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Enigmatic and unrelenting, HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER takes patience
I’D SPEND A FEW HOURS BASHING MY HEAD AGAINST A WALL AND GIVE UP
Ihave played close to 20 hours of Hyper Light Drifter, and I still can’t tell you what the story is about. Whatever narrative is lurking in this fever-dream action RPG is so obtuse that I’m not convinced it isn’t just a bunch of striking images strung together by sparkling synth music. The intro cinematic jumps between statues with glowing eyes, a Neon Genesis Evangelion-esque apocalypse, and giant fleshy corpses. It’s impenetrable yet undeniably captivating—but, my god, it’s taken me a few tries to get into it.
Though it was released in 2016, it’s taken me this long to beat Hyper
Light Drifter because I kept bouncing off it. I love nearly everything about it—the ambience, aesthetic, and combat—but a few hours in I’d be going in circles trying to get to the next area with no concrete idea of what I was even looking for. It was maddening.
Structured similarly to old Zelda games, Hyper Light Drifter has a simple overarching objective: Go to the four zones on its map, kill a boss, and collect glowing bits of geometry that unlock a fifth location. In order to get to the boss, though, you need to explore each zone looking for different glowy bits that, when you have enough of them, open a door. The problem is that most of these glowing bits are hard to find, and the in-game map is all but useless.
LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
The first few times I tried playing Hyper Light Drifter, I simply didn’t have the patience. I’d spend a few
hours bashing my head against a wall and give up. But this most recent attempt, I was committed to actually pushing through. I’m so glad I did. Hyper Light Drifter is not an easy game to fall in love with, but now it’s a game I love a lot.
The issue with its hard-to-find objectives is a temporary one. After an hour spent examining every pixel of the map looking for clues, I realized that secret passages are subtly marked with a tiny symbol. And almost instantly the entire game opened up to me. All I had to do was keep an eye out for that little symbol, and I’d be able to easily find most of the hidden items needed to progress.
It’s not exactly good level design, sure, but Hyper Light Drifter is still great in spite of it. The world you explore and the subtle clues as to its origins, are captivating. I’m a sucker for games that have an undeniable sense of place, and the creative vision behind Hyper Light Drifter is riveting.
You sure have to work for it, though. Figuring out the signal for hidden passages was one thing, but practically every element of Hyper Light Drifter has no explanation. It took me ten hours to realize I could chain dodges together, gaining speed with each successive dash. These design choices can create a lot of frustration, but they also enhance the alien-ness that makes Hyper Light Drifter such a weird and captivating game. I’m glad I pushed through and completed it after so many years.