Hyper Light Driftor – Game Review

There aren’t a lot of indie game reviews here, so I figured I should do one on a game I played a few months ago.

 

One of the first indie games I purchased was Hyper Light Drifter and it was on Steam for PC. It’s got good ratings but what enticed me to buy the game was it’s beautiful artwork. The game is a rogue-like RPG game that wanted to focus on its narrative with visuals only. So it basically doesn’t have any dialogue. And since it’s an RPG, you’d be hard pressed to finish the game in a reasonable amount of time. With no hint system available, you’re really on your own in the wild world that is Hyper Light Drifter.

 

Story

The game starts us off with a cut scene, again, with no dialogue or subtext. Just a slideshow of images of the character fighting against what seems like his foes. And towards the end, it shows a friend of what seems like the protagonist, in a hospital bed. And then the game transitions to gameplay. And it seems like you’re supposed to help this friend but it isn’t clear at this point. As you play the game and travel around, you come across an interact-able set of objects that are arranged in a star. And it seems like the game objective is to collect a special item to fill up these objects.

As the game goes on, you meet different NPCs and you can ‘converse’ with them, but instead of there being dialogue, the game shows a series of pictures for the player to interpret. I thought that was a cool idea. The game sort of throws the ball in the player’s court and lets the player decide what to make of the interactions with the different diegetic elements.

 

Gameplay/Mechanics

 

One of the more interesting aspect of the game was it’s unique gameplay mechanic. The character starts off with a sword with two basic move sets for heavy and light attacks. The character is also able to dash towards a direction, which can be used to leap small gaps, avoid projectiles and enemy attacks. Players are also able to upgrade characteristics of the player such as unlocking new combos for both light and heavy attacks. There’s also a gun that you can purchase where ammo is recharged by either killing enemies or breakin any objects within the game.

 

Enemies

 

The game doesn’t seem very intimidating in the start but quickly picks up the pace as you progress through the levels. The AI is very interesting considering it’s an indie game. The enemies actually try to avoid your attacks and make it harder for you to attack them. And the enemies do get progressively harder as you play the game. Some enemies evolve, intensifying their attacks as their health drops. And more often than not, you’ll be looking for medkits as you’ve just finished a level, barely alive by the skin of your teeth.

Hyper Light Driftor is definitely an interest game that definitely the money’s worth. Even though it’s a hefty $15 for a relatively short game, it boasts a great and unique gameplay style that challenges players and brings a new experience to the rogue-like genre.

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