It’s important to note that, while the game is vague and seemingly open-ended, it’s actually pretty difficult to get lost. There are often many suspended pits and platforms you need to navigate over, though the game is generous enough so that it’s hard to accidentally walk off the edge of a platform. Though the Drifter can’t jump, he can dash, which lets him zoom over the air. Additionally, there are several underground zones in each area, some short, others spanning multiple screens. Finally to the south is a desert, featuring a gigantic laboratory. To the east are a gigantic lake and the ruins that surround it. To the north lies a snow-covered mountain, ruled by a bird-like race (again, using Egyptian imagery). The only clues come in the form of an Egyptian-like dog, who will occasionally pop in to lead you in certain directions.
There are four directions you can walk in (though only three are unlocked), and you can conquer them in any order. Once you awaken after the intro, it’s a short walk to the local town, which acts as a hub, smack dab in the center of the world. There are a few other adventurers and people to talk to, but even their “speech” is displayed entirely through comic book-style illustration bubbles.Ĭonversely, this makes the game a little directionless in the beginning. Indeed, even after the introduction, it’s not entirely clear what’s going on, other than that there are doors to unlock, keys to find, and monsters to kill. There’s almost no text, either, other than the interface and a few necessary system messages. There’s no dialogue in Hyper Light Drifter. He awakens on top of a mountain, still coughing up blood but otherwise alive, before setting off on his adventure. The Drifter, himself suffering from a terrible sickness, puts up an admirable fight but seems to succumb to the attack. This sequence is deliberately enigmatic, but it shows the key elements of the land you’re about to explore – a dying world, with oceans of blood and littered with corpses, attacked by legions of giants straight out of the anime classic Nausicaä.
It also introduces the hero, technically nameless, but referred to as the “Drifter”. The story begins with an impressive animated sequence, drawn entirely with pixel artwork and showing the cataclysmic events that destroyed the world of the game.
Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Drifter recalls that latter type of game, though with a distinctly modern perspective combined with incredible visual panache. What’s curious is how few games took after the overhead action-RPG style game, popularized by the Zelda series. With the indie game renaissance, one of the favorite subgenres of developers has been the Metroidvania, otherwise known as a side-scrolling exploratory platformer.
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