Hollow Knight Review

Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania game from Team Cherry, and will be getting a sequel in Silksong sometime in the future.

From the first moment you enter the game, the visuals and sound enthrall you with dark colors, punctuated with the brightness of light. The player is welcomed to the land of Hallownest in the form of a silent and small bug that remains unnamed throughout the game. Team Cherry, a small two-person team, with the aid of Christopher Larkin for music has injected their soul and time into game, and as a result, their game is a gem. You should give the game a chance.

 

Immersion

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            Hollow Knight’s experience, from the opening sequence, promises to envelop you into the world of Hallownest. Where many games might fail by not having a unified theme in story and design, Hollow Knight thrives on the many well-imagined, insectoid characters and bug themed locales. The choice of designing a vast majority the creatures in Hallownest after bugs, provides an experience that can be both unsettling and creative. Team Cherry plays off a general fear of spiders and creepy crawlies, which makes the trek through areas like Deepnest a harrowing experience, as the accompanying music frays the player’s nerves. As some bugs dwell in crevasses while others, like butterflies, can zoom around in the open sun air, this gives Team Cherry a varied world which maintains the unified theme of “bug,” completing the game’s immersive experience.

On a practical level, the designs of the environment are appealing. Team Cherry put a lot of effort into making the game look top-notch and feel that way too.  Despite the active visuals, and particle effects, the player can always find their character and, in a split second, determine what is hostile around them. Team Cherry’s choice of using distinct and sharp colors to mitigate any clutter there may be on the screen is important in determining what is what in some of the more active encounters.

Every region of Hallownest is distinctive in its visual design, and if a player were to take a snapshot of the game, you can determine what is happening and where it is. This level of thought is important in providing information, yet it does not disturb the immersion of the game. Even as the player moves down through Hallownest, past the Great Basin, and into the Abyss; the color, while it is supposed to be leeched out of the world to show the lack of life, is still a distinct color brown to mesh with the unified design of the game. Team Cherry masterfully is able to show the themes of each area, yet they do so without destroying the immersion of the game, or breaking its unified design.

Music is another factor to consider when looking at the immersion that Hollow Knight provides. Christopher Larkin does an excellent job at making sure the music is appropriate to the visuals of the screen; as your character is traversing a forest, the music is appropriate to walking through a forest; if you are fighting a spooky monster in the depths of Hallownest then the music is brimming with tension to make you scared (Shout out to Nosk). While this is a simple touch, the way that Team Cherry weaves the music into the unified design of the game, simply just makes the immersive seat that the player wants to be in, that much warmer and more comfortable.

 

A Wary Player

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            The gameplay in Hollow Knight encourages the player to be cautious and wait for their moment to strike with precision. The player’s level of health is shown by masks in the top left corner of the screen, and are affected, more, by how many times they are hit, rather than an enemy doing a certain amount of damage. There are stronger hits that will do twice as much damage, yet, as a player, you generally know the number of times you can take a hit before you die. The more mistakes a player makes leading up to an encounter, can affect whether or not you are successful in getting through it. If you are wary as you traverse the game, the player can mitigate the mistakes you will inevitably make more frustrating portions of the game more manageable, as with many difficult platformers. Due to the sparsity of the monsters that do two masks of damage, when a creepy crawly does do two masks of damage, it gives them a larger importance and instantly creates tension in the game. As I play the game, whenever I find a monster that is more dangerous, it alters my playstyle in a heartbeat, and it creates a moment of achievement whenever you kill one of these creatures un harmed. The design of the moment, to dangerous moment, to moment plants a seed of awareness that bleeds into the player’s skill and forces them to be precise and intentional with their controls, and this can be easier if the player is wary.

This wariness also prevents the exploration from becoming too repetitive. This is important because, at times, it can (probably, will) feel like you are banging your head against a wall as you fail to beat one boss, speaking from experience. Coming up against the tougher enemies sharpens your timing and thought, forcing you to become a better player to match the innate difficulty of the game. However, if your skills are still not up to snuff, getting stuck can truly frustrate the player and stagnate any player’s experience. Team Cherry tries to solve this in two ways, both of which are extremely necessary for some bosses:

First: In many areas there are secret passages, and alternate routes to shorten the time taken to get from a bench to a boss. This will reduce the time where a player might make mistakes by entering the fight with two masks remaining out of five. It does not guarantee that the player will succeed in a fight, but it reduces the impact of the player’s mistakes by making the skill level required to overcome a boss fight more dependent on the fight than the simple mistake of mistiming a jump up a spikey wall in the preceding room.

Second: Due to the “open-world” feel of the game a player can leave their current objective and explore Hallownest. This gives them the opportunity to get new items, a different skill, more health, and experience. All of the things needed to take down a massive threat, just later. I would definitely recommend exploring Hallownest, if a player is stuck. The world of Hallownest is already so detailed and immersive, that it means your player experience can still continue.

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Hallownest

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            As I hinted in the previous paragraph, the world of Hallownest is an “open-world,” which seemed to be a partial trend in the year that it was released. While Hollow Knight is not as true to the open world concept as Breath of the Wild was, it feels like one. Exploration in Hollow Knight does not feel compelled to go in one direction. There is a path that is hinted at for the player to travel down, to make sure, that the player is able to get the essential items to finish the game, but it is not shoved in the player’s face. For example, the double jump upgrade: In one play through I stumbled across it as I was exploring and was pleasantly surprised. [SPOILERS (It’s been out since 2017 though, not sorry.)***] After getting the double jump I went on to kill the dreamers and then finish the game. But, on a subsequent playthrough I have killed two of the dreamers and have yet to get the double jump. In fact, I am contemplating trying to finish the game without it. [***] In any open-world game this is one crucial facet. The variety in path a player can take through an open-world game provides longevity to an experience where a player can challenge themselves to play faster and harder, while at the same time maintaining a fresh feeling. This does not supplement moment to moment game play, but it does contribute to memories and a true enjoyment of the game in its entirety.  And, the more memorable a moment the better a player remembers game, and thinks fondly of it. Providing the variety and the sense of achievement a player might crave for, eg. beating the final boss without an upgrade, reveals to the player, “Hey, you really are good at this. Good job.” A simple thought, but one that remains with the player and their experience. Though a game can be good, and garner a positive reaction, true love for a game lies in being able to master it.

            The world of Hallownest grew after its release. By this I mean, free DLC. Team Cherry delivered on their promise of free DLC, which all in all, makes the experience better, as the player is getting free stuff and everyone likes free. When considering a game, many players will evaluate the experience against the cost of it. Though I believe that people will pay for anything if it is truly a memorable experience, the fact that Hollow Knight, in my opinion, is already worth the initial price tag, and they still have to audacity to provide four DLC updates at no additional cost is definitely something to consider. In terms of the game being memorable or enjoyable this will just be another positive mark for the player.

 

The End of the Road?

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            For fans of metroidvanias, this game is a must, and a classic in the genre, which it is already. While all the things I mentioned throughout this review are at their essence basic things any game should adhere to, it executes those things well. Very well. Like any good game, this game promises to provide a good experience, one that you may find valuable and worth it, but definitely something you expect it to provide. If someone is not a fan of the genre and can’t stand metroidvania games; I would still recommend this game. It will challenge you, of course, but I believe that this game provides much needed value to the gaming industry outside of its genre, in its unified theme of the world and simply in the way it tells the story of Hallownest. What Hollow Knight “has to say” is that with passion and ideas anyone can produce a good game, provided you put the time and effort into it.

            I am eager to get my hands on Silksong after playing Hollow Knight. Team Cherry will provide another promising and memorable experience to the player.