Hyper Light Drifter

From its opening cutscene, Hyper Light Drifter created a world I immediately wanted to know more about. Bodies litter the ground, perhaps the result of a gigantic explosion you somehow survived. Titans walk along the landscape, but immediately turn into dilapidated robots before your eyes. Time seems to be passing, and the drifter clutches his chest as a violent cough causes him to buckle over. The montage and its soundtrack from composer Disasterpeace sent chills down my spine and caused me to involuntarily lean into my computer monitor – and that was only the first three minutes.

Drift your way into my heart

Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition finally puts Heart Machine’s obtuse yet engaging throwback where it belongs - in portable Nintendo form - and it makes for the definitive version. With a handful of exclusive features, a two-year-old game suddenly feels new and fresh - and with a silky smooth frame rate and every boss, secret and upgrade from the original here for you to experience, the Nintendo Switch’s indie library just got even better.

But that’s not me. Mood and atmosphere can carry me a long way, and I adored every second I spent in Hyper Light Drifter‘s world. The combat and movement often left me slack-jawed and giddy, a perfect homage to the ’90s RPGs that obviously inspired Heart Machine, while still feeling completely fresh and constantly surprising.

Follow me into the light

Though I admit the upgrade system had me baffled at first. Then again, nothing you do in Hyper Light Drifter is blatantly explained to you. Each new trinket you collect appears, nondescript, in your inventory just waiting for you to figure out its purpose. I like it in theory as the gears and tidbits we’re digging up from a long gone civilisation would be a mystery. It’s fairly clean and intuitive once it all clicks into place, though.

A mysterious obtuse premise and frustrating-at-times combat both hinder and bolster the appeal of Hyper Light Drifter. It's not the successor of Zelda but it's still an incredibly well-designed, beautiful action adventure title.

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Hyper Light Drifter is a gorgeous, trendy hunk of stylish old-school sensibilities mated with the iconic hues of pixelated indie charm. It’s a return to simpler control schemes, building on sound mechanical fundamentals rather than trying to wow with new ways of interaction within each and every checkpoint. Though its wordless storytelling took some of the thrill out of completing the campaign, Hyper Light Drifter is a joy to play, (and replay in the new game plus mode) its mechanical excellence and stylish veneer.

To sum things up then, it’s obvious that there’s a gem of a game hidden under Hyper Light Drifter’s harsh exterior that no doubt some players will cherish, but for most it’ll just be a soul-crushing experience that will suck them in before chewing them up and spitting them out, repeatedly. That said, issues with the game’s ambiguity and unforgiving combat will likely be easily (though probably not deservedly) forgiven by those who have lapped up FromSoftware’s various Souls games and seek perhaps an even greater challenge, but everyone else is probably better off thinking twice before stepping...