A Highland Music assessment: discovering freedom within the Scottish Highlands

I performed A Highland Music 3 times earlier than reaching its true conclusion, but it surely’s my disastrous first try that sticks with me most. After spending a couple of hours misplaced within the Scottish Highlands, my impatience bought one of the best of me after I by accident misjudged a bounce and rapidly dove right into a stony pit. My already low stamina bar decreased to just about zero and I discovered myself unable to climb again out. Annoyed with how my journey panned out, I used to be tempted to drop the sport there and settle for the truth that my story was destined to conclude with a lifeless finish.

I’m positive glad I didn’t.

Developed by Inkle, A Highland Music is constructed on teachable moments like that. The 2D platformer is a coming-of-age story a few runaway lady looking for herself in a winding world that feels hopelessly overwhelming. Whereas there’s a direct narrative to comply with, its most vital moments are the emergent tales gamers uncover in-between mountain peaks. It’s solely by the act of wandering that the journey’s most profound fact emerges: You may’t end up in the event you’re by no means misplaced to start with.

A Highland Music is a meditative quest for self-discovery that efficiently interprets the liberty of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to a grounded indie journey. There could also be frustrations and setbacks alongside the way in which, however imperfection is a part of the journey. It’s our job to study from these errors and be higher for them.

Let’s get misplaced

A Highland Music turns a childhood fantasy right into a one-of-a-kind survival journey. It opens with Moira McKinnon, a younger lady residing within the Scottish Highlands who makes a break from her rickety dwelling and nagging mom. She’s a younger lady on a mission; her plan is to run away to the ocean to fulfill up together with her uncle in time for Beltane, a Scottish competition that marks the start of summer time. There, she hopes to discover a treatment to her rising pains, as her uncle guarantees to assist her perceive who she actually is. It’s a easy story of childhood angst changed into a tactile quest for self-discovery.

To replicate Moira’s newfound freedom, Inkle creates a singular gameplay loop that pulls inspiration from Breath of the Wild. Moira merely has to make her approach to the ocean by traversing a sequence of valleys dotted with climbable peaks. Regardless of being rendered in 2D, the Highlands really feel as grand in scope as Zelda’s Hyrule. It’s a multilayered panorama portray awash in pure element and wealthy earth tones. I get that rapid sense of the chic as I start bounding between peaks and scaling any floor by merely transferring my joystick up.

That preliminary pleasure quickly offers approach to anxiousness as the truth of Moira’s journey units in. A Highland Music rapidly reveals itself as a small-scale survival sport. I must handle Moira’s initially massive stamina bar, which dictates how a lot she will be able to climb in a single go, by resting between arduous hikes. A hasty bounce or onerous touchdown would possibly lead to a skinned knee that cuts down the bar till I relaxation. I additionally want to search out appropriate shelters for her to sleep in when evening falls, as attempting to snooze underneath a rocky overhang will reduce her stamina the subsequent day. It’s an efficient little bit of useful resource administration that encourages me to maneuver with warning and at all times have an emergency plan able to go when the sunshine fades.

To make issues extra anxious, Moira is on a timer — she solely has a couple of days to get again in time for Beltane. She will arrive on the sea late, however she gained’t discover the solutions she’s searching for. That creates a powerful push and pull, as there are occasions after I must get transferring on the danger of damage. That stress is additional compounded by the truth that the Highlands are a sprawling labyrinth of hills, caves, and secrets and techniques. Like Moira attempting to navigate her tangled feelings, I start to really feel like I’m hopelessly misplaced, questioning if the hills ever actually finish.

That makes it all of the extra rewarding after I’m inspired to push on. Each impediment in A Highland Music might be overcome. Even when it seems like I’m at rock-bottom, desperately clawing my method towards the horizon, there’s at all times a peak that I can climb to get a view of the place I’m going. There’s readability on the finish of each battle; I simply must rise as much as discover it.

A roguelike musical

The core gameplay concepts make for a tremendous platforming journey, but it surely’s the broader construction that makes the expertise particular. Like Inkle’s final launch, the narrative homicide thriller Overboard, A Highland Music takes artistic notes from the roguelike style. Every journey works like a standard “run,” the place Moira tries to get to the ocean as quick as she will be able to. Really getting there in time for Beltane is difficult at first, but it surely turns into simpler the extra gamers start to grasp each the Highlands and themselves.

In every playthrough, the aim is to discover a method by the mountains through discoverable paths. These might be sussed out by scattered papers that maintain clues to shortcuts. When climbing up a peak and getting a view of the land, gamers can drop a pin on the map to mark the key places. Going to the spot and verifying the clue will reveal the trail. And because the map doesn’t change between runs, meaning any data gained carries over (as do all collected papers). I can even discover numerous gadgets by my journey that I’d discover have some use later, like after I uncover that I want some flammable wooden to gentle a torch.

The extra I study concerning the land, the sooner I’m capable of conquer it on my subsequent run. And meaning I can higher tempo myself subsequent time too, studying when it’s OK to decelerate and relaxation. I uncover one thing new about myself every time that makes life slightly simpler, simply as Moira does in her story.

Much less profitable is the journey’s musical part, which doesn’t fairly maintain the identical narrative weight. When gamers attain an extended stretch of valley, they’re instantly whisked into a fast rhythm minigame the place they should press buttons in time with music to leap between rocks. Whereas finishing a music efficiently supposedly raises Moira’s energy, the change usually feels negligible. By the tip, the segments wind up feeling like lengthy, repetitive interludes constructed to make flatland traversal a bit extra flavorful. Although to Inkle’s credit score, these segments are dwelling to a few of the greatest music you’ll hear in a online game this 12 months, because the passionate Scottish people tunes convey cultural authenticity to the journey.

Like Moira, A Highland Music feels prefer it’s on a quest to find its personal id at occasions. It throws a whole lot of gameplay genres on the wall and so they don’t at all times work collectively, like a teenage goth attempting to slot in with the jocks. It could possibly lead to some messy moments, like my doomed first playthrough that left me little alternative however to reset. There’s some inadvertent honesty in that, although. It wouldn’t be a real teenage coming-of-age story if it was too afraid to search out its voice by experimentation. A Highland Music reminds us that it’s OK to strive one thing new and perhaps even slip up, so long as we’re keen to select ourselves up after and preserve transferring with confidence. That’s what rising up is all about.

A Highland Story was examined on PC and Steam Deck OLED.

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