Hollow Knight Review
-
Developers: Team Cherry
-
Publishers: Team Cherry
-
Genres: Adventure, Platformer, Action, "MetroidVania"
-
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch
-
Release date:
-
Original release (PC): February 24th 2017
-
Nintendo Switch: June 12th 2018
-
PS4/Xbox One: September 25th 20180
-
-
Playtime: 25 hours (completed the story)
-
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch
-
Note: this is a review of the whole content found in the Hollow Knight content, that is, I’m including the free DLCs as part of the game’s content
Hollow Knight is a game that, while clearly inspired by the so-called “MetroidVania genre”, is way more than a simple 2D adventure-platformer clone. With its interesting characters, environments, world building and gameplay, Hollow Knight is a truly special game that compels the player to keep pushing through the hard parts to learn about the unknown that lies beyond the challenges standing in its way.
Starting off with the gameplay, per tradition of the “MetroidVania genre”, you start off with basic combat and traversal options, in the case of this game: jumping, a nail to attack enemies with and a power (spell) to heal yourself by focusing soul (we’ll come back to this later). These make up the core of combat and exploration, so you better get used to jumping over enemies to avoid incoming attacks and landing some blows yourself while in the air.
Speaking of jumping around, I really liked the way the game pushed you towards making full use of what you have at your disposal during combat, with some of what you use in exploration being partly incorporated into combat. Things like using walls as jumping points or the height of rooms limiting your combat options are not rare additions to encounters. Yes, there’s no doubt combat is quite challenging but, in part, that’s because encounters are not as linear as you might think they will be. For example, enemies aren’t passive at all, if you don’t take the initiative then you can be sure they will throw the first punch, and the second, and the third, and… you get the idea. Specially in the early hours when you’re still getting used to movement and, to a certain degree, mixing defense and offense, it can become quite complex and downright frustrating. Enemies don’t let up, so you do have to make decisions on the fly such as “can I land an extra attack before he turns around?” or “will I have enough time to heal and still dodge the next attack?”. In general, combat is quite intense, half because enemies are constantly pushing you out of your comfort zone and the other half because of the many things you need to be thinking about while fighting.
Still on the topic of gameplay, let’s talk about unlockables or, in the context of this game, spells, charms, abilities and upgrades. Spells are akin to magic, which can be used to deal a lot of damage to enemies or even to heal yourself. However, casting spells costs soul, so you better think through when to use them. Thankfully, attacking enemies or getting hit recovers soul, which means you’ll be able to use spells as long as you can manage yourself in combat. Charms are equippable items that offer passive skills which can be quite influential on how you approach each encounter. You can only equip a handful at a time, so you have to manage which passive skills are truly critical and how you can handle yourself without relying on some bonuses. As a counterpart to spells, abilities are just extra options for movement. These can come in the form of dashes, wall jumping, … (no more mentions for the sake of avoiding further spoilers). Lastly, upgrades are just what the name implies: upgrades to your nail to deal more damage, health increases or soul meter increases.
Given your basic options at the start, adding a new move to your repertoire surely improves your situation. In other words, you immediately feel stronger and more confident because being able to dash mid-air gives you some more air time, and shooting soul bullets allows you to attack enemies from a distance. My point is, every time you unlock something new, be it a spell, an ability, etc., you’ll definitely feel its importance and, given the game’s backtracking-oriented nature, you’ll immediately think back to all those places you’ve seen and that you can now access with the newfound power. On the other hand, these unlocks are spread across the world quite well, which can be blocked by a boss battle, require you to unlock another ability beforehand or, perhaps, hidden behind breakable walls. In short, unlockables are always meaningful when you come across one, both because of its game-changing impact and because of the pacing at which you unlock new stuff.
The last element of gameplay to mention is the exploration. As I’ve said before, Hollow Knight is a tough game, period. Still, branching paths and the environment diversity can, for example, be a big help for overcoming a difficult boss. To clarify, I’m not talking about skipping bosses, rather, if there’s a tough enemy blocking your way, or you just can’t progress further because you’re missing a specific ability, you can be sure there will be at least one other path you can go explore. A lot of times, going in the opposite direction led me to a rabbit hole of finding new areas after new areas until I finally hit a roadblock realizing that I went on for hours, completely forgetting my previous objective. It’s simply addicting to push forward to try to reach the next bench (the checkpoints in this game) and see what you’ll find on your way. Usually, when I finally decided it was time I went back and faced that boss that was giving me a hard time, I could most likely brute force my way through, giving the creature a run for its money.
