One Hour in Hyper Light Drifter
Journey through a neon pixel fever dream
Iwas introduced to the world of Hyper Light Drifter through a series of visions — titans ravage a broken city, a shallow sea is stained red by floating corpses, a skinny dog leads me into the yawning abyss of a pillar in the center of the sea, and black sludge subdues my limbs and creeps into my eyes.
I push myself into a sitting position and look around. I appear to be on a sea-side cliff, with the world beyond consisting of a green ocean and sharp, jagged formations of rock and metal. Looming overhead is a statue of a creature I don’t recognize, but it provides enough shelter to keep the pouring rain from putting out my small campfire.
I stand and explore the area, being closely followed by my floating green-and-pink companion. He utters a mechanical chirp whenever he sees something I might be interested in — which in this case is an obscure path leading away from my camp.
Ruined machines lie motionless against the cliff-face, corroded by the salty air and reclaimed by moss. They pose no threat to me — whatever caused their demise happened long before I stomped past them.
Midway along the path I double over and cough up blood. I recover quickly, but my concern lingers — I experienced something similar to this in my visions, except then, my blood became the body of a hulking behemoth that threatened to strike me down. Uneasy, I straighten up and continue on.
The quiet chirp of my companion draws my attention toward a square stone inlaid with runic symbols. I give him the go-ahead, and once I’m standing atop the stone, he interacts with it. Moments later we’re moving slowly down a tunnel illuminated with small green lights.
We emerge into an underground facility, but its immediate purpose is hard to discern. I observe broken machines and weathered structures as I work my way through the facility, all the while learning how to wield my sword and dash over large gaps in the floor.
My adventure comes to an abrupt pause when my companion chirps and guides me toward the skeleton of a man. He lies against a mossy boulder in a pool of his own blood. I mutter my respects while I pry a futuristic handgun from his bony fingers.
Something shuffles deeper within the facility. With my finger on the trigger, I straighten up and aim my gun at the sound — and come face to face with a squat, armored creature holding a gun. I dodge his shots and land two bullets in his chest; it’s enough to bring him down. I move forward cautiously, and two of his friends aim their muzzles at me. Four shots from my gun end the assault.
I step over their fallen bodies and onto another elevator. It rises through a tunnel similar to the one that took me down, and I step into a lush green landscape occupied by yellow birds pecking away at blue flowers — it’s a far cry from my rainy, sea-side cliff.
Remnants of whatever calamity befell humanity are sprinkled throughout the environment: a rugged stone path is lined with chipped marble pillars, war machines lie rusted and covered in moss, and corpses of the misfortunate sit obscured in the treeline like a child’s forgotten playthings.
The trees open up and I catch a glimpse of a distant city. I feel conflicted — on one hand, it’s a sign of thriving life; people managed to survive and rebuild, but on the other hand, this is the same city I saw in my visions, the one destroyed and ravaged by titans. Something doesn’t sit right in my chest.
I shake the feeling away and continue on, but quickly take shelter beneath an ancient tree — the forested path beyond is marked by black pools that form in the dirt and then shoot into the sky, like rain falling in reverse.
I carefully creep forward, but the moment the black rain touches my skin, my vision is blurry and violent tremors shake my body. Pink blood erupts from my mouth and rises up in the form of a towering horned behemoth. It takes a thundering step forward, threatening to strike me down, but I fall unconscious before it can do so.
I stir sometime later and find myself lying beside a small campfire with my companion next to me. Pink trees provide us shelter, and across the flame, I make out a burly figure dressed in pink and teal. He munches nonchalantly on something he cooked and flips a morsel toward his floating companion. I try to sit up, but unconsciousness claims me once again.
When I next reawaken, I find myself in a warm bed beneath a solid roof. I’m in a house — presumably one belonging to my savior. I get out of bed and search for him, but he’s gone. I don’t hesitate to rummage through the house in search of boxes to break or secrets to discover. My companion chirps, interrupting my exploits, and guides me toward a table in the center of the room.
I’m unsure of what exactly my objective is, but I suppose the easiest way to find out is to enter the world and see what it has to offer.
I step out into a pleasant city with trimmed grass and ruined buildings made livable and cozy. Birds chip and distant residents chatter among themselves as I make my way to the center of town.
