REVIEW: HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER (NINTENDO SWITCH)
Retro apocalypse
All my reviews are spoiler-free. I aim to remain objective, even with the stuff I love, examining the product from all angles to provide you with the best insight I can to better inform you before you invest time or money. I try and be as brief as possible, the goal being for you to get a good idea of what to expect in a short amount of time. Thanks for dropping by!
Hyper Light Drifter has an interesting history. Originally conceived by Alex Preston, an indie programmer with a rare heart condition, it began as a Kickstarter project which became hugely popular, hitting its funding goal within mere days and ending at a whopping $600,000+. At the time, it was set to land on PC, Xbox One, 
Playstation 4, Wii U, and other platforms, but due to the poor reception of the Wii U, it skipped Nintendo consoles…until now. While the game has been out since 2016 on other platforms, I have chosen to review the Nintendo Switch version, which has been dubbed by the developers as the ‘Definitive Edition’ due to some exclusive content, which in my mind is sweet justice for its Nintendo hiatus.
WHAT IS IT? Playing Hyper Light Drifter feels a bit like being in a chilling dream; one that blends a little spice of nightmare with a light seasoning of beauty and nostalgia. One of those dreams that awaken you with a lingering feeling that’s hard to shake. And I mean that in all the best ways. Hyper Light Drifter is a fast-paced action adventure game with a story that is dark, bleak, and full of mystery. With only a few vague cutscenes, all of which are narrated in a fictional language with no subtitles, we are left to piece together what happened to this post-apocalyptic world ourselves.
GRAPHICS: One of the immediate stand-out features of the game is the art style. It was one of the earlier games of this generation to adopt the “old-school” look and does so with effortless elegance. Somewhere between 8-bit and 16bit, it hearkens back to gaming days of yore before 3D models when sprites reigned supreme. But by no means does that say the entire look of the game is outdated. 
Sprite and background animations are plenty and beautifully rendered, achieving an effect not possible in the era it draws influence from. Flowers move in the wind, waterfalls drizzle over titan skeletons, and dark, ominous shapes lurk in the background. Despite the setting of the game being a ravaged world, the environments are very much alive. To top it all off, everything runs (on the Switch) at a solid 1080p/60fps in TV mode, and 720p/30fps in handheld mode. During a few taxing spots where literally hundreds of enemies and other components were moving on screen at once did the frame rate dip noticeably, but it never lasted long and were not enough to be a bother.
MUSIC: From the moment the game boots up, before you even see the title screen, the music solidifies itself as a character in the game. And it’s gorgeous. Created by the famous internet composer known as ‘Disasterpiece’, it carries his signature style of haunting, ambient, almost unearthly synthy tunes and it fits the atmosphere of the game perfectly. There are a wide variety of tracks, each area featuring a unique one to the next and not one of them is a dud. Even if you don’t purchase the game, I would recommend the OST alone to anyone that appreciates retro gaming music.
GAMEPLAY: There’s no getting around it: the game is tough as nails. Prepare to die…a lot. But what I loved is that it never felt cheap or that you were fighting the game’s mechanics. The controls are perfectly balanced and responsive which is crucial for a game where you will sometimes be attacked by literally dozens of enemies at once. Luckily, the Drifter has many a trick up his sleeve. From the get-go you can seamlessly switch between his power sword and multiple guns for long-range attacks, not to mention the all-important dash maneuver. 
As you progress you quickly unlock other special weapons and abilities such as grenades through purchasing, or by equipping a wide array of different cloaks. Regular enemies are just as deadly as the insanely-chaotic boss battles, but practice makes perfect and it is truly satisfying to rush about a group of enemies in a tornado of destruction and afterward find yourself standing triumphantly in the middle of a sea of dismembered bodies. What few menus there are feature a simplistic design and are all in the same fictional language of the rest of the game so don’t expect to read anything. Navigating them and figuring out how everything works becomes somewhat of a puzzle in and of itself, which I found added a delightful new layer to the already mysterious plot. New to the Nintendo Switch version is subtle but clever implementation of the HD rumble feature and a new challenging tower that will unlock some extra goodies for you. Throw in multiple difficulty options and optional co-op and you have yourself the definitive edition indeed.
CONCLUSION: While I had hoped for a little more of a rounded-out narrative, what the developers at Heart Machine do give is a phenomenally creepy and beautiful tale of trust and loss. You do have to fill in the gaps yourself, but for me, that was half the fun. Extremely tight controls offer a direct line to the Drifter and if you are one that enjoys a steep challenge, you will love cutting and blasting your way through this one-of-a-kind game.