Hyper Light Drifter is the kind of solid game experience that could have been way better with a touch more effort put into it. The combat feels great, when you're drifting around enemies, crwod controlling, cutting foes in half with a speedy slash, the game feels awesome, with plenty of depth. The problem is the game doesn't really require you to play it this way, for most of it's duration. On your first playthrough you have plenty of health and most of the enemies in the game are just too slow, and predictable for a game like this. Once you get to new game+ the reduced health bar solves part of the issue but enemy variety and overall design is stilll lacking sevearly. You know the game has a problem when the only enemy in the game that felt like a real challange on my first run is the final boss, and maybe one other boss. Overall the combat is still prettty good but in dire need of more content. Exploriation is a lot weaker aspect of the game. The world doesn't feel organic enough so you mostly exploration mainly consist of finding secret rooms by trying to find transparent walls and hidden switches. It's servicable but nothing amazing. the world is nice to look at. The color palette is striking the four different areas are distinct in their shapes and colors. There is a warm yet surreal feeling to the game world, which is always nice, but overall there is just simply not enough in the game to be intriguing. The game is surreal but it doesn't really have any character to it, and by now we have seen plenty of great pixel art games that had similar visuals. Same thing with the story, which is basically nonexistent. I am kind of sorry for this game as with more polish and content this could have been on the level of Hollow knight or Dark Souls, but as it is now I still had a lot of fun. Solar ash seems like a kind of successor to this one so maybe heart machine will do these concepts justice on their second try.
