Every 12 months, it seems like all of gaming media conspires to get together and collectively select THE hottest indie darling of the year. In 2022 it was Cult of the Lamb, before that It Takes Two (2021), Hades (2020), Outer Wilds (2019), Subnautica (2018), Hollow Knight (2017), etc… Well, those of you who were gaming back in the day no doubt remember which release took the cake circa 2016, that of course being Hyper Light Drifter. A visual throwback to third and fourth gen titles, Hyper Light Drifter was interesting in that its gameplay was more reminiscent of contemporary hack-and-slash titles, producing a hybrid that appealed to both retro buyers and newbies alike. Seven years later, the question remains: does it still hold up as a gold standard from the AA market?
Based on my experience, the unfortunate truth is not really, though it does have its pros, the first of those of course being the graphics. If there’s one word that perfectly describes the aesthetic drafted by developer Heart Machine, it would be calming. Take a gander at any screenshot or piece of footage from this game; let the soft hues envelope your ocular globes, the pixel-perfect geometry captivate your soul, the dark neons ease you into a slumber…
Jokes aside, this is a genuinely serene world. Every color under the rainbow has seemingly been incorporated into the environments about you, yet it all feels equilibrious, as though some god sculpted everything from the same slab of digital clay. That said, there’s no doubt HLD shines best when it embraces more aphotic overlays. These typically sprout whenever you’re underground (more on that later), and man are they a sight to behold: whether it’s decrepit tech or spunky rock formations, the red/blue/purple motif bathes it all with cool tranquility. If there was ever an argument against photorealism scapes in video games, HLD would be a pristine candidate: a promethean extravaganza of somber chroma. We’ve all played games that had one or two hubs decked in such placidity- HLD is the first time I can say 90% of its content could fall under the same label.
The biggest drawback in this category is the poor environmental storytelling. As you’ve no doubt heard, HLD doesn’t feature a narrative in the conventional sense- there are a few cutscenes you’re periodically hit with (more on that later), but it’s otherwise a tale you largely have to interpret based on the imagery around you, and the problem is HLD is all over the place in terms of its physical layout. You’ll find Metroid-esque labs, mountaintops adorned with tribal totems, crystalline forests ala Secret of Mana, etc…and it never once comes across as a cohesive package. In fact, I’d go so far as to say creator Alx Preston was more interested in paying homage to those aforementioned titles than conceiving a unique mythos for his baby, and while it may result in a bunch of visual treats, it does come at the cost of narratological cohesiveness. Each venture you take is less about learning about this society and more about finding a new 90s throwback to gaze over if that makes sense.
I also would’ve appreciated a lot more blood splatter effects given the sheer amount of slicing-and-dicing you’ll be doing, which brings me to the gameplay. Like I stated before, HLD is a slash ‘em up, meaning its mechanics are based entirely on skewering opposing forces via your laser sword. To prevent button-mashing monotony, an instantaneous dash feature and firearm have been incorporated, and, at its best, HLD truly feels like a gun kata film: bursting into close quarters, slivering some thug, and blasting his buddy at a distance before leaping back to safety in the span of 3 seconds is absolutely exhilarating, and you’ll have to master this technique should you want to proceed through the harder areas. But unfortunately, that initial excitement wears off fast the moment you realize you’re going to be doing the exact same action again and again and again. The core problem with HLD’s loop is its failure to spice it up -- enemies aren’t radically different to warrant new tactics, the grid doesn’t deviate from its standard size, nothing. It’s just nonstop action. A lot of comparisons have been made to A Link to the Past given the presence of Zelda-esque dungeons and the ability to tackle 3/4 of them at your own pace, but the difference is those dungeons provided puzzles to jumble up the constant action. In HLD, the best you’ll get are activating switches, which are either way hidden behind guys you’ll have to, yup that’s right, KILL. And contrary to what Wikipedia claims, this is not an action RPG- all that murdering doesn’t give you experience points, and customization/inventory is limited to a few basic outfits and guns. While the upgrades (more on that later) make fighting easier, they fall short of innovation, and as a result, HLD drags, feeling just as long as ALTTP despite being half its length.
Not helping either of these is the perpetual backtracking you’ll have to do. See, unlocking boss stages and upgrades requires you to harvest special collectibles strewn throughout the world, and minus two pointed out to you by a local ally, there are no pinpoints on the map, meaning you gotta explore to find them. This doesn’t seem bad on the surface, but where the issue arises is the lack of a completion mark indicating you’ve already acquired something (again, save the two aforementioned ones), meaning you’ll often find yourself revisiting the same tunnels and closed-off areas in the hopes of uncovering an additional secret. And should you leave and return to one of the main junctures, all those gremlins you slew are brought back to life.
