Hyper Light Drifter was released in 2016 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but just recently was released for the Nintendo Switch this September. It is an homage to 8-bit and 16-bit games of the past. According to lead developer Alex Preston, it is a mixture between The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Diablo, which I am all for.
My experience with Hyper Light Drifter has been one game that is easily one of my favorites on the Nintendo Switch right now.
You control a Drifter who is battling cancer while traversing through the world and must find a cure. While all of this is happening, you have visions of an entity, called Judgement, who seeks to hurt you each time you are closer to accomplishing your goal, to fight off cancer.
The gameplay is you fighting enemies with a sword and your mix of guns, which range from a laser gun, a pistol, a shotgun, etc. Platforming is also slightly mixed in as well to traverse through the world.
You go through four separate areas in the game that are beautifully made so that each pixel serves a purpose. The areas are diverse enough to stand on their own which makes this game have a story told throughout the world and not by the storyline itself which makes this game all that more engaging. What happened to this area to make it like this?
And when you complete the minimum required of an area, there is still so much to explore in that same area after.
Some small pixels indicate something that may need exploring in an area. So this game encourages throughout all four areas to explore in order to unlock secrets that you might regret skipping over later, which adds replay value to the game once you finish it off. It also helps you prepare for a hard enemy challenge up ahead, which is all vital to your game experience.
Speaking of enemies, they are varied in the most challenging, but rewarding way possible. You might think you have an enemy type figured out. Then they will introduce you to a more advanced version of that same enemy, or an enemy even similar, with a slightly unforgiving tweak. The enemies are relentless and when you die, you have to think about what would be the best way to manage my health and strategy next time compared to the last, which is a lot more focused than in other games that I have played.
The bosses were probably my favorite part of the game itself. Each boss is unique to the world compared to others and makes the player think strategically in a more menacing manner than with small enemies. If you are not thinking all the way, you can get killed in one hit, so you have to be aware the whole time. One boss might come at you with his sword coming at you the entire fight, while another might sit back and change the surrounding room in his favor. The designs themselves are also carefully thought out and so well-designed to represent the entire world and the lore building within Hyper Light Drifter.
However, even with all of this, sometimes the game can be too challenging, or just plain buggy. A few times you can have frame rate issues, but also a few times maybe your button inputs won’t go through until a few seconds after, making you prone to dying.
These issues can be forgiven for the number of people who worked on this game, which is not that many. Bless those independent studios creating great games with so little people.
Overall, Hyper Light Drifter is a game that should be played if you own a console that can play it, which is most likely the case since it is on a lot of stuff. The game is beautiful, challenging, rewarding, and a great sense of where games are in this current generation.
SCORE! 9/10
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