No one seems to pay any mind to the ominous blue diamond buried in the center of town, except for the small purple dog that sniffs around the northern corner. It cocks its head when I approach and quickly flees to the east. Being the animal lover that I am, I follow.
It disappears through the eastern gate, leaving me and a guard to watch it go. The guard shrugs — he won’t stop me if I choose to pursue the dog. After briefly looking around the settlement, I give chase.
The world beyond the city walls shows a darker reality — here, the buildings are abandoned and broken by massive trees protruding through their windows. The path forward is disjointed, and sometimes treacherous, but eventually, the landscape changes.
The water is blue and beautiful here, and the statues lining my path hint at a neighboring civilization unlike the one I came from.
I approach the figure on the other side of the hut and breathe a sigh of relief when it offers a friendly nod. After a brief conversation, it takes my map and marks a distant temple with a red skull — the boss of this area.
I thank the creature and take my leave, but in a matter of a few steps, I’m stopped by a gruesome sight:
The frog hisses when it sees me, then hurls a shuriken in my direction. Alerted by the commotion, two of his friends join him. I’m quick to dance around the area lobbing bullets and swinging my sword, but even so, I barely escape with my life. Upon silencing the last enemy, its shuriken finds its mark. I collapse in my own blood, experiencing my first death.
I awake at the hut, near the friendly creature. I get to my feet and shake the death from my limbs, then return to the arena — and sadly the fight must be repeated.
On my second try, I manage to defeat all three frogs with some life to spare. Heaving from the battle, I slowly climb the stairs and enter the next area, but hit what seems like a dead end.
I search for a way forward but find none. I try jumping onto the robot arm, but instead, crash to the ground and reawaken on the stone ledge — except this time I only have one point of health. Pink blood stains the stone as I backtrack toward town, and death finds me twice more before I’m able to heal in the town square.
Upon my return to the city, I notice there seem to be more inhabitants strolling down the quaint streets. I explore the shops before heading off to the next area — the West.
The grass changes from green to purple, and the fissures in the earth take on a redish hue, signaling the arrival of a new biome. I proceed cautiously between two reptilian statues and across a white stone bridge, wary of the foes this civilization will present.
The land here is blue, and the trees pink — was this the area my savior camped in? As I ponder the question, a rune on the ground leads me through a copse of trees and to an elevator. Upon my companion activating it, we travel down and proceed into a small room. The diamond at the end captures my attention.
I exit the room and continue on. This area is unlike the other — it is wild, with thick trees framing the way forward with numerous branching paths. I come to a stop as a friendly face waves me down eagerly. He takes my map and marks the location of the boss with a red skull, just as the creature in the East had done.
I nod my head in thanks and continue through the thick trees, being set upon by armored green goblins and crystal wolves. Death finds me for the fifth time before I reach what resembles a town square. My companion chirps and pulls up my map — I’ve unlocked a warp point.
From here I can choose four directions: I decide to try my luck up north. An elevator descends into a dungeon that I promptly decide is not the place for me.
I return to the surface shaking my head and take the warp point back to the city. The happy music and calm residents soothe my anxiety. Now armed with more knowledge of how this world works, I decide to journey to the northern gate and see which civilization lies up there.
Two ancient bird-like statues corral me toward the entrance of a canyon, hinting at which foes reside here. On the other side of the canyon are rugged, white stone steps that lead upward. After checking the area for secrets, I begin my ascent.
I meet another traveler who marks a boss on my map, but when I leave this time I don’t bother thanking him — it is very unlikely I’ll come across the boss before my hour is up, but I can’t say I’m disappointed.
My confidence is swiftly punished — violent coughs cause me to stoop and blood to cover the ground in front of me. I recover as usual, but the experience still leaves me unnerved. Whatever mystery illness is affecting me, I still have it.
At the top of another set of stairs is an abandoned town. Vultures with skinny legs and large wings begin their assault, presenting an interesting challenge — my sword can only reach them when they charge at me.
They prove to be an easy battle. Tucking my sword back into its sheathe, I follow the path out of town. The view is haunting.