The larger qualm with HLD’s exploration is that the developers just didn’t do a good job arranging the spaces with distinguishable strata. In most top-down video games, you can tell where a hidden ingress is located by way of how certain objects appear: there’s a strange break in the wall, the trees are organized like an arrow, why is an odd boulder in the middle of nowhere, etc…In HLD, you’ll see TONS of these in every square that don’t lead ANYWHERE. And yet, that very same tactic has been used to conceal the canisters you need, meaning you’re going to be wasting your time slamming every suspicious-looking nook and cranny until you happen upon the right one. It’s not a compliment when I have to recommend employing a walkthrough to avoid needless frustration.
It’s a shame because an easy fix would’ve been simply giving the map a normal interface alongside the ability to set waypoints, instead of this confusing excuse of a menu with multiple levels and colors that barely show anything and don’t correspond to your actual location (one section saw me enter/exit a cave, only for the map to depict me radically moving an entire yard….what?).
As you can guess, the minimalist plot doesn’t make these excursions worth the trouble. A handful of beautifully-rendered pictel cutscenes hint at an interesting backstory for the unnamed protagonist, but it’s deliberately left vague for players to input their own interpretations. If I was younger, I probably would’ve found such an ordeal enticing, but as an adult, I gotta be honest- I consider these approaches to be more lazy than anything else. The devs either couldn’t pay for writers or thought they could tell a better story with pictures over words, the result, regardless, being no fruit borne. It shouldn’t be my job as a consumer to fill in the gaps of the world’s and/or character’s backstory- even the most carte blanche RPG provides some concrete method of understanding what’s going on. Heck, even Limbo, which HLD no doubt took inspiration from, had the wherewithal to implement a clear premise- after 7 hours, I still don’t get why anything was happening or why I was doing the actions I was doing.
If I can end this review on a positive note, it’s that the soundscape is pretty dang good. While there is SFX (more on that momentarily), HLD takes the Gravity approach of boosting action beats with the score, a smorgasbord of synthesizers that pump ethereal harmonies whilst you make your way across the different realms. The various compositions you hear resemble a midway point between No Man’s Sky and Secret of Mana’s OSTs in terms of electronica complimenting the unknown zeal of your forthcoming adventure.
A decent assemblage of sound effects have been programmed for your tools and weapons. While I would’ve liked to have seen more collision noises for the sword swipes in relation to enemies and static items, there’s enough oomph to make the relentless action non-iterant (not to mention bosses are uniquely sonorous).
In the end, though, I personally cannot vouch for Hyper Light Drifter. It’s a gorgeous game full of fantastic moments, but those are sadly unable to counter the incessant gameplay loop that fails to diversify your playtime.
NOTES
-The Drifter looks cool in cinematics. However, in-game, I can’t be the only person who thinks his helmet looks like an owl?
Based on my experience, the unfortunate truth is not really, though it does have its pros, the first of those of course being the graphics. If there’s one word that perfectly describes the aesthetic drafted by developer Heart Machine, it would be calming. Take a gander at any screenshot or piece of footage from this game; let the soft hues envelope your ocular globes, the pixel-perfect geometry captivate your soul, the dark neons ease you into a slumber…
Jokes aside, this is a genuinely serene world. Every color under the rainbow has seemingly been incorporated into the environments about you, yet it all feels equilibrious, as though some god sculpted everything from the same slab of digital clay. That said, there’s no doubt HLD shines best when it embraces more aphotic overlays. These typically sprout whenever you’re underground (more on that later), and man are they a sight to behold: whether it’s decrepit tech or spunky rock formations, the red/blue/purple motif bathes it all with cool tranquility. If there was ever an argument against photorealism scapes in video games, HLD would be a pristine candidate: a promethean extravaganza of somber chroma. We’ve all played games that had one or two hubs decked in such placidity- HLD is the first time I can say 90% of its content could fall under the same label.
The biggest drawback in this category is the poor environmental storytelling. As you’ve no doubt heard, HLD doesn’t feature a narrative in the conventional sense- there are a few cutscenes you’re periodically hit with (more on that later), but it’s otherwise a tale you largely have to interpret based on the imagery around you, and the problem is HLD is all over the place in terms of its physical layout. You’ll find Metroid-esque labs, mountaintops adorned with tribal totems, crystalline forests ala Secret of Mana, etc…and it never once comes across as a cohesive package. In fact, I’d go so far as to say creator Alx Preston was more interested in paying homage to those aforementioned titles than conceiving a unique mythos for his baby, and while it may result in a bunch of visual treats, it does come at the cost of narratological cohesiveness. Each venture you take is less about learning about this society and more about finding a new 90s throwback to gaze over if that makes sense.
