If I will criticize anything (because you must criticize something) the platforming can be confusing - I'm often not sure what is foreground or background - and, though the music is an integral and fulfilling part of the game, I haven't heard any memorable tunes yet. So, if you're going to impulse buy anything, buy what will be the probably end up being the best indie game of the year - and go in blind! You'll probably come across these two things too, but they certainly weren't enough to spoil the experience. If the length of a game might hold you back from making an impulse purchase, I can say after 3 hours I had beaten a quarter of what I know of the map - I'll estimate a 10 hour experience. Finally winning my first boss fight is already one of my most memorable experiences in gaming. I'm not good at games but the perfect learning curve and pacing of difficulty in Hyper Light Drifter will not only mean that you are always fighting to continue, but also that you are always confident in yourself. And from the start, this game will challenge you. From the start, the set pieces will floor you (I strongly suggest you don't spoil yourself beforehand). I'm only 4 hours in but I've already seen some of the most beautiful artwork, funnest action sequences and incredible atmosphere I've ever experienced in games. This was an impulse buy for me and it should be one for you too. TL DR: Someone great built satisfying hack-n-slash gameplay. Another game developer played Dark Souls and learned the wrong lessons.

I'm not happy to see the rest of their game decisions hurt what could've been a great game. I'm glad someone took elements of Zelda and made the combat faster. I felt nothing, zero interest, investment, or closure. What in the world is the point to all this cheap frustration? A litmus test to this aggregate frustration is how little I cared during the ending and beating the game. Now you have a few hours of tedious combat ahead of you. Beat one temple in slow, painful fashion and you'll realize unexplored areas completely out of your direction contain beginner-level areas. The difficulty is steep but more importantly it's jarringly uneven. The overworld map is hilariously inaccurate and constantly gets the player lost. Hidden rooms are ungodly frustrating to discover with little pay-off. The fighting/platforming becomes joyless due to cheap enemy density and confusing jumps. It's like peeling back an onion hoping the center has something worthwhile and still finding nothing. The vague, wordless story has zero positives. Players must think 'let's just get this over with and maybe it'll end' rather than 'I can't wait to see what's next'. The gameplay quickly becomes unfun and the story never becomes interesting. The mistakes on the other hand are large enough to eventually not recommend this game to others. It makes the moment-by-moment with standard enemies pretty fun to play and visually interesting. On one hand, the combat mechanics feel satisfying and the pixel graphics are usually great. I can't think of too many games as polarizing as Hyper Light Drifter.

Hyper light drifter multiple endings