Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition
Developer: Heart Machine
Publisher: Abylight
Genre: RPG, Action, Adventure, Hack n’ Slash
Number of Players: up to 2 players
Release Date: 06 Sept 2018
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Price: $19.99
Hyper Light Drifter, one of the best indie games to be released in recent years, has found a new home on the Nintendo Switch. Now dubbed as the Special Edition, with some new weapons and areas to explore added to an already masterfully made game.
In the game, you play as the Drifter, a lone swordsman who has to traverse a dystopian world full of decrepit visages, scattered bones, dilapidate buildings, and fearsome monsters, all draped in neon-pastel colors and accompanied by an excellent musical score. The Drifter doesn’t say a single line of dialogue, nor the other NPCs that he encounters along the way. Each one of them would talk in semi-ambiguous pictures and symbols that somehow tell about stories from long ago about the world. Due to the lack of text in the game (other than some in-game instructions), these exchanges are very hard to decipher. I personally don’t really know much about how and why this world turned to ruins, but I don’t really mind because the story is somehow just a fleeting afterthought that ties the whole game together, but not really. Gameplay takes the most of what the game truly is, and it’s up to you to reach the end with the skills that you acquire along the way.
The gameplay is pretty much similar to the Zelda games, though a bit more violent, involving lots of chaotic melee fights and well-aimed long-range attacks against an onslaught of enemies from different directions. You can dash to quickly dodge enemy attacks and then slash or shoot them when the opportunity comes. You may die a lot in the game, but each time you do, you learn enemy attack patterns and thus enhancing your fighting skills by knowing when and where to strike. There may also be some instances of you not having to fight at all, especially if you are revisiting an area (you can unlock warp grounds as you progress, making backtracking not too painful). Fighting enemies don’t gain you XP, so fight when you only have to.
Skills and weapons can be acquired and upgraded by exchanging gold-colored modules, which are scattered across the world (most of them hidden from plain sight), from storekeepers located in the central hub town of the world. These acquisitions and upgrades will surely help you in battle, so make sure to get them once you have enough these modules.
Speaking of these gold-colored modules, one big one can be formed from smaller ones, kind of how 4 bits form a byte. These small ones are those that can be found scattered around. There are also the green-colored ones, which can be consumed to fully replenish your health bar. Due to the level of difficulty in this game, upgrading your green module slots is a must, otherwise, enjoy dying over and over again, especially during intense boss fights.
These bosses are found at the end of each area. From the central hub town, you can go to four different directions (well, actually three, because the southern area requires that you beat the other three in order for you to fully enter it). These areas are expansive, with lots of interconnected underground sub-areas and even well-hidden ones that will keep you on your toes as a barrage of enemies try to kill you. In each area, your main goal is to reach where the boss is, but reaching that goal is not easy.
In order for you to progress in these areas, you have defeat enemies in order for you to unlock the entrance to where you have to go next. And if you are observant enough, you may also stumble upon hidden areas where you can encounter more enemies and get rewarded by modules, keys, or rare items. Most of these hidden areas have a small symbol on the ground at its entrance, which you may be able to readily see if you are playing the game on a large-screen TV but can be easily missed if you are playing handheld. Either way, it’s a good idea to keep your eyes peeled and leave no stones unturned and no enemies unfought.
Once you successfully defeat the area boss, you are oftentimes rewarded with a new gun that you can further upgrade. You also unlock a big pillar, and four pillars unlock the last area found in the center of the hub town, where you battle the final boss. Or is it indeed the final boss?
I may not be describing what I have seen the games accurately or similar to how other players have seen them due to the lack of voice acting and text information in the game, but all I can say is you have to play it to see these things for yourself. They are open to interpretation, so you will have to make your own when it’s your turn to experience them. Despite this apparent ambiguity, the game is truly a masterpiece. It is filled to the brim with content, a good portion of which are hidden away until you discover them either by accident or by following clues and patterns. And even if you don’t really want to find everything, you will be awestruck with its stunningly gorgeous visuals and hypnotic music. Add to that the tight gameplay and hard yet fair difficulty and you have at your grasp one of the best games on the Switch thus far. I loved playing every minute of the game, and you surely will, too. Be ready for a grand adventure in a dystopian world aching with destruction. Bring light to it, and experience the game’s grandness.
REPLAY VALUE: Very High
PROS
- Awesome retro-inspired visuals enveloped in neon colors
- Excellent music
- Top-notch level design
- Tight gameplay similar to Zelda games, but a lot more brutal
- Wide variety and enemies
- Hard yet fair difficulty
- Boss battles are intense and their attack patterns and styles differ from one another
- You can play the first three areas (north, east, and west) in any order, with none of them being more difficult that the others
- New weapons, areas, and game modes exclusive to the Nintendo Switch
- The upgrade system encourages you to explore every nook and cranny of the vast dystopian world
CONS
- Lack of text and voice acting in dialogues and places of interest can make you easily get lost in the game, especially in the beginning
RATING: 5/5 neon lights and drifters
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