14 DAY TRIAL // A new video is out from Heart Machine, makers of the upcoming retro action role playing game Hyper Light Drifter, showing more of the game’s ruined world as well as some combat sequences.
Players will discover a strange world with a twisted past, delving into unfathomable depths to discover long lost technologies and buried secrets, in this gorgeous and vivid pixelated adventure.
The developers released a new trailer for the game and shared some of its key elements on the PlayStation Blog, asserting why players will enjoy their game once it’s out.
Hyper Light Drifter features some skill testing combat that requires lightning fast reflexes, but that is designed to never feel unfair while still maintaining a certain level of brutality.
Alex Preston, the head of Heart Machine, shares that they are all fans of fast-paced combat that requires skill and rewards finesse. As such, the team has gone to great lengths to make sure that all the systems are finely tuned and that the controls feels responsive and every action provides meaningful feedback to the player.
As such, each enemy reacts to strikes with visible knockback, flashes and sound effects, with the aim being to make players feel empowered in every encounter.
The key to a successful and engaging combat experience lies in creating intelligent and tactical scenarios, rather than simply stacking cannon fodder enemies that wait in line for their heads to get chopped off.
Consequently, some enemies will dodge or parry projectiles, others will deflect attacks, while others will attack as a pack or command others into action in order to gain an advantage.
The game features a very strong visual direction, offering a rich and varied world for its fans to explore, with an intense atmosphere and masterfully crafted pixelated vistas.
Preston notes that the team wants to stay away from poorly designed user interfaces, endless blobs of text and explicit handholding, all of which can dilute an otherwise great gaming experience.
They want to allow players to uncover the rich mythology along with the Drifter in a much more organic way, with a narrative that’s not explicit but instead is delivered through a finely crafted visual design direction.
In order to achieve that, Heart Machine aims to keep systems management as straightforward as possible, with a minimal take on superfluous UI elements, helping the player feel more immersed.
Hyper Light Drifter is scheduled to come out sometime this year on PC, Mac, Linux, Wii U, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.