A Highland Song Reviews
A Highland Song is a beautiful adventure, platforming and rhythm game that perfectly captures the joy of exploration and the magic of a journey through the wild, untamed Scottish Highlands.
A Highland Song is a game with a special place in my memory. The fact that it is a peaceful journey through the Scottish Highlands or has stunning hand-drawn images is not why it is so popular. Throughout the entirety of this game, the Celtic way may be found in every single aspect. Seeing the Gaelic language on the screen and listening to the traditional music as you run over the highlands are great experiences.
It is just a beautiful genre matched with a good story solid gameplay and a real masterclass, I cannot praise or recommend this game enough.
A Highland Song looks good and has plenty of impressive moments. Moira is a great character, able to take her love for her uncle and Scottish legends to imbue the world around her, harsh as it might be, with magic.
This is a game that is about optimizing your way through the mountains but also grapples with the reality that that level of optimization isn't feasible. That ethereal otherworldliness lingers throughout every engrossing hour, beckoning you to find the most efficient path to the lighthouse while also tying up every loose end. This is a beautiful, gorgeous game that shouldn't be missed.
A Highland Song is just as unique and nuanced as I had hoped, and the developer did an outstanding job at bringing a wild sense of adventure and emotion to a 2D title.
A Highland Song is yet another Inkle center. An adventure platformer capable of mixing the pleasure of trekking (beautifully rendered in 2D) with a delicate, enveloping and branched narrative like the paths that cross the highlands. An intimate story, the one that Moira constantly broods over to herself, but also a cultural cross-section of a land rich in myths, legends, traditions and history, embellished by very human characters, a little crazy, capable of becoming fun interlocutors with whom to have a chat after a long climb, resting and sheltering from the cold of the mountains. Suggestive, audiovisually inspired, playfully fluid and very centered. Now I really want to visit Scotland.
Review in Italian | Read full review
A Highland Song has so much heart, it's hard not to find something to love. I was drawn into the game due to the rhythm based traversal for running up the hills. With music from Laurence Chapman, Talisk and Fourth Moon, I found myself running up and down hills just to get the songs perfect. The story also has such a sweet progression, each hint drawing you closer and closer to the truth of it all. Plus, with how much there is to explore and the time mechanic, the replayability is insane given the cost of the game. From the art style to the music to the adventure itself, it's easy to get lost in the Highland Song.
A Highland Song is such a beautiful game, whether you find its charm in the soundtrack, gorgeous visuals, or wonderful story.
A Highland Song is a very different kind of game visually to Inkle’s previous work but is very much in keeping with their narrative focus. Combined with satisfying mechanics and a beautiful aesthetic this is a real treat, all topped off with folk music that’ll have your feet gaily tapping and a central performance brimming with personality. All in all a perfect game to curl up with on a cold winter’s night with a glass of single malt, or, perhaps, an Irn Bru.
Despite the often confusing world design and the anxiety-inducing timer, every other aspect of the game was strong enough that those complaints became mere blemishes on an otherwise fantastic experience. Elevated by tight controls, some excellent writing, and an art style that only becomes stronger the more you look at it, A Highland Song is such a unique and touching experience that I can’t help but recommend it. Get in, indeed.
A Highland Song is a beautiful snapshot of wild places and wild stories, but it stumbles a bit in the process of encouraging you to run into them.
A Highland Song is frequently beautiful, elegiac and magical, but one’s tolerance for its somewhat uneven gameplay will impact how much you will get back out of it. It should also be mentioned that on PC there is no mouse support, and while it plays fine with a keyboard, a controller is certainly the preferred method. Nevertheless, I did enjoy my jaunt across the Highlands, whenever I wasn’t falling off them or getting lost in the rain.
A Highland Song is beautiful and heartwarming; it feels like you are in the highlands of Scotland that’s immersed in the area’s culture. A’body should play this game, enjoy Moira’s thoughts, and skedaddle aff over the auld highlands. A Highland Song is a wee belter of a game and one of the best games I’ve played this year when Moira and I saw the sea.