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Hyper Light Drifter
Explore a beautiful, vast and ruined world riddled with dangers and lost technologies.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
43 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“When your hero wakes up, you are just starting a game: the music is everything. It requires skill, has a story without words, beautiful pixel art. Nothing like this will ever be recreated, in all likelihood. Such an…”
“I f-ing love this game. Everything about it is so good, the art, the gameplay, the music, it's just muack! Chef's kiss! From a noobie's (me) standpoint, this game relatively on the hard side of gameplays and if you're…”
“Hyper fun, hyper fast and hyper beautiful <3 buy it.”
42 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“When your hero wakes up, you are just starting a game: the music is everything. It requires skill, has a story without words, beautiful pixel art. Nothing like this will ever be recreated, in all likelihood. Such an…”
“I f-ing love this game. Everything about it is so good, the art, the gameplay, the music, it's just muack! Chef's kiss! From a noobie's (me) standpoint, this game relatively on the hard side of gameplays and if you're…”
“Hyper fun, hyper fast and hyper beautiful <3 buy it.”
26 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“When your hero wakes up, you are just starting a game: the music is everything. It requires skill, has a story without words, beautiful pixel art. Nothing like this will ever be recreated, in all likelihood. Such an…”
“I f-ing love this game. Everything about it is so good, the art, the gameplay, the music, it's just muack! Chef's kiss! From a noobie's (me) standpoint, this game relatively on the hard side of gameplays and if you're…”
“Hyper great game. Amazing atmosphere from the visuals and soundtrack, which I still regularly listen to. This is a must play. If regular mode feels too punishing do check out easy mode. It's still a challenge but much…”
24 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“When your hero wakes up, you are just starting a game: the music is everything. It requires skill, has a story without words, beautiful pixel art. Nothing like this will ever be recreated, in all likelihood. Such an…”
“Venturing the lands with a non-stop persisting trauma that haunts you both mentally and physically. 10/10”
“Wonderful top-down adventure game with some serious old school Zelda influence. The graphics and visual storytelling are unique and beautiful, and the soundtrack is a synthwave masterpiece. Highly recommended.”
11 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I f-ing love this game. Everything about it is so good, the art, the gameplay, the music, it's just muack! Chef's kiss! From a noobie's (me) standpoint, this game relatively on the hard side of gameplays and if you're…”
“Hyper great game. Amazing atmosphere from the visuals and soundtrack, which I still regularly listen to. This is a must play. If regular mode feels too punishing do check out easy mode. It's still a challenge but much…”
“aura on steamdeck combat is lowkey hard go north or east first”
10 of the 103 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“I f-ing love this game. Everything about it is so good, the art, the gameplay, the music, it's just muack! Chef's kiss! From a noobie's (me) standpoint, this game relatively on the hard side of gameplays and if you're…”
“I was very lost in relation to the story, but the gameplay is fun and the vibes are impeccable. I would highly recommend checking this game out.”
“The music and visuals are amazing, but this game tries way too hard to be all "cool and edgy" and doesn't tell you anything about gameplay or the story. You tried to do what other games do better and failed, congrats.”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this · 8 of them still recommend the game.
“I f-ing love this game. Everything about it is so good, the art, the gameplay, the music, it's just muack! Chef's kiss! From a noobie's (me) standpoint, this game relatively on the hard side of gameplays and if you're…”
“short but good, the combat can be extremily fun when you get used to it. The best part is 100% the art, ive had to pause and admire the backgrounds multiple times I apologize for my horrendus english but im not used to…”
“I remember being enamored by the story behind the games author when this game was coming out. 10 years later I finally got around to clearing my backlog, and I can say I'm thankful I got to play it. A relatively short…”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“A somewhat odd preface to a positive review: if you enjoy 100% completing games, as I do, you will be extremely frustrated with this game. At (many) times even hating it. I have given up on ever finishing Hyper Light's…”
“I'm not recommending this game as I did not enjoy it. I loved the visuals but the music and sound effects started feeling like nails on a chalkboard. I cannot "chain dash" to save my life; I have no understanding of the…”
“I remember being enamored by the story behind the games author when this game was coming out. 10 years later I finally got around to clearing my backlog, and I can say I'm thankful I got to play it. A relatively short…”
7 of the 103 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Hyper Light Drifter frequently chooses to be pretty at the expense of being playable. I badly want to like this game. I expect that I will keep trying to play this game. But every time I re-enter Hyper Light Drifter, I…”
“The music and visuals are amazing, but this game tries way too hard to be all "cool and edgy" and doesn't tell you anything about gameplay or the story. You tried to do what other games do better and failed, congrats.”
“The guys moves like a geriatric. Does not feel good to play at all.”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“I'm not recommending this game as I did not enjoy it. I loved the visuals but the music and sound effects started feeling like nails on a chalkboard. I cannot "chain dash" to save my life; I have no understanding of the…”
“- Art Design and Sound Direction are its strongest points - The dodging mechanic with kbm controls is awful, but at least on controller it's not an issue 7/10”
“The guys moves like a geriatric. Does not feel good to play at all.”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 93.1% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“got bored at first, gave it another chance years later, couldn't sop playing until I finished it. I can see why everyone loved this (especially for the time it was released)”
— a player, Steam review · 16 hrs played“TL;DR: The game is enjoyable, but do not expect any depth or mind-blowing gameplay. The strongest side of the game is definitely aesthetics. Pixel art is down the line incredible. Ost, despite being quite simple, fits really well with other elements. I like how developers made a…”
— a player, Steam review · 7 hrs played“Atmospheric masterpiece. One of my all time fav games. Exploration, atmosphere, visuals, music and combat are all S tier. Play it if you haven't already.”
— a player, Steam review · 0 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 12:05 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Hyper Light Drifter - Companion Plushie!
SyComs, or “Synthesizing Computers”, are robot companions that accompany the player everywhere they go in the world of Hyper Light. Each character has their own unique SyCom companion, which serves as
16 Hours Remain to get Hyper Light Drifter FREE w/Hyper Light Breaker Purchase
Our launch bundle + discount for Hyper Light Breaker ends in ~16 hours, at 10AM PST! So if you've had Hyper Light Drifter on your wishlist for a while, or if you've been on the fence about picking up
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Hyper Light Drifter is a part of IGF Celebration Days event on Steam!
Hyper Light Drifter part of IGF Celebration Days, a digital showcase celebrating award-winning indie games, the Independent Games Festival, and the players who love indie games! As an IGF award-winnin
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG |
| Player tags | Pixel Graphics · Great Soundtrack · Atmospheric · Adventure · Indie · Difficult · Action · Hack and Slash · Singleplayer · Exploration · RPG · 2D (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Shared/Split Screen PvP · Co-op · Shared/Split Screen Co-op · Steam Achievements · Full controller support |
| Languages | English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 23 |
| Estimated owners | 1,000,000 – 2,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://heartmachine.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows 7 and above Processor: 1.2 ghz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: 512 mb video memory DirectX: Version 10 Storage: 2 GB available space