Hyper Light Drifter feels like visiting a foreign country, where nothing makes sense, and you feel anxious exploring a place that is entirely alien to you. But after the first half hour, you realize that this foreign land isn’t exotic at all; there are grocery stores, restaurants, and parks, just like you’ve seen a thousand times before in your life. Everything is aesthetically unique and interesting, but the mystique disappears when you realize that women’s draped garb is just a dress, and not something entirely new to your vocabulary. The game is the equivalent of Dorothy saying “I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. Oh wait a minute, the tornado only flew me to Oklahoma.”
And in Hyper Light Drifter, I wanted to feel like Dorothy discovering the rules of this foreign world, but I only discovered that the gameplay feels entirely familiar. In the first 30 minutes, Hyper Light Drifter presents you with new mechanics, that are only intriguing because of the game doesn’t tell you what it is. The game succeeds at teaching it’s game mechanics without the use of language (except some sparse tool tips), but it doesn’t have much to teach you. You are familiar with shooting, slashing, dodging, upgrading, and fast travelling from other games, and once you quickly figure out those mechanics in this game, there isn’t anything more to discover. In The Witness the player is taught new puzzle mechanics constantly without the use of language and that process is rewarding, because of it’s depth. But there isn’t much to learn in Hyper Light Drifter, just recognizing that the seemingly exotic game structure is exactly what you’d expect from another isometric indie RPG.
Hyper Light Drifter becomes repetitious. Each of the four areas present new environments and enemies, but they are all structured the exact same way. The first part of each area is a primer for the visual themes and biome without any enemies. After encountering a few of the levels staple cannon-fodder type enemies, you are presented with an NPC, who after killing a few of those enemies themselves, highlights the boss and the keys to that boss on your map. Then you wander in the direction those keys until you find an elevator to a dungeon entrance, at the end of that dungeon you are rewarded with the key. After a certain amount of keys the door to the boss is unlocked. You beat the boss you get a bigger key to the final boss.
The presentation of the game significantly takes up the slack and carries the rest of the game on it’s shoulders. Disasterpeace’s synthetic bass-heavy ambient soundtrack supplements the intrigue and mystery of Drifter’s neon colored gorgeous pixel art environments.
The game is flashy, but the design is a flash in the pan. The combat and exploration are technically proficient, and I wouldn’t complain about them as much in another game, but Hyper Light Drifter tries so hard to be oblique in every way that the combat’s familiarity stands out as a significant shortcoming. This whole review is most likely just a lesson in expectations, because I started the game wanting to be surprised, but I was only surprised by my own disappointment. If you are looking for a challenging top-down RPG with style out the ass, this is the game for you. But I wanted discovery and I discovered everything mechanically within the first 30 minutes.
Article By Taylor Kalsey
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