This title was a lot of fun. Each area was brimming with atmosphere, and I anticipated what challenges waited around every corner. I especially enjoyed the gunplay, as each weapon was fun to experiment with.

The game can be extremely vague about certain things. This is mostly due to a lack of dialogue, as all mechanics are explained using images or context clues. This is usually great, but that does mean it's easy to accidentally ignore certain features. For instance, despite knowing they existed, I never got used to chain dashing or stamina management. The game also likes to hide secrets just out of view. It can be incredibly fun to notice a strange wall that leads to a secret tunnel with upgrade material, but it can also be frustrating when the collectible required for progression is hidden behind a wall inside a jail cell that you walked past on five separate occasions.

Looked stunning in handheld, but even more so when docked.

The music, the atmosphere, the art style and the gameplay. Everything is perfect.

Final boss fight slaps

all of the content from the original game is as perfect as always but i was disappointed to find out the special edition content was not made by heart machine but instead a completely different studio (abylight studios) and mostly only consisted of one 5-10 minute area with a boss fight at the end of it which was way harder than literally everything else in the base game. they did add a couple new guns which were cool (even though you can't upgrade them for some reason) but the fact that it was all stuff made by a different team of developers made it feel like i was playing fan-made modded pieces of content as opposed to experiencing new officially added components of the game. regardless though hyper light drifter still is a fantastic game at its core, with tight, fast gameplay and rewarding exploration set against an absolutely beautiful backdrop, and despite the lackluster new additions of this edition itself, i would still recommend any version of the game to anyone any day.


unless it was like a evil version of the game or something that'd be a different set of circumstances

El juego visualmente es precioso, el pixel art es bueno, pero es que los colores que utiliza lo hacen mucho mas bonito. El juego tiene cuatro zonas distintas y todas utilizan una paleta de colores diferente y todas las zonas son muy bonitas, quizá la mas fea sea la del desierto, pero aun así le da esa sensación de pobreza que debe de tener una zona tan deprimente.
La banda sonora no se de que género musical se trata, pero consigue ambientar muy bien y encaja perfectamente todo el entorno psicodélico que pretende tener el juego.
La historia del juego es contada mediante la narrativa ambiental, lo primero que ves del juego es una cinemática que no te dice demasiado, y es el jugador que explorando y hablando con los npcs tiene que desentrañar los secretos. Por ejemplo, cuando llegas a una nueva zona suele haber un npc que te cuenta que es lo que le ha pasado y suele ser que el boss de esa zona llegó a ese lugar y expulsó y/o mató a los habitantes que habían allí, lo curioso es que en vez de contártelo mediante texto utilizan imágenes muy bonitas que se entienden perfectamente lo que te cuenta. Personalmente no soy fan de este tipo de narrativa porque, al menos en este juego, al principia me veía avanzando, y activando unos artilugios sin saber por qué lo estaba haciendo, ni tampoco que hacen esos artilugios. Luego ya al final pues comprendes un poco mejor que es lo que ha pasado, pero tampoco tanto, porque no lo he entendido del todo bien. Si os gusta este tipo de narrativa pues perfecto, a mi me ha parecido un poco meh la historia.
La jugabilidad es simple porque solo tienes un botón de ataque a corta distancia, luego desbloqueas una pistola y una granada para atacar a larga distancia y un botón para hacer un dash. Pero se siente entretenido y el juego es desafiante, ya sea por el diseño de las zonas o como son los enemigos he muerto muchas veces, lo bueno es que reapareces justo al lado de donde has muerto y no se hace para nada tedioso. Lo que sí, es que me hubiera gustado un botón para hacer parrys a los enemigos, creo que le hubiera dado un pelín mas de profundidad a la jugabilidad. Y sobre eso también decir que puedes obtener nuevas habilidades, como hacer dashes múltiples, un ataque en área, devolver las balas con el ataque, que durante haces el dash seas inmune a las balas, poder hacer un ataque mientras haces el dash… Estas habilidades son útiles (yo recomiendo la de los dash múltiples y la de devolver las balas atacando) pero el juego te sigue suponiendo un reto aunque las tengas todas.
Para desbloquear esas habilidades hacen falta encontrar unos objetos que suelen estar ocultos o que rara vez suelta un enemigo. Sobre las zonas, aparte de decir que son muy bonitas, suelen tener muchos secretos que premian al jugador que es curioso y explora, ya sea con los objetos para mejorar, diferentes tipos de pistolas, curaciones y más secretos.
Una queja que tengo con el juego es que se divide en cuatro zonas, cada una tiene su jefe y el jefe final del juego, además de tres minibosses, el problema es que esos tres minibosses solo se encuentran en la ultima zona, yo creo que podrían haberlo repartido mejor los minibosses a lo largo del juego.
También decir que el juego es relativamente corto, yo he tardado en pasármelo seis horas, pero aun me quedan muchos secretos por encontrar, además de que una vez que te lo pasas en estándar desbloqueas el modo difícil y poder jugarlo con otro personaje.
En conclusión, el juego me ha gustado principalmente por su aspecto gráfico, por su banda sonora y por su jugabilidad simple pero entretenida y desafiante a la vez, lo que no me ha gustado es la historia, que tiene pocas zonas, pocos bosses. Aun así, me ha parecido buen juego.

