Hyper Light Drifter

The project was born in 2013 and has undoubtedly broken through all the stretch goal barriers, the secondary objectives of the Kickstarter campaigns that add bonuses and extra versions for backers. Many, therefore, believed in the project, which will debut on consoles by the summer but has already arrived on PC, Mac and Linux thanks to the arrival on the main digital distribution platforms.

Without losing too much in further chat, it is worth pointing out right away that Hyper Light Drifter is a game that you shouldn't miss. This is so for a number of reasons that we will analyze in the lines of this review, but first of all because it is a very evocative and aesthetically sublime indie video game, as well as damn exciting and fun.

But what game are we talking about? Hyper Light Drifter tells the story of Drifter, an enigmatic character with a cloak, always dodging at hand and an innate ability to easily juggle swords and pistols, but also a mysterious disease to be treated. The player will be asked, tacitly, to activate four sections placed at the cardinal points of the map, littered with secrets, traps and enemies anxious to end the life of the protagonist before his natural death. The gameplay to support this feat is, essentially, that of a 2D action game with a top view and hints of role-playing mechanics. In Hyper Light Drifter you will therefore find yourself strengthening the skills of your alter ego, but also facing short puzzles related, rather than solving real puzzles, to the movements to be implemented to overcome a certain area of a level.

Its creator defined it several times as a meeting between The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Diablo and right from the start of the game we realize that dear Alex is not wrong, even going so far as to add us a pinch of the best of the current independent landscape and some tips from the Miyazaki king of Japanese animation (but also from the soulslike of From Software, if you want). My mind, for example, has "inconvenienced" references (both playful and artistic) to Fez, Hotline Miami, Titan Souls and several other masterpieces that will inevitably resurface in the memories of those who will try it.

The merit is above all, as you can guess from the images and the accompanying video, of the aesthetics of the game, made of surreal themes brought to life by a pixel art graphic which to define as delicious is an understatement. A riot of colors halfway between dream and nightmare, which rest their bases on a soundtrack and electronic matrix sound effects inspired in the same way. The painting is something tremendously suggestive, because it moves a plot and deliberately obscure events in the ways of doing, but also of communicating.

Hyper Light Drifter is, in fact, a game based exclusively on non-verbal and, therefore, only visual communication: you will not find captions of any kind to show you the way or carry on the story. There are little cartoons, pictographic conversations, evil visions and even some friendly faces, but none of the actors in the game will utter a word. Everything is amalgamated into a sort of dreamy impressionism, which expects the player to connect the ideal dots to compose the larger design, going to discover the mysteries surrounding the game.

What happened to the protagonist and his world? Who are the threatening bosses who dominate the main points of the map? Honestly, putting her artistic beauty aside for a moment, when I finished Hyper Light Drifter I asked myself even more questions. Questions that will probably find answers with a second run (perhaps using the New Game +) and the search for all the secrets scattered in the corners of the fantastic dungeons that make up the game levels, or maybe not. And I couldn't be happier.

Without words

Hyper Light Drifter tells the post-apocalyptic story of an adventurer who seeks a cure for his deadly disease in a ruined landscape. The highlight: The game doesn't need any words for this, but relies fully on the power of its pixel art. The result is a successful mental cinema with some room for interpretation. Anyone who also deals with the story of developer Heart Machine will quickly discover parallels to the personal story of its boss. Because he himself suffers from a heart disease. But symbolism or not, pixel art alone does not win a flower pot .

Behind the blocky facade is a classic action adventure or role-playing game - so classic that Hyper Light Drifter doesn't dwell on explanations when it comes to game mechanics. Dungeons with bosses await in four directions. Symbols on the minimap show us the way, on which obviously numerous opponents are waiting. We work on them with swords and pistols, complete small steps of skill and discover all kinds of secrets - mostly coveted medipacks or small energy cubes (the in-game currency). This principle is so burned into the collective memory of the players that Hyper Light Drifter deliberately does not take us by the hand and only explains small details - for example, that we reload our pistol ammunition by reaching for a sword. Especially players who can do without paternalism and love challenges are in good hands here. Speaking of challenges - these are the crux of the matter with which the fun of the indie game stands or falls.

Don't throw your nerves away

After just half an hour, the level of difficulty of Hyper Light Drifter increases properly. We can expect hectic fights, mostly in a small area, with countless opponents including various attack patterns and a chronic lack of helping medipacks. Our hero only takes a few hits and initially only has an evasive jump to defend himself in order to avoid the attacks. The skirmishes therefore feel a bit like having crossed a 2D Zelda title with a bullet hell shooter . Anyone who gets wet eyes with happiness at the introduction should be warned anyway. Because Hyper Light Drifter puts an unexpected strain on our frustration tolerance.

Even with darn good reflexes we die annoyingly many deaths because the aiming mechanics of the pistols, for example, are quite fiddly, when there are high numbers of opponents in combination with the pixel optics, the overview tends to flutter, and after our death the respawn animation is just a few seconds too long lasts. And if you didn't have any medipacks with you at the last reset point and are already whistling from the last hole, you can often turn around and stock up on your supplies first. Or buy new skills with the distributed energy cores in the central city, such as an all-round blow, a bulletproof alternative dash or simply more slots for medipacks. Because at the latest in the brutal boss fights , you either need to burn up enough medipacks or have a damn good reaction time.

Only those who accept that (the level of difficulty cannot be changed) can enjoy Hyper Light Drifter - but then things really ignite . Be it the detail-loving look, the epic staging including the incredibly coherent retro soundtrack, the many small branches for curious explorers or simply the moment when our nameless hero triumphantly rams the sword into the ground after an extra-crisp fight - all that is Definitely worth the effort.