A Highland Song: Everything You Should Know

A Highland Song follows teenager Moira McKinnon as she runs away across the Scottish Highlands toward the sea. It is a warm, windswept adventure where finding a route matters as much as reaching the destination.

A Highland Song at a Glance

• Status: Released
• Release date: Dec 5, 2023
• Developer: inkle Ltd
• Publisher: inkle Ltd
• Genres: Adventure, Indie
• Steam platforms: Windows, Mac
• Modes: Single-player.
• Controls: Full controller support.

Storyline and Setting

Fifteen-year-old Moira McKinnon has never seen the sea. After a letter from Uncle Hamish promises a surprise at his lighthouse, she leaves home and crosses the Scottish Highlands alone. Her route weaves together family secrets, local history and folklore: sleeping giants, singing ghosts, crows and other stories may appear depending on which valleys and peaks she explores.

Gameplay and Core Systems

Moira climbs, scrambles, and sprints across a hand-drawn landscape while weather, stamina, maps, and player-chosen paths shape the journey. Rhythm-driven runs punctuate quieter exploration, and repeated playthroughs reveal alternative routes and story details.

Moira climbs cliffs, explores caves, leaps across rocks and slides down scree while cold, wind and rain threaten her health. One hundred map fragments reveal routes and shortcuts, and reaching high ground helps orient the journey. Rhythm runs reshape the landscape around music by TALISK, Fourth Moon and composer Laurence Chapman. Replays matter because paths and discoveries overlap rather than form a simple branching tree. Difficulty assists cover weather, climbing prompts, rhythm complexity, route highlighting, remappable keyboard controls, vibration and audio.

Art, Audio, and Atmosphere

Hand-painted landscapes make weather and distance easy to feel, but music is just as important as the art. The score combines Laurence Chapman's work with Scottish folk performances by TALISK and Fourth Moon; during rhythm runs, movement and terrain synchronize with the music. Quieter stretches rely on wind, rain, birds, and the sense of being alone among enormous hills.

Campaign, Progression, and Replayability

A single crossing will not show every path or memory. Moira can piece together 100 map fragments, learn safer or faster routes, and discover stories tied to different peaks and valleys. Weather, shelter, navigation, and the deadline at the coast give each route texture, while rhythm runs turn stretches of the landscape into musical platforming. Replays are meaningful because knowledge of the terrain changes the journey rather than simply raising a difficulty number.

Steam currently lists 36 achievements. Steam currently lists 1 add-on entry for this app.

Multiplayer, VR, and Controller Support

Modes: Single-player. Controls: Full controller support.

Release and Current Availability

A Highland Song was released on Dec 5, 2023 by inkle Ltd, with inkle Ltd publishing. Its current PC edition is listed on Steam for Windows, Mac.

Languages and Accessibility

Steam-listed language support: English
languages with full audio support

Steam-listed accessibility and presentation features: No specific accessibility feature labels are currently supplied on the Steam listing.

PC System Requirements

Minimum

• OS *: Windows 7 or later
• Processor: SSE2 instruction set support
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 660 / AMD Radeon HD 7850, 2+ Gb of vram
• Storage: 3 GB available space

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Who Should Play A Highland Song?

This is for players who value atmosphere, music, exploration, and choice-driven storytelling more than combat or traditional platforming difficulty.