I was watching a bunch of game trailers and came across the release trailer for Hyper Light Drifter and was immediately drawn in by the mysterious visuals and the deliberate, foreboding synth ambience. The atmosphere in this game is so cool. There is no dialogue, so any lore to be unearthed is delivered in either slideshows or a cryptic alphabet that I didn't even know could be translated until I watched a YouTube video about it.
The map was confusing, the upgrade system didn't click until I started collecting the little upgrade chips and made the connection, and the purpose of the game wasn't clear until I activated the first obelisk. At first, I was a bit put off by it. I'm no stranger to vague lore and mechanics, hell, Dark Souls is one of my favorite series, but even that had dialogue and item descriptions you could go off of. However, Hyper Light Drifter is a game in which you could wander off in any direction and end up making progress, so in the end, I didn't mind the vagueness. I just started exploring and fighting things, and before long, I knew what I had to do, I understood how to upgrade things, and I even figured out how the map worked.
The gameplay is pretty simple. You have a sword, and you have a gun. Hit things to recharge your gun. Pick up life packs and use them when you need a heal. Simple, but it feels good. Combining sword combos with gun attacks feels great, and taking on a horde of enemies and seeing the drifter victoriously stab his sword into the ground is super satisfying. Boss fights are pretty fun. In terms of difficulty, it can be a bit challenging at times, but nothing super crazy. Dying is either a non-punishment, or it resets you to a pretty far back checkpoint. Just depends on the level.
Overall though, I had no idea what was happening story-wise, but I loved how it looked, sounded, and felt, so I ended up really enjoying it! I wanted more once I got to the end.
Definitely will recommend this one, especially since it's decently short. Apparently you can do co-op but I haven't tried it yet.
The map was confusing, the upgrade system didn't click until I started collecting the little upgrade chips and made the connection, and the purpose of the game wasn't clear until I activated the first obelisk. At first, I was a bit put off by it. I'm no stranger to vague lore and mechanics, hell, Dark Souls is one of my favorite series, but even that had dialogue and item descriptions you could go off of. However, Hyper Light Drifter is a game in which you could wander off in any direction and end up making progress, so in the end, I didn't mind the vagueness. I just started exploring and fighting things, and before long, I knew what I had to do, I understood how to upgrade things, and I even figured out how the map worked.
The gameplay is pretty simple. You have a sword, and you have a gun. Hit things to recharge your gun. Pick up life packs and use them when you need a heal. Simple, but it feels good. Combining sword combos with gun attacks feels great, and taking on a horde of enemies and seeing the drifter victoriously stab his sword into the ground is super satisfying. Boss fights are pretty fun. In terms of difficulty, it can be a bit challenging at times, but nothing super crazy. Dying is either a non-punishment, or it resets you to a pretty far back checkpoint. Just depends on the level.
Overall though, I had no idea what was happening story-wise, but I loved how it looked, sounded, and felt, so I ended up really enjoying it! I wanted more once I got to the end.
Definitely will recommend this one, especially since it's decently short. Apparently you can do co-op but I haven't tried it yet.