Hyper Light Drifter - The Friday FREE GAME Feature!

Hyper Light Drifter is an action adventure title influenced by classics like Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, only cranked to eleven in terms of scale. A number of large zones are immediately open to explore, but dozens of areas are either cleverly hidden or locked away. This game doesn't just reward you for exploration - it kind of requires it. Earning upgrades and finding some of the keys (or other unlock mechanisms) means scouring every inch of the map looking for hidden paths.

Combat on standard difficulty requires you to pay attention to enemy tells. Your first encounter with a new type of enemy will often result in death as you learn their timing. Thankfully, the game usually respawns you fairly close from where you perished so you can try again. A common dungeon feature is an ambush room where you're locked in until you defeat all the enemy waves. While challenging, the enemies are the same each time you tackle that particular room, meaning you're a little more prepared/practiced for the next attempt.

While Drifter takes cues from an older generation of games, it makes use of some contemporary ideas too. Character progression isn't all about obtaining a specific item tucked away in some dungeon. Instead, collecting four 'chips' gives you a 'token', which you can spend to learn new abilities or increase a particular resource (such as ammo). Come to think of it, the system is much like obtaining Heart Pieces (ala Link to the Past), but with more available options.

I could spend paragraphs talking about what I like in this game, but I'll spare you that and list a couple from the top of my head.

• The pixel art style with everything from breathtaking vistas to disturbing monstrosities
• Thought-out map and level design, revisiting locations but with a little less tedium
• Use of the visual medium to convey information with nearly no text

 I have really only one complaint with Drifter in the time that I've played it so far, and that's how health kits/potions work. It seemed like healing is canceled if an enemy attack hits you while using the item. This means you have to find a moment of safety to heal, which can be a problem considering that you're likely in a dangerous situation to begin with. The fact that it not only cancels the heal effect but also uses up the item is a bit of a double whammy, though I admit it might be difficult to convey otherwise without accidentally giving the player the false idea that healing in this area doesn't work. Simply put, it's up to the player (including myself) to get better at knowing when to use a heal.

All told, Hyper Light Drifter is an amazing adventure worth picking up. Getting this for free is quite the boon!