With a sword, various firearms, and a bomb at your disposal, combat requires spatial awareness at all times, especially once ranged enemies are introduced and the screen is filled with deadly projectiles. As your life bar is short (even after upgrades), health packs scarce, and your attacks do not disrupt enemies, mobility is key to survival. With the right upgrades, and skilful timing, you can dash almost indefinitely vital for navigating tough platforming sections or avoiding a flurry of blows from a boss opponent.
In a perfect run, you’ll stealthily toss a bomb into a cluster of enemies, unload your firearm at priority targets, and then dash in close to cut down the survivors with your sword.įrom the get-go, your character can dash in any direction to leap across chasms or avoid attacks. Naturally, each region is also home to distinct enemy types with unique attack patterns, forcing you to adapt your combat strategies as you progress.
DASH CHALLENGE HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER UPGRADE
Every zone is littered with hidden areas that house the aforementioned modules or “gear bits”, a resource used to upgrade your skills and equipment. It sounds simple enough, but the world is labyrinthine convoluted surface paths interconnected by branching underground tunnels. Your task is to explore these zones, collect a minimum of four “modules” from each (out of a total eight), defeat the boss, and activate an ancient obelisk that opens a path to the final encounter. The game-world is divided up into a central safe zone, with shops and mini-games, and four surrounding zones that can be tackled in almost any order. Presentation aside, the real draw of Hyper Light Drifter is the intuitive and responsive controls that make exploring the game-world and combat a joy. I’m still unsure of the exact role these titans played in the game’s lore thankfully this one is already dead. Almost every location has a great backing track that slowly escalates in intensity as you approach the boss encounter in each region. There are a few simple weather and lighting effects, but it is the synth-heavy soundtrack that turns beautiful backdrops into atmospheric locations. While the geometry may look simple, and include some authentic-looking perspective issues on diagonal features, the use of vivid and contrasting colours ensures every scene catches the eye. If you’re observant, you’ll also spot the telltale markers indicating the many secret areas. The pixel art is clearly inspired by the 16-bit era and while it may look incredibly detailed, enemies, deadly projectiles, and other hazards stand out. Thankfully, for a game so dependent on visual cues, the presentation is fantastic and intelligently designed.
You’ll never encounter any more than basic symbols to direct you through the world, identify upgrade shops, or hint at secret areas.
Confusing cutscenes, static images and environment details all hint at what has happened. Many aspects of the story, and indeed some game mechanics, remain cryptic from beginning to end. Waking from a fever-dream, and clearly infected with whatever corruption is affecting the world, you stumble off into the unknown, following a spectral canine that would not look out of place in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The visuals, music, and atmosphere impress from the opening moments and they only get better.Īfter a spectacular, yet disjointed opening cutscene, you take control of the titular Drifter. I missed it when it launched on console, but finally picked it up in the recent sales and it could be my favourite “indie” title of the year so far. Best described as a hack-and-slash platformer with RPG-ish elements, responsive controls coupled with precision platforming and tough combat are the order of the day in Hyper Light Drifter, backed up by fantastic retro presentation. Sadly, the Wii U and Vita ports have since been cancelled, which is a shame as it would have been a great fit for the Vita.
DASH CHALLENGE HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER PC
It's a great opportunity to highlight an IP that's about to get sequel, discuss the origins of an upcoming remake/remaster, or simply praise a game we regret ignoring for so longįirst released on PC back in March, Hyper Light Drifter has since come to both current-gen consoles, with local co-op introduced by patch. Beating the Backlog is the feature we've dedicated to highlighting the games we've had lingering in our libraries for ages, and never got around to reviewing timeously or discussing at launch.
0 kommentar(er)
