After getting a hands-off look at some early gameplay from upcoming Hyper Light Drifter sequel, Hyper Light Breaker, it’s clear that the follow-up is both thematically very Hyper Light while also functionally a significant departure from the first game. While Hyper Light Drifter was a single-player (at launch), top-down action-adventure, Hyper Light Breaker is a multiplayer-focused, 3D, roguelike action game.
Why change genre so dramatically for a follow-up when fans were, presumably, expecting more of the same? Creator Alx Preston doesn’t have that deep a reason: Hyper Light Breaker is simply the game the team wanted to make, and that he specifically wanted to make “for quite a long time” after Drifter’s release. So he’s not too fussed about how people feel about the changes – in fact, he might do a similar departure for another Hyper Light game in the future.
“People will like it or not like it, and that’s up to them,” Preston says. “We’re just making a game that we want to make, and I feel like the Hyper Light world has room to have a lot of different things in it as far as game styles go. Why not a Hyper Light racing game? It’s a robust world, and it can maintain many different identities as far as gameplay goes so I don’t think there are any limits to it.”
That said, Hyper Light Breaker is still very clearly tied to Hyper Light Drifter. We talked about some of the similarities in our hands-off first gameplay preview, but Preston adds that Hyper Light Breaker takes place in a “not too distant” time frame in the same world. It has story threads that tie into Drifter as well as recognizable elements such as tech, language, and symbology. And he says they’ve plotted its place in the Hyper Light timeline “very carefully.”
And then there are the more immediately noticeable thematic similarities between the two games.
“There’s a lot of tone to it,” he says. “There’s like a vibe to [Hyper Light Drifter] that was mysterious and dark and bleak. And while this one is brighter in a lot of ways, as you start to get into the story and as you start to get into different areas and bosses and whatever else, you’ll find those elements of bleakness even in the more stylized realm.”
Part of that tonal similarity leans on a theme those familiar with Preston’s work will likely expect to see: that of fighting through pain. Preston’s been open about his own struggles with congenital heart disease, and his experience with that became a key thematic element of Hyper Light Drifter, and was woven through Solar Ash as well.
“That’s the type of story that I’m drawn to because that’s the thing I’m most familiar with,” Preston says. “You’re trying to write what you know or tell stories about things you know. So yeah, it’s going to be different than Drifter as far as role-playing goes and different for which characters are going through what. But there will be a lot of struggle and pain and strife in different formats. Taking shape through central wellbeing or physical wellbeing through a variety of different characters and how they make the best in a bad situation basically.”
We spent about 45 minutes with Preston playing Hyper Light Breaker last week following the announcement of Hyper Light Breaker’s imminent early access period this fall. Our exclusive first gameplay preview has a lot more about the similarities and differences between Hyper Light Drifter and Breaker, as well as details about the new combat style and some vague if tantalizing clues about the game’s story. Hyper Light Breaker’s early access launch is currently planned for release on Steam.
