After a successful kickstarter that raised over $600,000, Hyper Light Drifter (HLD) was originally released in 2016 on Windows, Mac and Linux computers. It has come define the indie game genre and is up there with titles such as Shovel Knight, Bastion and Super Meat Boy for it’s renown with indie game fans. That’s why when I reported on the game coming to Nintendo Switch earlier this year, I was extremely excited, I couldn’t wait to check out this indie darling for myself. And at first I have to say, I really didn’t know what to make of the game. The combat was challenging and the visual story telling, though beautiful, could be at times frustrating. So let me try and do my best to tell you the story.

The Story

You play as The Drifter, a loner who’s only companion is a floating droid that follows you around. After having reoccurring visions of darkness, entrapment, illness and a strange looking jackal, The Drifter is tasked with activating four ancient pillars. The pillars seem to hold the key to putting an end to the evil The Drifter is having visions about. However, to active the pillars The Drifter must travel to the four corners of the world. By fighting enemies and solving puzzles, The Drifter obtains shards that can be formed into a diamond. When four shards from each section of the map are collected, a diamond is formed and a pillar will rise. However, even though your are battling against it, the evil gets stronger and slowly closes its grip on The Drifter. Though you may be able to save the beautiful and colourful world, will it be enough to rid The Drifter of this strange evil disease?

Now admittingly, the story is open to interpretation. There’s no words or dialogue in the game, so the narrative of the game is delivered through images. Though I like the idea of having no dialogue, it does make it difficult the determine what an earth is going on! On the other hand, it does make the game seem more mysterious and alien to the player, which I think was the how the Lead Developer of the game (Alex Pearson) wanted the player to feel.

Pearson created HLD as a of refection of his own life experience. Suffering from congenital heart disease, the likeness between Pearson’s and The Drifter’s evil diseases are easy to be seen. If you want to read more about Pearson’s ideology behind the game, check out this article from The Guardian.

The Game

HLD is a 2D action-adventure game with strong influences from games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Diablo and arguably Dark Souls. The Drifter is equipped with an hyper light sword and an energy pistol. Though these weapons do look and sound cool, I found them to be a little underwhelming. Maybe it was because I was bad at the game at the start or the game is designed to make you feel bad at the beginning. Either way, the start of the game was a real challenge for me as I couldn’t quite get a grasp on the combat.

However, after about an hour of gameplay you start finding these strange looking golden cells. When you find four of them they combine together to become an upgrade token, which can be spent in the game’s shops. After unlocking a few upgrades, the combat became much more manageable and even fun. Especially after you unlock the shielded dash that lets you dash through bullets, and the deflection blade, which lets you deflect bullets back at enemies. These abilities slowly make you feel like you’re getting better at the game. I noticed this the first time I returned to an area I’d already finished (or so I thought I had). Enemies that had been making a fool out of me now stood no chance. I found it so satisfying to see first hand that I had gotten better at a game that I had originally found so hard.

Alongside the satisfying combat, the exploration aspect of the game was a joy to play. I’ve not played a game where the secrets are so ingeniously hidden since Uncharted. Sometimes they’re hidden in the most obvious of places (like next to another secret) and sometimes they require a decent amount of skill to find. Either way, I loved searching every nook and cranny of HLD’s map. Running against every wall to check for a secret doorway and dashing behind every tree; I found it so rewarding to put in a little bit of effort into find the collectables in the game. And by no means did I find all of them. Obviously there’s the shards and upgrade points to find. In addition, there’s also new outfits, guns and keys to look out for. This means that even after beating the game, there is still hours of content for players who like to get as much content out of a game as possible. The outfits add a little bit of flair to The Drifter and were my favourite thing to look for!

Though the game is influenced by Legend of Zelda games, there’s not that many puzzles in the game to solve. The real challenge of HLD is the combat and the game’s puzzles come second to that. They’re mostly platforming puzzles that have the player timing dashes to avoid moving objects or land on small platforms without falling off. I found this a little disappointing as after reading the game was inspired by Zelda classics, I thought there might be some more intricate puzzles in the game. However, you soon find that the exploration in the game is a ‘puzzle’, which scratched the itch I was looking for in HLD.

Art and Music

As has been said many times about HLD, the developers Heart Machine wanted to pay homage to classic games from the SNES area. HLD does this perfectly with its stunning pixel art mixed in with modern day animation and techniques. The Drifter’s dash looks amazing, leaving shadows of himself behind where he once stood. Furthermore, the art direction of the game is both bold and unsettling. The world, though dead and decaying, looks so bright with bold neon colours making everything pop of the Switch’s screen. The Bladerunner-esk look of the art style fits perfectly with the game’s more mature story and meaning.

Disasterpeace’s music compliments all of these factors, giving the game an eerie sense throughout. The synthesized beats make you feel like something bad is about to come and destroy you at any moment. The score is reminiscent of 80’s sci-fi movies like Tron and Bladerunner and fits in perfectly with the game’s setting and themes.

Problems

The only problem I had with the game is the game’s chain-dash move. I don’t know if it was a lack of skill, a lack of direction from the game or just my pro-controller, but I couldn’t chain a dash longer than 10 moves! This was one of the cases where I wish the game had some text to tell you what you were meant to be doing, as I really had no clue how I was supposed to pull it off! Nevertheless, I beat the game without mastering the chain dash, but it would have been nice to learn to make combat a bit easier!

Summary

Overall, after spending a few weeks with the game I can safely say it’s one of the best indie games the Nintendo Switch has to offer. Though I found the story to be a little too obscure, it has nevertheless had me googling fan theories and articles about Alex Pearson, as I try to piece together exactly what is going on in the game (here’s a good fan idea for those that are interested!). At the start of the game the combat will frustrate you, however, by the end of the game you will become a master of it, giving you a sense of satisfaction at overcoming once difficult enemies and bosses. Furthermore, the exploration in the game is so rewarding it’ll make you want to find every little detail that is hidden in HLD’s beautiful neon world.

Should you buy this game? Hell yes you should! If you have any fondness for Zelda, Diablo or Dark Souls you will love Hyper Light Drifter!

That’s why I give Hyper Light Drifter by Heart Machine my score of

What did you think of my review? Will you be checking out Hyper Light Drifter? Let me know over on Twitter or Instagram.

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