Hyper Light Drifter is definitely the type of game that retro enthusiasts look for when they seek modern reinterpretations of the classics – Heart Machine is adept at taking inspiration from the classics without blatant imitation, creating a game with its own unique identity that manages to still extract a comfortable familiarity in the hands of a veteran player. I’m going to try and not make this review a comparison study between Hyper Light Drifter and A Link to the Past, but there will be times where making these parallels really highlight the strengths of Hyper Light Drifter in an easily quantifiable way. Hyper Light Drifter is a semi-open world top down action game reminiscent of the SNES era. With a tight game engine, challenging difficulty, voluminous game world and a compelling yet esoteric story, Hyper Light Drifter stands as one of the best indie action games available on PS4. Where Zelda wowed audiences with world size and graphical fidelity at the time, Hyper Light Drifter rides on an effervescent sense of style both mechanically and graphically that sets it apart from other games of its kind.
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This is a top down action RPG which values skill and exploration, managing to evoke the same sense of wonder and heroic duty that the Zelda series has been so instrumental in pioneering.
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There is also a great upgrade system at play here that you can get deep into or you can just try and beat the game with your basic moves! I liked the one that let me deflect enemy shots with my sword as well as the ability to dash infinitely as long as I timed it just right.It’s no faint praise for a game to be compared to the early Legend of Zelda titles, but there is no easier way to express the feel and mechanics of Heart Machine’s indie masterpiece Hyper Light Drifter. You can dash, melee, and shoot in the game, but it is the mixing of the three together that feels so rewarding. You are looking at around eight hours max to beat it and I played through it in just a few sittings, that was how much fun I was having. This is just such a fun, fun game to play and it is very easy to get addicted to. It may have been the visuals that drew me to Hyper Light Drifter, but it was the gameplay that made me stay. The soundtrack here is pretty solid too and fits in with the bright and neon-style pixel art that makes up this very interesting world. The way the game tells its story via these comic book-style scenes is really cool, I just wish there was some text or dialogue explaining what the hell was going on. It is the kind of game that at first glance may not look like much, but the more you stare at it, the little details you will notice. There is this big frog-looking thing that has all this moss on him.
The various enemies in the game all have a lot of style to them and the larger bosses are really well done. It is done all with pixel art and it looks fantastic. The presentation of Hyper Light Drifter is what initially drew me towards the game. I get that sometimes leaving a story up to someone’s imagination can be cool, but it never really worked here and just left me wanting more. There is more story here, but it is hidden away in monoliths that are hidden in the game and these are not easy to find. The premise is great, but it has no actual text! As you play the story is told via these storyboards. We play as a character that has an illness and he is desperately searching for a cure. It is set clearly in the future in a world that has seen its fair share of hardships as there are destroyed “technologies” all around. The storytelling in Hyper Light Drifter is kept to a minimum and that is probably the most frustrating thing about the game. It is the kind of game that when you see a video of it, you think is very simple and easy to play, but there is some real depth here! Hunting For Story This has a very old-school kind of vibe to it all and it features some fantastic pixel art that made me get invested in the game even more. I was not sure what I was getting into with Hyper Light Drifter, but it ended up being a game that I enjoyed and ultimately a game that left me wanting more.