Hyper Light Drifter

In this game, you enjoy every moment just by observing the beautifully crafted worlds you walk by, which, together with its gameplay and the subtle way to tell you the story, make a very solid game with very good and clear design ideas.

The game is not new but it still has a notorious bug where the game plays in slow motion after about 20 minutes of gameplay. And the only way to avoid that is to restart the game, what is not beneficial to the immersion. + great soundtrack + nice art style + secrets and exploration + good combat - stuttering not fixed despite beeing a wide known bug

HLD might have been an 4,5 or even 5 star game, the atmosphere, art design and music is wonderful; the gameplay is fun and heavily focused on exploring, BUT the game has, as of writing this (2019), a bug where it slows down the longer you play. So I had to exit the game and restart it every 20-30 minutes. This is really annoying, since some important gameplay features are rythm based. And the slower pace hinders your muscle memory. (second minor problem is the invincibility time after getting hit is too small, which means some bosses can stunlock and kill you, so dont get hit...)

I played HLD for about 25 hours. Story : 4/5. There's no text for anything, but most things are understandable, a few stay totally cryptic. Art : 5/5. The game is beautiful for pixel art. I spent time staring at the environment Sound : 4/5. Mostly well done, a few tracks are irritating. Gameplay : 4/5. I had fun playing the game, which is challenging. Sometimes, it's frustrating, especially parts involving chain-dashing (once you purchase the upgrade) which is hard to do consistently, but all those parts are optional (absolutely no upgrades are needed to finish the game - I like to play it this way). So the main game is really fun, tediousness comes if you insist on getting 100%. Combat is fairly efficient, and I love the fact that you haven't any i-frames natively while dashing, you only can learn pattern and evade whatever is coming at you the best you can. Upgrading leads to more options, but can complicate the combat system : good luck not triggering by accident the "dash + attack" or "attack + dash" moves in the heat of a battle. The game auto-saves so, unfortunately, you can't rewind to test if the upgrade fits you or not. Worth to point out that there's a boss rush mode unlocked once you finish the game. The game works well on linux (ubuntu 20.04), I had only 2 or 3 crashes which didn't ruin progression as the game save often. Keyboard and controller remapping are updated now, no longer lagging behind the steam version, so it's entirely possible to play the way you like it (best for me : keyboard + mouse, dash on right click and directed by movement keys).

I am near 40yr old and starting to lose grip on most fast pased action games, however, the balance of this game has been nothing more than top notch. 1 You cannot swing your sword mindlessly, which makes sense, enemies do die without too much problem, but an attack does not only knockback enemies, but expose you to another enemy. 2 Healing, you dont get unlimited healing or auto healing, but there are numerous healing/medical box that you can carry on. Its upto you to expand the number you can carry or spend on skills that gives you the edge on the battle. by 3 hrs in, i had absolutely no issues walking around, and boss battles were challenging but not demanding to be rage quit like some games do. Art wise, this is what game should be, not 3D, but beautiful and shows how the game should be. It doesnt have voice acting, 3D graphics, AAA budget but its one of the top game I would recommend to play on 2016. Little Cons 1 it.. doesnt explain background story AT ALL. you either need to imagine what the hell is going on, or go find forums post how people think the back story is. 2 there are some maps/areas that isnt really clear where you can go. you wont fall initially but you may in the later stage when you want to find that "SECRET" passages. 3 I played on PS4, I cannot imagine playing with keyboard, controller is a must.