I also would’ve appreciated a lot more blood splatter effects given the sheer amount of slicing-and-dicing you’ll be doing, which brings me to the gameplay. Like I stated before, HLD is a slash ‘em up, meaning its mechanics are based entirely on skewering opposing forces via your laser sword. To prevent button-mashing monotony, an instantaneous dash feature and firearm have been incorporated, and, at its best, HLD truly feels like a gun kata film: bursting into close quarters, slivering some thug, and blasting his buddy at a distance before leaping back to safety in the span of 3 seconds is absolutely exhilarating, and you’ll have to master this technique should you want to proceed through the harder areas. But unfortunately, that initial excitement wears off fast the moment you realize you’re going to be doing the exact same action again and again and again. The core problem with HLD’s loop is its failure to spice it up -- enemies aren’t radically different to warrant new tactics, the grid doesn’t deviate from its standard size, nothing. It’s just nonstop action. A lot of comparisons have been made to A Link to the Past given the presence of Zelda-esque dungeons and the ability to tackle 3/4 of them at your own pace, but the difference is those dungeons provided puzzles to jumble up the constant action. In HLD, the best you’ll get are activating switches, which are either way hidden behind guys you’ll have to, yup that’s right, KILL. And contrary to what Wikipedia claims, this is not an action RPG- all that murdering doesn’t give you experience points, and customization/inventory is limited to a few basic outfits and guns. While the upgrades (more on that later) make fighting easier, they fall short of innovation, and as a result, HLD drags, feeling just as long as ALTTP despite being half its length.
Not helping either of these is the perpetual backtracking you’ll have to do. See, unlocking boss stages and upgrades requires you to harvest special collectibles strewn throughout the world, and minus two pointed out to you by a local ally, there are no pinpoints on the map, meaning you gotta explore to find them. This doesn’t seem bad on the surface, but where the issue arises is the lack of a completion mark indicating you’ve already acquired something (again, save the two aforementioned ones), meaning you’ll often find yourself revisiting the same tunnels and closed-off areas in the hopes of uncovering an additional secret. And should you leave and return to one of the main junctures, all those gremlins you slew are brought back to life.
The larger qualm with HLD’s exploration is that the developers just didn’t do a good job arranging the spaces with distinguishable strata. In most top-down video games, you can tell where a hidden ingress is located by way of how certain objects appear: there’s a strange break in the wall, the trees are organized like an arrow, why is an odd boulder in the middle of nowhere, etc…In HLD, you’ll see TONS of these in every square that don’t lead ANYWHERE. And yet, that very same tactic has been used to conceal the canisters you need, meaning you’re going to be wasting your time slamming every suspicious-looking nook and cranny until you happen upon the right one. It’s not a compliment when I have to recommend employing a walkthrough to avoid needless frustration.
It’s a shame because an easy fix would’ve been simply giving the map a normal interface alongside the ability to set waypoints, instead of this confusing excuse of a menu with multiple levels and colors that barely show anything and don’t correspond to your actual location (one section saw me enter/exit a cave, only for the map to depict me radically moving an entire yard….what?).
As you can guess, the minimalist plot doesn’t make these excursions worth the trouble. A handful of beautifully-rendered pictel cutscenes hint at an interesting backstory for the unnamed protagonist, but it’s deliberately left vague for players to input their own interpretations. If I was younger, I probably would’ve found such an ordeal enticing, but as an adult, I gotta be honest- I consider these approaches to be more lazy than anything else. The devs either couldn’t pay for writers or thought they could tell a better story with pictures over words, the result, regardless, being no fruit borne. It shouldn’t be my job as a consumer to fill in the gaps of the world’s and/or character’s backstory- even the most carte blanche RPG provides some concrete method of understanding what’s going on. Heck, even Limbo, which HLD no doubt took inspiration from, had the wherewithal to implement a clear premise- after 7 hours, I still don’t get why anything was happening or why I was doing the actions I was doing.
If I can end this review on a positive note, it’s that the soundscape is pretty dang good. While there is SFX (more on that momentarily), HLD takes the Gravity approach of boosting action beats with the score, a smorgasbord of synthesizers that pump ethereal harmonies whilst you make your way across the different realms. The various compositions you hear resemble a midway point between No Man’s Sky and Secret of Mana’s OSTs in terms of electronica complimenting the unknown zeal of your forthcoming adventure.
A decent assemblage of sound effects have been programmed for your tools and weapons. While I would’ve liked to have seen more collision noises for the sword swipes in relation to enemies and static items, there’s enough oomph to make the relentless action non-iterant (not to mention bosses are uniquely sonorous).
In the end, though, I personally cannot vouch for Hyper Light Drifter. It’s a gorgeous game full of fantastic moments, but those are sadly unable to counter the incessant gameplay loop that fails to diversify your playtime.
NOTES
-The Drifter looks cool in cinematics. However, in-game, I can’t be the only person who thinks his helmet looks like an owl?
4 Comments
@Detectivefail Thanks man. I've only played a little of ALTTP myself, but I feel the combat alone makes it a vastly different experience from that game, let alone the other facets like dungeons and narrative. That said, it'll definitely better inform your review and allow you to articulate more intricately to audiences who are also going into the game with that idea in mind.
agreed, its not that great
@NOWITSREYNTIME17 Thanks man, it had good aspects, but the overall package fell short
Detectivefail
11 months ago
Nice write-up!