Hyper Light Drifter Critic Reviews

Every element of Hyper Light Drifter blends together to form a near perfect action-adventure game that's worthy to stand with the impeccable games it borrows from.

Hyper Light Drifter is a breathtaking game that draws heavily from gaming's most prominent pioneers without relying too heavily on their influence. It is an eclectic masterpiece that feels more like an experience than a video game.

Hyper Light Drifter has already positioned itself as one of the best experiences of the year. It’s a challenging game, but it never feels unfair. The promise of seeing more of the world and hearing more of the fantastic soundtrack are worthwhile rewards for your tenacity. Despite seeing the finish line ahead of me, I did everything I could to prolong the experience by exploring every nook and cranny. I didn’t do it out of necessity; I did it because I wanted to stay in Hyper Light Drifter’s world for as long as possible.

If you’re someone who typically shrugs off indie games as somehow less meaningful then their AAA counterparts, you owe it to yourself to play Hyper Light Drifter. Alex Preston and his team have delivered a title that highlights everything great about the medium as a whole, it’s as simple as that.

The combat and movement often left me slack-jawed and giddy, a perfect homage to the '90s RPGs that obviously inspired Heart Machine, while still feeling completely fresh and constantly surprising.

As stunning as it is, Hyper Light Drifter's greatest triumph isn't in the story that it tells, but in the stories that it doesn't. I don't know this place's entire history, but its desolate elegance inspires me to fill in the gaps myself. Such is the power of artistry this rich and thoughtful.

Hyper Light Drifter transports the player into a world made by dreams and nightmares, that are sustained by a superb art direction and fresh gameplay. Heart Machine delivered an excellent and challenging adventure, and also an unmissable gem for the indie games’ fans.

Hyper Light Drifter is one of the best Zelda-like, with a high difficult level. One of the year masterpieces.

Hyper Light Drifter is one of the most perfectly balanced, stylish and intriguing action RPGs of recent times.

Hyper Light Drifter is a difficult and extremely cryptic action-adventure. A charming, compelling and intriguing experience spawned from the harsh life of its creator, and founder of Heart Machine, Alex Preston.

Heart Machine delivers a masterpiece, an impressive mixture of style and gameplay. Hyper Light Drifter is one of the best action game we have ever played, and showcases a complex and enchanting pixel art. It brings you into a silent and distant world, it tests your ability with a deep an fast paced gameplay; it's the rightful heir of '90s bidimensional adventures.

Hyper Light Drifter is a challenging 2D action-RPG experience just waiting for you to jump in and explore.

If you look past an imperfect combat system, you'll find that the first game created by Heart Machine (a one-man software house) has sophisticated gameplay, and a level design that encourages the player to explore every nook and cranny, slowly revealing what a real gem it actually is.

Despite being relatively light in narrative, that shouldn’t stop anyone from playing this. The focus is clearly on combat and exploration, both of which are excellent examples of great design and execution.

The mechanics aren't always calibrated to work seamlessly with the difficulty, but even so, HLD is a stunning indie masterpiece.

Even without the luminous pixel art to continue, there's always an impetus to investigate further.

Hyper Light Drifter is a highly personal tale from Alex Preston, and it’s in his honor that he managed to pass it through this medium in such a discreet and moving way. Its gameplay, storytelling, amazingly beautiful pixel art, and compelling soundtrack work in total harmony to present an utterly satisfying and unique indie game.

Hyper Light Drifter is unique, it highlights the issues of a real person in an abstract way. This game plays very smoothly, and offers stunning visuals and rigid difficulty. Hyper Light Drifter is a lot of fun, and it's beautiful too. It’s a memorable experience, and can keep you interested the whole way through.

Hyper Light Drifter is an exciting fast-paced adventure game, designed to pay tribute to a variety of cult classic games from the 90s. It does so with beautiful pixel art as well as detailed and mysterious spaces, not to mention an engaging and rewarding combat system.

While Hyper Light Drifter is sometimes too obscure for its own good, its combat is fierce and the environments stunningly beautiful.