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The trees, buildings that lay decayed and decrepit, corpses of hundreds unnamed behemoths: just about everything in this game begs to be stared at. The title's use of colour is extraordinary various shades of red and blue are employed so well that you can't help but just want to sit around and look at what's around you. Almost immediately, the game shows off its striking appearance, and it's absolutely gorgeous. The game's quizzical nature isn't all that is instantly apparent, however. How do you use this technology? Is there a way to cure this disease? How do you even go about finding out? Many questions arise right out of the gate. You assume the role of The Drifter, a warrior who utilises long forgotten technology, but who is also suffering from a mysterious illness. It shares DNA with games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and many others, including the likes of Diablo. Hyper Light Drifter is a 2D action role-playing game with a pixelated graphics style. The silver lining in all of this? Said health problems birthed one of the better games in recent times. Hyper Light Drifter very much fits this, as the title is essentially the result of creator Alx Preston's lengthy history of health issues. But, as they say, "art through adversity". A monumental success story on Kickstarter – a goal of $27,000 netted the developer $645,000 instead – the game arrived fashionably late to the party, missing its release window by a paltry two years. Enter Heart Machine's Hyper Light Drifter.
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Sure some are okay, but the real joy stems from discovering a game so good that it couldn't be called anything other than a masterpiece. A very large percentage of these are either forgettable or downright terrible. Games are released all of the time – every week without fail, as a matter of fact.
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