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Hyper Light Drifter
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09-04-2016 7:50pm#1Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,458 CMod ✭✭✭✭Join Date:Posts: 28169
No thread on this, so here's one!
Surprised the response to this has been so muted (here anyway!), given it's actually quite a noteworthy piece of work. Indeed, if you'd like to see a great example of contemporary world building and how to subtly build an atmosphere, then Hyper Light Drifter is a good choice. With no dialogue, it's all communicated through the world & art design, the stunning visuals and nuanced soundtrack. I'm not always the biggest fan of Disasterpeace (his work was one of the things about the superb It Follows that left me a bit cold) but it fits perfectly here. It's understated, moody and - most importantly - goes silent or extremely minimalist when it has to. When it kicks into higher gear (which is rare) it is always motivated to do so.
The world is fascinating to explore - a post-apocalypse where there are remnants of a (recent?) catastrophe and perhaps another upcoming one. The environments are littered with history and amazing sights - fallen colossi dominate several landscapes - that tell stories without any written or spoken words to fall back on. It's worth exploring thoroughly too, as it's a game rich with secrets, mysteries and hidden passages.
As for the gameplay? Alongside the exploration, it's mostly easy to understand but deceptively deep combat. It works really well. It's punchy (literally in the case of its incredibly satisfying shotgun), visceral and requires constant care. A few neat bonuses - such as a healing mechanism reminiscent of Dark Soul's Estus flasks - keep things interesting. I've heard a few people complain of really tough bosses, but having tackled three of them now I would describe them as tough but absolutely fair and nowhere near as intimidating as some have suggested.
There's a few rough edges. One of the three areas I've finished felt a bit too labyrinthine for my liking, especially with a mostly unhelpful map (although, in contrast, the 'northern' region is a masterpiece of looping level design). A handful of encounters have a few too many grunts in too cramped spaces (and again, in contrast, some of the more epic brawls are seriously satisfying, especially with the glorious 'battle end' animation). And yeah, it runs at 30FPS (if one was to be really generous, it could be argued the restriction is in place to reflect the persistent, crippling plague afflicting the main character and pretty much everybody else he encounters - but that's a generous reading). Also, can't for the life of me get the timing of the chain dash down
None of that majorly detracts from what is an uncommonly confident and artful game. It could have easily just been another 16-bit throwback. Thankfully, it's anything but.8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWufEJ1Ava0Comments
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Absolutely enjoying the hell out of this game, and barely able to stop raving about it. It's even pretty rare for me to buy a game so close to release, but it just immediately appealed to me (and not only because I'm such a indie game hipster
) that I couldn't resist, and I'm damn glad of it.johnny_ultimate wrote: »Indeed, if you'd like to see a great example of contemporary world building and how to subtly build an atmosphere, then Hyper Light Drifter is a good choice. With no dialogue, it's all communicated through the world & art design, the stunning visuals and nuanced soundtrack.
I think for a lot of the game, it helps somewhat, if not outright requires some degree of literacy in anime because there's a huge degree of influence there. The worldbuilding shows images that are a straight up analogue to many Miyazaki works such as Castle in the Sky, the giant warriors being one part Nausicaa, one part Evangelion, the Drifter reminds me a lot of A****aka what with their seeming struggle with whatever that mass of black tendrils is, the red waters being reference to some of Eva's more nightmare fuel ideas, there's even an enemy I've seen in screenshots that looks like a little Sachiel. Not saying that's a bad thing, drawing on some recognisable themes to build your own world is nothing new, and being honest, it was that influence that drew me to the game in a big way.
But yeah, I am adoring it.0 -
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Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,458 CMod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 28169
Deleted User wrote: »Difficulty wise how is it guys ?
It's a challenge for sure but I don't believe it's quite as punishing as some reviewers have suggested (yet, anyway, and I reckon I'm approaching the final level or close to it). It has taken me no more than two attempts to tackle the three bosses I've encountered. Using the upgrades sensibly levels the playing field too, although some of them are a bit useless. Honestly, it's almost harder to purge the meaning of the story than it is to tackle some of the tougher encounters - which I consider a good thing
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What is is the best way to go with this PC or PS4, would using the controller be the better option or keyboard and mouse.
I played on xbox but when I was reading up on the chain dash many seemed to have to opinion that it was easier with kb+m. It's not a massive element of the game when you need to execute long chain dashes but there were a few parts I found it very frustrating with a controller. i gave up trying for the 800 combo to unlock a certain outfit which I believe is relatively easy with a mouse 0 -
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johnny_ultimate wrote: »The chain dash I found pretty much impossible to pull off with a controller, just couldn't get the timing down. I didn't bother testing with KB&M but it's the only noteworthy point in a game that is otherwise pretty much ideal for a gamepad. Thankfully the dash is entirely redundant outside a handful of collectibles, and the game is easily completed without it.
I went to the trouble of trying to get the gear that allegedly increases the window per press of the button and got it after an hour of trying .... of course you had to chain dash to get it :mad:
To find that it f'd me up even more as I was so used to the old way. The trick to getting it going is to press A again at the end of the dash and it works every time but to get it to 800 without crashing or even close to 20 even is a bitch with a pad 0
![[Deleted User]](/applications/dashboard/design/images/defaulticon.png)
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