Sounds familiar? Well, it was about time we made a connection with the article’s introduction. During your journey you’ll go through hordes of very difficult enemies, with checkpoints that are at times too far from each other, and at the end of each segment awaits the zone’s boss for you to defeat. The background music is solid (if you like midi ambient music), although it can sometimes completely miss the theme and not fit the events on screen.ĭrifter is an open world game in which, after the initial linear level, you can move from the central part of the map into your adventure, without guidelines or limitations, in any direction you like. The visuals vary depending on where you are currently and whether you’re looking at a landscape created with care or some random hallway with barely two details in it. It does so by building its atmosphere through a post-apocalyptic metallic-phosphorescent world, which sometimes looks fantastic, but at times looks very sloppily done. These days, pixel art has become a common occurrence, especially among indie publishers, and this game tries its hardest to be unique in this manner. The first thing that catches the eye is a very specific visual appearance of the game. Therefore, expect a very action packed experience, if you decide to play it. There’s an occasional RPG element in it, but Drifter is as much of an RPG as an average Batman or Assassin’s Creed game. Hyper Light Drifter (or Drifter for short) is a 2D hack and slash game.
The only question now is how much they managed to succeed in this. Hyper Light Drifter isn’t the first, and surely won’t be the last title that got caught up in this trend – trying to get its own share of the spoils, and trying to have one big segment of it compared to the Souls saga. We’re witnessing a horde of titles which completely or in some segments, attempt to use a hallmark from a Souls game and attach a few epithets to them. These kinds of games appear perhaps a few times in a decade, but when you mention the “’Dark Souls” phenomenon now, five years after it was published, it immediately becomes clear where the story goes. Games that have the capacity to change the gaming industry in a certain way and leave a huge mark on their players, programmers and publishers only with their appearance, innovation and status are very rare indeed.