Similar to other high-profile indies I’ve previously ignored, I have no idea why I skipped HLD. I didn’t back the Kickstarter, but I bought it at launch on PC and then just… never played it. I’m in a lull between big titles right now so I’m going through Heart Machine’s games before Solar Ash inevitably exits Game Pass.

The Good:

  • The aesthetic, tone, artstyle, Disasterpiece Soundtrack, and overall vibes are spectacular.
  • General combat & controls are fabulous. It plays great.
  • Movement and movement upgrades are wonderful. One of the best dashes in Gaming.

The Bad:

  • The West Zone is needlessly confusing. Each of the N/E/S/W zones has 8 crystals to collect, 3-4 of which are required to complete the zone. Upon entering each zone there’s some sort of NPC that shows off where 4 of them are, vaguely. The West zone seemingly expects you to find 3 hidden ones rather than the ones on the map. Two of the ones on the map I still have no idea how you access them. It was frustrating, but not like, the worst thing ever.

  • The game relies a little too heavily on camera boundaries to hide secrets. Only a few of them are obviously telegraphed as “a secret is through this wall”. Once you realize this, you end up doing near-constant DOOM-style wall-humping to make sure you’re not missing anything. Similarly, this sort of sucks and could have been done a bit more elegantly.

  • Combat in HLD is incredibly unforgiving, with seemingly zero iframes when you enter a knocked-down state. That means if an enemy knocks you down (most are capable of this!), it gets a completely free follow-up attack that can’t be blocked or dodged. If it’s a boss that’s doing 2-health attacks, that means you can go from 4/5 health to dead instantly before you get an opportunity to recover. And even if you go in with full health, there’s a chance that after soaking that 4 health combo, you’ll get clipped by something after you recover while trying to dodge away. A few more iframes, or the ability to tech into a quick recovery would have gone a long way to make the more lengthy fights feel more fair.

It’s a short and reasonably breezy little game, it’s got some depth in optional collectibles, but not likely stuff I’ll be digging into. It has me very optimistically looking forward to Solar Ash and the forthcoming Hyper Light Breaker. Highly Recommended.