’ll be more than well-equipped to tackle any fight thrown your way. Understand that most people are impatient, and generally, developers love to reward patient players of any game because the patient player tends to appreciate their titles much more than the average player. Enjoy yourself; don’t rush!

Verdict

Story / Lore: [84/100] – Great world design and a focus on visuals over text and dialogue lends itself to creating a unique world and cryptic backstory that made me want to discover more about it on my own. Heart Machine did an excellent job creating something very different from the crowd.

Gameplay: [85/100] – Crispy top-down movement, coupled with unique mechanics to incentivize aggressive combat, makes for very satisfying engagements and exploration. Most puzzles are based on paying attention to your surroundings, alongside precision platforming, and are always optional for those without the reflexes to handle them. Unlimited retries and various difficulty options cater to both average and hardcore players.

Presentation: [93/100] – Stunning visual design and a soundtrack to match, coupled with now 60fps performance (which the developers needed to redo all the animations for), means Hyper Light Drifter’s polish and overall atmosphere is excellent. For a first-time player, some elements of the game are confusing due to lack of text descriptions, but anyone playing the game for more than a few minutes will get used to it and actually enjoy the reasons for its design.

Score: 87 / 100

Hyper Light Drifter is one of the best indie games to grace the market, and it’s a shame that for its difficulty, alone, it has received low scores by major outlets. The entire experience is crafted with utmost delicacy and respect to its smallest parts, making nothing feel out of place or unappealing to the eye. Heart Machine developed something special, here, and I can say with utmost confidence that it’s a great title, and one that I’ll remember for a long while. I can’t wait to see what Heart Machine has in store when Solar Ash Kingdom rolls around in the (hopefully) not too distant future.