A weird, gorgeous and rewarding action game. The combat is tough but intuitive and a joy to play around with. The world itself is stuffed full of secrets and, while admittedly made easier with upgrades, many are doable with the right amounts of skill and patience.
The atmosphere is probably what will stick, though. Everything is sketched out in melancholy neon and the NPCs all communicate in little visual stories that fill out the details of the world. The music is phenomenal and does much of the heavy lifting at creating 'moments' at various points, where the camera will pan and show you a distant vista while the synths swell.

I've been curious about this game for years and I finally bit the bullet this year. Turns out I was missing out on a lot. Anyone will point out that the visuals, sound design, and mystique of this game is pretty top notch. It all serves to ground its world of enemies, town folks, and mysterious forces lurking underneath. I can't say the story is comprehensible as the game revels in being abstract, but it's not entirely needed to know that you just have to defeat some force of darkness that endangers the characters world. On normal difficulty I would say this game is fairly straightforward with how to attack and recognize patterns. It's the dashing mechanic that honestly takes a while to familiarize. If you like collect-a-thons this game will please those urges in spades. The game has been out for a while, so take a shot if you like what you see from the game footage.

An addictive and visually striking game with a pleasingly low rez art style. The combat is challenging and in some areas feels unfair, but death is not incredibly punishing and with extensive exploration you find more and more tools to upgrade your player and your weapons.

The game gives you very little direction on where to go or what to do when you get there, so the early hours are spent muddling around and getting a feel for the world. This lack of direction paired with a difficult-to-understand overworld map can be frustrating, especially paired with the ease that you can be killed by enemies. It's very easy to get lost in this game if you have a poor sense of direction.

The music is a great complement to a magitech apocalyptic world being overgrown with natural plantlife and monsters. The lack of any dialogue really underlines the contemplative and in some places bleak atmosphere of this richly colored world. Exploring is often rewarded with secret paths and new areas, and taking the time to poke around every corner feels very rewarding as you learn the visual language of the game and how to read hints in the environment.

Hyper Light Drifter's original release was notable as taking place at the beginning of a huge indie boom characterized by artistically stylish and difficult games. You can trace it's influence and see it's shared roots with other exploration-heavy games like Tunic.

This game does feel a bit unpolished with an uneven difficultly and in some places clunky and frustrating combat mechanics. Given it's the studio's first showing, this is expected, and what is here is great. Ultimately, I'd recommend it for players who like a challenge and are comfortable taking full reign in exploring an open world.

Very good top-down hack 'n' slash with a deep atmosphere and enthralling music and visuals. The pixel art is very good, although i found it to be too messy in boss fights to understand every blow. Gameplay is a bit on the hard side but weapons are crazy funny and strong. They can compensate pretty easily any lack of skill you might have against bosses or certain enemies. The only issue i have is that the dash is too restrictive in its timing to concatenate multiple ones reliably, especially in boss fights. The story is one of the most poignant pieces of silent media ever, masterfully crafted in both image composition and music.

Best version is the Switch one. Extra weapon, dungeon and boss are really worth it.

First hour: I don't really get this, the setting is cool though I guess.

Next 3-4 hours: oh I'm done and it has been an entire day, woops.

When it gets it's hooks in ya, it really gets it's hooks in ya, y'know?

Wife’s Reaction:
“Major Adventure Time and Dead Cell vibes. Creepy and awesome.”

The Fast and the Furious:
One of those indies I had on my radar and never got around to playing. Immediately, Hyper Light Drifter hits with a wild opening, then leaves you to wander and figure out what to do and where to go. It’s fast and challenging and has awesome vibes and style.