Rating
A Highland Song
Enter the Highlands. Lose yourself. Find harmony. Reach the sea. A narrative adventure with rhythm and survival elements, from the creators of Heaven’s Vault and 80 Days.
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A Highland Song Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
A Highland Song is a beautiful adventure, platforming and rhythm game that perfectly captures the joy of exploration and the magic of a journey through the wild, untamed Scottish Highlands.
In the Highlands, every peak has a story to tell and every valley echoes with song. Giants sleep, ghosts sing, crows carry messages, and eagles lift the dead. But the Highlands' crags are unforgiving and its summits are cold—Moira’s trek will not be easy. Can you help her find a way across this winding wilderness in time? Switch version reviewed.
In our A Highland Song review, learn how this imperfect platformer from Inkle Studios nails the feeling of being on a dreamy adventure.
A Highland Song is a wonderful adventure through mountains that were old before people arrived and will be there long after their ruins have eroded away. Moira's journey is as much about the Scottish Highlands as it is about her life so far, with history and myth being equally important to both. It can sometimes take some thinking and experimentation to find the way through a new area, clambering back and forth over rocks and cliffs to find a clue that points to the path forward, but the information is there for an attentive explorer to uncover. It all comes together to make for an engaging, u...
While platforming, rhythm, and navigation mechanics might clash at times, turning the map upside down reveals a game that puts all in service of nature and experience.
Some games faithfully depict specific cultures. Venba successfully narrates a captivating story about Indian immigrants, while Horace is infused with British humor. A Highland Song aims to capture and honor a facet of Scotland by exploring its iconic region but will this homage to the Highlands deliver an engaging cultural narrative?
Exploring and finding the various ways forward constantly kept my interest, even through occasionally frustrating moments. The rhythm runs, while disappointingly uncommon, provided nice breaks from the core gameplay flow and some wonderful tunes to listen to alongside.
A Highland Song captures the scope of its towering setting in a small package, but sometimes gets lost in the foothills of its ideas
That experience effectively sums up my whole time with A Highland Song. Despite the often confusing world design and the anxiety-inducing timer, every other aspect of the game was strong enough that those complaints became mere blemishes on an otherwise fantastic experience. Elevated by tight controls, some excellent writing, and an art style that only becomes stronger the more you look at it, A Highland Song is such a unique and touching experience that I can’t help but recommend it. Get in, indeed.
To my knowledge, A Highland Song is likely unprecedented in its representation of Scottish culture in video games. Add in a nice balance of exploration with tough but considered platforming, that is balanced out by uplifting rhythm sections, and you have something special. This absolute reverence for this land and its culture makes A Highland Song the Scottish game.
A Highland Song is a beautiful snapshot of wild places and wild stories, but it stumbles a bit in the process of encouraging you to run into them.