‘Hyper Light Drifter’ becomes one to remember

“Hyper Light Drifter” opens up with a gorgeous cinematic that doesn’t reveal much for our story other than our main protagonist running through a world recently ravaged by some calamity. A horrific monster gives chase to the bleeding drifter, who finds himself face to face with towering titans slowing turning to dust. From there a jackal with a halo of sorts leads players into a structure only to be attacked by the same black monster named Judgement.

This nearly impossible to follow exposition is about the most direct storytelling this game gives with the rest of the game having players discover little pools of story occasionally in the form of pictographs. The lack of direct storytelling allows players to piece our own versions of the story together much like the “Soulsbourne” games. Building the history of the world is worth the struggle of critically analyzing the scattered clues left in the beautiful world, with my favorite relics of the past being half destroyed ‘titans’ strewn across the regions, which gave a sense of pure awe.

The struggle doesn’t end at piecing the story together. Other than a map given by a fellow drifter, the player is told nothing about their objective. After searching around town, players have little option other than to pick a region to explore in hopes of finding more information. These regions are North, East, West, South and later Abyss, and within each are your typical RPG elements: enemies, the currency of the world, fellow strugglers and bosses that push your limits. Patience is rewarded as attacks are burned into memory and dodge timing are perfected. Such gameplay is akin to a bit slower and deliberate “Hotline Miami” as every swing of your hard-light sword and shot of your countless firearms are crucial to bringing down the enemy swarms.

While battling these enemies, one may get distracted by the stunning aesthetics in these environments. The art style pays tribute to classic 8-bit and 16-bit games of old while still mixing in bright colors to bring the world to life. One of the most powerful parts of the environment is its ability to make the player feel like this is a continuous world, by seeing monolithic titans sprawled across the barren wastelands in the player’s travels.

The power of this game to instill such a lasting effect on players is due to how well Heart Machine crafted this gem. “Hyper Light Drifter” offers so much: breath-taking environments, enemy design that is brutally difficult to overcome at times, a story that is worth the hard work to understand and a hands-off approach when it came to direction. For a game less than $20, “Hyper Light Drifter” is one of the few games of 2016 that I thought was well worth my time and money.