In the distance is a snowy temple; a monastery, perhaps. Flapping vulture wings and howling crystal wolves pepper my journey until I reach the base of the stairs leading up to the temple. The black dog from my visions is waiting for me on the path. He looks me over and then continues in the direction I was going. Perplexed, I follow him.
The man at the top of the stairs is my savior. Our conversation doesn’t last long — he is content to tell me the approximate location of each diamond shard in the area, then bids me farewell.
Continuing through damp caves and along windy cliff-side paths, I mistakenly stumble into a mini-boss battle. A fat vulture dressed in lavender robes raises his staff at me. It glows, then purple squares light up beneath my feet and cause the earth to erupt in violent explosions.
He is joined by skinny vultures, crystal wolves, and even another of his kind once he is struck down. When the last body collapses on the ground, I walk away having experienced my thirteenth death. I stumble forward and find a quiet place to sit. I come to rest on the edge of a snowy cliff, and let my hour come to a close.
About Hyper Light Drifter
Hyper Light Drifter was developed by Heart Machine and was initially released in March 2016. It is described as a 2D action RPG that pays homage to 8-bit and 16-bit games. It is available on PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, Playstation Vita, PC, Mac, and Linux.
I first heard about Hyper Light Drifter in Game Informer’s March 2016 issue, but at the time it slipped from my mind and I never got around to playing it — until I saw it featured on the Epic Store’s Free Games list. I quickly snatched it up and thought I would give it a try.
Would I recommend Hyper Light Drifter?
TL;DR: If you enjoy a challenge, absolutely! If you get frustrated easily, maybe skip this one.
Cons
The controls can be a bit clunky. I always have my PS4 controller handy, so when the game recommended the use of a controller over mouse and keyboard, I was eager to try it. Half of my hour in-game was spent using the controller, and it was only when I managed to drag my half-alive body back to Town that I decided to switch to mouse and keyboard. My life was instantly made easier. Using a controller makes shooting a gun feel like it needs divine intervention to land a shot, and the Drifter seems less responsive than when using arrow keys.
While a beautiful game, the level design takes some adjusting to. Upon watching my playthrough back so I could do the write-up, I noticed there were some paths I didn’t see (e.g. the dead-end at the robot arm in the East), but as a new player, I wasn’t aware. It took a long time for me to realize what was a playable area, and what was environmental art.
The map system. After finishing my one hour in-game, I came back a few days later and kept playing. At the moment I have eleven hours in Hyper Light Drifter, and I’ve yet to fully understand the map; I more or less use it as a reference to where I am.
Pros
The soundtrack is beautiful. American composer and musician Disasterpeace created twenty-nine unique tracks for the game, all in the style of chiptune/electronic. At times it was vaguely reminiscent of Death Stranding’s soundtrack (which is phenomenal in its own right), and adds a level of authenticity to the world of Hyper Light Drifter.
It’s easy to get lost in the environment. While the map might let you get literally lost, the environment is so gorgeous that you might not mind the extra wandering at all. Subtly tucked into the environmental art are small runes in the ground, pointing toward the possible presence of hidden pathways or invisible platforms. Even after clearing an area, it provides enough motivation to come back and traverse different paths in search of secrets.
The entire story is told without words. The only bits of text you receive are during the tutorial. The rest of the game’s story is told through pictures presented during dialogue and short cutscenes that outline the general idea of where the story is heading. While at first it was a bit confusing, after learning the rules of the world I came to appreciate how efficiently Hyper Light Drifter’s creator, Heart Machine, was able to convey the story through environmental clues and wordless dialogue.
Hyper Light Drifter is a game I admittedly wasn’t too fond of during my one hour in-game, but upon returning, I tried to figure out what it was that rubbed me the wrong way.
Hyper Light Drifter is a Souls-type game, and by that I mean it will frustrate the hell out of you. But that’s a good thing — it presents a challenge. Everything is completely doable, but you’re expected to have a certain skill level and the tenacity to do it. The satisfaction that comes with defeating a boss on your twelfth time (the Western Boss…get ready to dodge. A lot.) wouldn’t taste as sweet if you defeated him on your second try.
The link to Hyper Light on Heart Machine’s website can be found here.
Its Steam page can be found here.
