
With each game that has a “Safe Zone”, comes with a variety of upgrades for your character and weapons that can make fights easier. The fighting in Hyper Light Drifter actually shows consequences for not strategizing, as I encountered bosses/ mini bosses, and without being prepared, I got my ass kicked a lot. With every fight, you must strategized how you will encounter each, and with each death that was made, you will show progress in battles and continue to move forward in the game. Combat in Hyper Light Drifter is fresh, in which you have a variety of moves that you can do to defeat enemies. This presents itself as a simple game, but as mentioned before this game does bring a challenge with its simplicity. The gameplay at first has a bit of a curve, you have a dash action, slash action, shooting, and throwing (grenades). But when encountering the evil entity you became ill and you are in search of him again to find a cure and to destroy him. The creation of this entity has left the world in an apocalyptic state and you are tasked by a Jackal or also known as Anubis (another godlike entity) to kill Judgment so it cannot resurrect the Titans from the old monolith race. The Drifter you play as, is a loner, and you are searching for the Immortal Cell to destroy it, and the entity within it is called Judgment, which has stolen the power of a godlike entity.

You are a Drifter, an occupational one at that, you travel the world to seek after new technology of forgotten civilizations. The story of Hyper Light Drifter is not an easy one to figure out at first glance, as you need to explore the world to understand why you are doing the things you are doing and what is the end goal for you as the player. All of this however are just pluses, if this isn’t your thing though, you may not like the game. What helps so much with this feeling is the artistic style that the game presents, it is a 16 bit stylized action game, with an 80’s-esque feel with its soundtrack. As this game brought back a lot of nostalgic feeling from when I played A Link to the Past and even the first Legend of Zelda, the experience felt new.

Hyper Light Drifter brings a cultivating amounts of different gameplay aspects from other beloved games such as The Legend of Zelda, Dark Souls, and even Metroid, and at first I was a bit skeptical about the game’s difficulty as it was being compared to Dark Souls and that itself is a big feat to live up to, but is it a 2D Dark Souls? No, not at all, but it does bring a challenge.ĭeveloper and Self-Published Heart Machine created this gorgeous world within Hyper Light Drifter and it is definitely an experience that people should try. I had a friend recommend me the game and although I didn’t buy it right away, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to play it. Hyper Light Drifter is one of those games you either heard of while it was in development or had a friend recommended it to you. Available on all current gaming platforms (excluding 3DS)
