Hyper Light Drifter Reviews
While the story and graphics didn't strike me in the right way, the gameplay and challenge were fantastic. It's hard to make a comparison with this game, but that is due to its uniqueness and style.
[Hyper Light Drifter] imaginatively exudes...personal ruminations on loneliness, pain, and temporality across its story, visuals, and audio. However, silver linings of beauty and perseverance can be found between the dark lines of its thematic consistency. Further substance comes from its full world that will quicken your heart rate with its hyper combat or lower it with calming treks and views that captivate. This is an adventure that may feel too safe and even aimless for differing reasons, but you'll never want to lose sight of the light on the horizon that compels you to keep wandering…drifting onward.
Hyper Light Drifter's a tough game and for that, it won't be for everyone. But if it already has your interest, your admiration, or your love, then it has – all hyperbole aside – found a perfect home on the Nintendo Switch.
Stylish, beautiful, and uncompromising, Hyper Light Drifter is as rewarding as it is frustrating.
Hyper Light Drifter is a fantastic and unique experience that deserves to stand on its own merits, outside of Zelda's shadow.
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.
Hyper Light Drifter undoubtedly stands tall amongst its competition, as not only one of the best retro-inspired indie games to date, but simply one of the better overall indie games I've had the pleasure of playing.
Hyper Light Drifter shows a lot of potential thanks to its great combat and solid world building. Where it falls flat is its miserable starting area, boring exploration and inconsequential plot.
Gorgeous, but more frustrating than fun
The trouble with Hyper Light Drifter is that it's frequently just too obscure and too difficult to truly enjoy
There's some strong core gameplay to Hyper Light Drifter, but not much else. Unfortunately, no amount of nostalgia is going to make up for that.
I can see why some people like 'Hyper Light Drifter'. Its combination of nostalgia, pretty pixels, and cruel gameplay are an intoxicating drug to some. I'm not one of those people, unfortunately. As I played I felt like the annoying moviegoing companion, always asking for an explanation of events onscreen from fellow viewers also watching for the first time, equally mystified.
Even when I felt like giving up, I knew I was enjoying my time with Hyper Light Drifter.
Heart Machine's slash-'em-up is punishing and precise - and incredibly beautiful.
Hyper Light Drifter is very much worth the time, effort, and aggravation it costs you (and inflicts upon you). Its blistering speed takes some getting used to if your experience with action RPGs leans towards the likes of Zelda and Secret of Mana, but once you warm up to the icy slickness of Hyper Light Drifter, it quickly commits itself to your muscle memory.
[T]here goes my time with Hyper Light Drifter, a completely gorgeous game I was utterly loving. It apparently doesn't want me to play it any more.
The majesty of Hyper Light Drifter's lonely pilgrimage is worth fighting for
Its brilliance goes well beyond its brazen art style and extends to a challenging but highly rewarding combat system.
It was difficult to play Hyper Light Drifter and not feel a deep empathy for the drifter, also alone, also dying from an invisible disease. It’s an easy connection, but when the world is on fire all you can see are embers. Hyper Light Drifter doesn’t prescribe specifics so it’s easy to imprint meaning onto it. But it also resists glorifying those readings.