Hollow Knight...................
A crumbling empire built on past glory but enough of work, escapes into an enormous fantasy world as a tiny cute bug.
A crumbling empire built on glories of the past, an empty-eyed insect hero bent on saving it. One of the best open-world platform games we’ve ever played.
A2D action-platformer in the Metroidvania style, meaning it’s centered around exploring an open map, hunting for secrets, and finding abilities that let you reach previously inaccessible areas. What makes it stand out, above all else, is how expansive and detailed the dense subterranean kingdom of Hallownest is. Its world design alone puts it at the top of the genre.
You enter a world long past its prime—a dying kingdom, its society torn to pieces and its heroes already fallen. There’s nothing but a desolate and dark landscape on the surface and a winding catacomb filled with the stink of death below. You control an emotionless knight, your purpose not entirely clear at the outset, and delve into that land to ward off the evil within.
Except you’re really an adorable little bug-man, fighting and befriending other adorable bug-people. While Hollow Knight is set in what is ostensibly a medieval fantasy kingdom, it’s got a buggy carapace stretched over everything. The devastation and loss in Hallownest’s history is palpable, but the cute art style means the tone is never overbearing or depressing. The heavy themes have a light-heartedness about them without slipping into parody.
The NPCs you meet are all quirky and cartoonish, but still feel like coherent parts of the world. A few favourites include a pudgy shopkeeper who can’t stop giggling, a kindly wandering swordsman who has lost his memory, and the tiny but boisterous Zote the Mighty. They also help unravel HollowKnight’s story bit by bit, which can be hard to fully piece together.
The fighting is fairly simple: you mostly dance around enemies, trying to slash in with a “nail” (your sword) while dodging attacks. Hits feel chunky and real, bouncing you back a little every time. Likewise, when an enemy lands a hit, you feel it. But HollowKnight’s combat never did much to surprise over the course of the game. You fight with the same weapon and essentially the same moveset the entire time.
Charming
Charms imbue the player with special abilities, but you only have a limited number of ‘notches’ in which to equip them. They can do simple things such as increase the amount of Soul you get from hitting enemies or improve your attack range. The stronger the effect they have, the more notches they take.
Beating difficult bosses is often a process of finding a new charm combination to give you an edge. Certain bosses need extra range, others extra health. Charms come alongside permanent ability unlocks, most of which are movement abilities including dash, double jump, and wall climbing.
It’s a good thing HollowKnight’s movement feels so great, because there’s a huge amount of space to traverse. Even after getting a Steam achievement for unlocking all the game’s maps, there were more hidden areas to find, each with its own theme, enemies, and history within Hallownest.
The more effort you put into it, the more HollowKnight rewards with thrilling challenges and beautiful, storied caverns to discover. A surprising amount of HollowKnight can be completely missed or ignored. Whole sections of the map are locked behind easy-to-miss destructible walls, and one of its three possible endings can be achieved without even dipping a toe into most of the game’s optional areas.
The sheer amount of stuff to do is staggering. At around the five hour mark, the map opens up and you start losing track of all the different things you could be doing. It’s overwhelming, but it also means there’s almost never a wrong choice in where to go.