Hyper Light Drifter is an incredible and intense experience. It pulls at you with war, death, illness and loss, but it never says a word. A surreal game without any written nor spoken dialogue. The game isn’t easy either, I would say it is one of the most difficult in its genre. This grinding frustration makes the game all the more worth it when you finally do defeat one of the bosses.
Recently released from a 2013 Kickstarter, I received my digital copy of Hyper Light Drifter. The project was originally presented with a 2014 release when I signed up. The Kickstarter proved enormously successful and raised far beyond its original goals, leading to an expanded game being released on many platforms. Alex Preston, who started the studio “Heart Machine”, to make this game cites numerous inspirations: these include The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Diablo, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind and, surprisingly, his own illness.