A Highland Song

A Highland Song is another winner from inkle, and despite being a complete genre shift from 80 Days it has a lot of the same things going for it. It’s a beautiful game to be sure, and the writing is both meaningful and a pleasure to parse. But the gameplay itself uses what are fairly basic mechanics to create a surprisingly complex journey, one that offers so many secrets and branching paths that you’ll almost certainly want to play through it again the minute you arrive at the conclusion for the first time. A real joy, in every sense of the word.

Moira McKinnon runs fast and never looks back. The challenges of the Highlands have bent the Romans, but not a fifteen-year-old girl determined to see the sea: the fast pace and the resolute look make Moira one of the most interesting video game protagonists of this year. The splendor of Scotland and the artistry of Inkle do the rest: In Highland Song never gets bored thanks to the continuous surprises of the Scottish hills and mountains, now beaten by incessant winds, now tormented by a seemingly endless snow.

A Highland Song is yet another confirmation for Inkle. A platform adventure capable of mixing the pleasure of trekking (beautifully rendered in 2D) with a delicate, enveloping and branching narrative like the paths that cross the highlands. An intimate story, the one that Moira constantly mulls over to herself, but also a cultural cross-section of a land rich in myths, legends, traditions and history, embellished with very human, slightly crazy characters, capable of becoming fun interlocutors with whom have a chat after a long climb, resting and sheltering from the cold of the mountains. Suggestive, audiovisually inspired, playfully fluid and very focused. Now I really want to visit Scotland.

A Highland Song is such a beautiful game, whether you find its charm in the soundtrack, gorgeous visuals, or wonderful story.

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.

Even with my relatively minor issues, A Highland Song is a powerful game filled with a distinct mystique. The overall goal requires playing through it a few times, but with each playthrough, you have more peaks and paths accessible right from the get-go. 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.

Exploring the Scottish Highlands can be more tiring than one could imagine. In A Highland Song, a new perspective awaits you. Between beautiful and deadly mountains, Moira's journey towards his uncle's lighthouse becomes an adventure to not forget, due to good and (a few) bad reasons.

I enjoyed A Highland Song so much that I almost went through my first attempt to reach the lighthouse in a single sitting, and then did get there the second time I played through it. I’m excited to go through it again, next time taking a different path and more leisurely approach. It’s good at building up a world through context, and I want to see if I can hear and learn more about Moira and her life by traveling alongside her again.

Exploring the mountains of the Scottish highlands and having bizarre encounters are at the heart of A Highland Song, packaging up everything into a cute side scroller with rhythm action and fun dialogue that feels very unique. Not only is the game a love letter to Scotland, it feels like a very personal project full of talented individuals and while the game has occasional slow moments it is overall a lot of fun. If an atmospheric adventure featuring a wee Scottish lassie is on yer cards then this comes highl(and)y recommended.

A Highland Song is wonderful. The atmosphere that permeates the game is intoxicating and will make you want to search every inch of the environment. There is a real incentive to replay the game due to the many routes and the timed objective. Although the survival aspect feels a little unnecessary, there are plenty of elements within the design that will make you fall in love with Scotland.

I remember my grandpa telling stories about his beloved motorbike that he got as a teenager – the freedom he felt to explore the countryside, to map out the land he loved, knowing, perhaps, that one day he’d have to leave it. Decades later, he still remembered how the Abergavenny of his childhood looked, how it sounded, how it fit together. A Highland Song might not be Inkle’s best game, but it’s the studio’s most evocative work – it’s a reminder that wherever we are, we are surrounded by stories.

This trek across forbidding crags and through crumbling caves demands resilience and determination, but rewards it with a wonderfully rich and atmospheric sense of place.

Keeps the player entertained for as long as it is needed.

A captivating and fascinating journey, but an improvable game.

I’m in a weird spot with A Highland Song. On one hand, the game didn’t provide me with the kind of experience I was expecting from the trailer. On the other, what actually is here was an interesting and engaging experience. Exploring and finding the various ways forward constantly kept my interest, even through occasionally frustrating moments. The rhythm runs, while disappointingly uncommon, provided nice breaks from the core gameplay flow and some wonderful tunes to listen to alongside. While it wasn’t what I expected, it was a journey worth going on. The Scottish Highlands are calling, and it’s a call that you may just want to answer.

I can take the journey to the lighthouse with Moira as many times as I want and, given enough time I will uncover every story within A Highland Song. But there is a cost. No magic would be left in those hills nor the memory of my first journey. There will be no more songs to hear. And that leaves me with a very empty feeling.

A Highland Song's folklore-infused adventure takes "walking simulator" to the extreme, as you pull its teen runaway Moira up and down the cliffs and mountains of the Scottish highlands, finding treasures, music, and magic along the way. But its repetitious nature wears away the joy of exploration, and further playthroughs are a struggle between the thrill of new discoveries and the tedium of having to retread old ground.

It’s great to see a game about a culture that often doesn’t see a lot of focus. A Highland Song has a lot of great concepts, but they just don’t all come together cohesively. Even so, it has a story worth telling and some pretty fantastic music to boot.