Still in the context of exploration, I can’t go on without talking about maps. If the game wasn’t already somber and borderline creepy enough in some instances, not having a map is the cherry on top of the cake for you and your tiny character to feel like you’re an uninvited guest wherever you go. When you first arrive at a new area, you don’t have an in-game map at all, you can only be guided by your own memory. What is the solution for this? To buy the area’s map. There’s a dedicated NPC that sells maps and whenever you see his trail on the ground it is like a ray of light in a pitch-black room. That time you spend without a map in a new area is nerve-inducing and when your first buy the map it doesn’t even show the whole area, some parts aren’t drawn until you explore them yourself. As if it wasn’t bad enough already, for your position to be marked on the map you have to wear a certain charm (acquired very early in the game). If it isn’t enough to feel like an intruder wherever you go, not knowing where you are every once in a while is just the last piece of the puzzle to make you, the player, understand you’re completely on your own.
No matter where you go, there’s always a tense atmosphere, with an omnipresent black vignette overlaying the screen. From the brief initial cutscene and masterfully-designed textless tutorial, it becomes apparent your journey through Hollownest won’t be a cheery one. The emphasis on a dark color palette combined with the lonely sounds of your nail hitting enemies and breaking walls to advance, makes you understand quickly neither the land nor its inhabitants will welcome you. Even just to enter the first area requires you to hit a wall multiple times, as if to represent the land’s will of not wanting to let “this intruder in”. From this point on, things don’t really get much better as your journey will take place mostly below the surface. In other words, the more you play the game and the further you explore, the more intense it will get, leaving you always on the edge wherever you are, specially in the darker areas where you don’t know when and where the next enemy will attack. Even in combat, the game still pulls out of its sleeve some more tricks to affect the player, as every time they are hit the sound pauses for a moment and a glass-breaking effect pops up, almost as if you could feel the character’s pain and emotions just from controlling it.
This game has a lot, and I mean a lot of bugs… but not the ones you are thinking of. Hallownest is a world inhabited by bugs and, even if the first thing you think of is disgusting creatures, then please don’t. The developers created a lot of interesting designs for the myriad of bugs you come across, imbuing them with creativity and personality. You’ll find giant hammer-wielding beetles, baby larvae to rescue, miner bugs and a lot of humanoid (at least bipedal) bugs. From the mob enemies to the thirty or so bosses, everything looks different, specially the bosses that are all unique, each with its own design, moveset and strategies. The NPCs too are commendable, both for their stories and designs. Some are battle hardened bugs that have endured the land’s challenges, others are more of the bystander type that just want to see what the land has to offer. In short, even if the game uses bugs as its characters, the work put in by the developers to make them interesting in a more fantastical context, without losing the characteristics that make bugs interesting in real life, is nothing short of incredible.
About Hollownest itself, while there are plenty of dark areas because, well, you’re underground, there are degrees of darkness if you will, as well as brighter areas. It’s certain that further down that’s where you’ll find the darker and creepier areas, but it doesn’t mean the game doesn’t make use of the diversity of the terrain. For example, Greenpath, with its abundance of fauna, is an ideal place to have enemies that can camouflage themselves in the greens, and the City of Tears is filled with noble bugs, still devoted to their duties of protecting Hollownest’s capital. On one hand, the variety of areas allows the developers to create, in some cases, habitats for certain bugs, while on the other hand it helps creating some environmental storytelling, through enemies’ behavior and placement.
One thing I purposely left out until now was the protagonist, that is, the character you control. The Knight ranks among the shortest characters in the game but, even with its small stature and always-silent attitude, it conveys more personality through its actions than many other talkative protagonists. From beginning to end, the Knight keeps his defying attitude towards anyone that dares cross his way, completely focused on the task at hand at all times. An enemy three times bigger than the Knight stands in its way? No problem, fight it the same way it fought all the other enemies so far. A lot of NPCs do make fun of the protagonist’s small frame at first (albeit they are met with the silent treatment) but, as you dig deeper and deeper into Hollownest, those same NPCs start acknowledging its achievements. Even in the face of the toughest enemies, Knight keeps its poker face and upright posture, with the only times when it really lets out any emotions being when it is close to dying, when it slouches slightly.
To conclude this review, Hollow Knight is one of the best “MetroidVanias” you can play, period. With its tight combat and rewarding exploration, playing Hollow Knight is a matter of always looking forward to what will happen next or what you’ll obtain next. New abilities and spells completely change what you can do in combat and what areas/secrets you can access. The game’s tense atmosphere and the way Team Cherry handled using bugs as the game’s characters is proof of the developers’ talent. Nonetheless, even if the game is such a brilliant piece of software, I still can’t just say “I recommend everyone to go play this game” because I know it won’t click for everyone. The difficulty curve is quite tangible, and it requires some effort to get into it. However, if you do like this genre and are willing to give the game a try, I can promise you won’t be disappointed, and the time spent in this game will definitely be something you look back to fondly. From the objectively large amount of content to play through to the variety and, most importantly, quality of said content, Hollow Knight is, by all means, an excellent game.