by Marcel Dufresne
May 24, 2024
A Highland Song is a narrative side-scrolling adventure game. You play as Moira McKinnon who is running away from home. For fifteen years she has lived with her mum in a small house on the edge of the Scottish Highlands. Then, one day, she receives a letter from her Uncle Hamish urging her to come to the coast. If she can reach his lighthouse in time, a wonderful surprise will be waiting. She has never been to the sea and the chance to go is too alluring to resist. She sets off on this quest, not knowing how she will get from her home to the lighthouse.
In the Highlands, every peak has a story to tell. The hills are full of secrets and stories, but what you find will depend on where you go. The narrative is not branching but weaving. There are almost unlimited ways to get to the sea. You will need to wend your way from one mountain range to the next, getting ever closer. This is the real puzzle of the game. As this is a side-scrolling game, movement is limited to each side. Moira can jump from one hill to another but moving to the next range requires finding a path. You must climb peaks to orient yourself and plan your next steps. The hills are crisscrossed by routes. Some are well-trodden and marked with signposts, others hidden away. Discovering these routes is the only way to move forward. Route markers (posts) can often be found but there are special shortcuts available. As she wanders along, maps can be found that detail these hidden paths. Locating their exact location is a problem. I had a very hard time pinpointing some of them, especially as the clouds obscured a lot of the view. The mountain peaks offer a good view of the next range as well as a hint as to the location of the lighthouse.
To exacerbate the quest, the Highlands’ crags are unforgiving and its summits are cold. Expect rain some time every day which will harm your health. Health is indicated by a vertical bar on the left side of the screen. Red is good. Blue indicates that Moira is suffering. This is due to the wet rainy weather or exhaustion from her mountain climbing. The many falls she takes do not help. As she has six days to get to the lighthouse, she can reset her health bar by resting. The preferred resting spots are abandoned houses but these are not always present at the end of the day. Overhangs and caves offer some comfort but they might not fully rejuvenate her health. Moira’s trek will not be easy.
Movement is accomplished with the arrow keys. Up to climb and down to slowly lower yourself. The space bar lets you jump. Combining the up arrow and the space bar gets you climbing up some very steep places. Spelunking provides another means to get to the next mountain range. Crawling from one end to the other can be just what you need to get to the next range. Caves provide adequate shelter from the rain. They also are good spots to find special maps.
Jumping and climbing move Moira along the paths. She will get winded as any mountain climber would. If she does not take a few seconds to rest, she is prone to falling down the precipices and having to repeat the climb. I strongly suggest taking breaks when she does get breathless. Jumping from one pinnacle to another is a harrowing experience but often the only way to move along the chosen path. Scree is another problem. It is an accumulation of loose rocks on the sides of mountains. If Moira ventures onto this, she will slide down to the bottom, often injuring herself. There is no way to climb up scree. It is a one-way downward trip.
The good thing about the game is that even if her health completely drops to zero, the game can continue. If she dies, Moira is awakened near her last location and can continue on her trek. This might delay her arrival to the lighthouse. The main purpose of the game is to arrive at the lighthouse within the set six-day period. However, the game does not end if you fail to meet the deadline. She can still continue on and get to the lighthouse. I failed miserably the first few times I played. I was completely lost in the hills the first two times. So I restarted from her home. Eventually, I discovered that the ‘Z’ or zoom function can be enhanced by holding down the return key. This function highlighted the available paths I could use and thus I was never at a loss as to which way to move. Using this method of scouting the routes, I finally made it to the lighthouse, albeit a few days late.
Once complete, the game gave me a summary of my progress. It listed the peaks I had found and named and the number of days it took me. After getting to the lighthouse, replaying the game is a lot easier. Maps and items you found are already available. You don’t have to find them over again. Each time you play, there are new trinkets to be found. And when I zoom in, the paths I had previously located are marked. This makes progress through the hills so much easier. It is no guarantee that you will get there in six days but every time you replay, success is one step closer.
There are numerous characters that you might interact with along the way. These can be helpful and provide hints. My first encounter was a traveler with a welcoming campfire. I was able to spend the night there and resume my walk the next day. When interacting with the characters, you get to pick from a list of dialogue choices. There are many items to be picked up along the way. Sparkles indicate the hot spots to investigate. Trading or leaving items is another way to gain valuable information.
At times, the game will offer to let you run along a mountain trail. You can run and hop in time with the music. This might sound like a quick way to cover ground, but the space bar has to be hit at specific spots in time to the music allowing Moira to jump over obstacles as she runs along. I found this to be a perilous way to move as I often fell and lost a lot of health doing this. Who would have known that running down the side of a mountain could be dangerous?
There are 36 achievements to be won when playing the game through Steam. These range from naming and climbing 10 peaks to getting to the lighthouse (late or not). All of these are within your power to attain. Getting all of them is another impetus to replay the game. The game is meant to be replayed over and over again. It induces you to complete the six-day limit by hiding new trinkets every time. Not having to refind maps is another reason to play again.
This side-scrolling adventure brings the Highlands to life. Click here to read more about the game and to watch some videos of the gameplay. The mountain climbing and spelunking are quite realistic. The dynamic weather effects also add to the realism. Don’t get discouraged playing it. The more you play, the better your chances of getting to the lighthouse in time. Are you up to the challenge? There is no right path. Can you help Moira find a way across the unforgiving mountain range wilderness in time?
Mause Reviews 