The atmosphere captures you almost immediately. The darkness, the gloominess and the almost gothic-like architecture of Hallownest invites you to explore it and get lost in the world. When it comes to how we define a metroidvania, or any videogame for that matter: Hollow Knight is a monumental achievement.
I'll try to tackle every major aspect one at a time. Exploration is clearly the most important focus of Hollow Knight. Given what I said in the first section of the review, it should not surprise you that Hallownest instills a desire for exploration and adventure to the player. It encourages you to go off the beaten path, or actually, it has no beaten path whatsoever. Hallownest is filled to the brim with secrets, areas and atmospheres to take in and experience to the fullest. From the eeriest and deepest parts of Deepnest to the gothic City of Tears, the game is not only atmospheric, but well designed with an encouragement to explore every last inch of it and see everything that it has to show. The map mechanic works with this to never show you exactly what is where, and entice you to find out by yourself, or perhaps get lost.
When you get lost, all you have to yourself is your nail. You will face off against cute insects and terrifying monstrosities that will test your skills as a player but always offer fairness above anything. The combat is simple, but allows for endless possibilities and combinations of abilities through the Charm mechanic. Mixing and matching different playstyles for variety and an added level of challenge. Like any Metroidvania, you gain power-ups and abilities that unlock more paths to explore and more tactics during combat, but your go-to will always be your trusty nail sword, which you can use, refine and upgrade as you wish. The simplicity of the combat combined with the customization aspect grant Hollow Knight a challenging, but fair and fun combat system.
Moving on to the art: This game has an art-style and atmosphere which are unlike anything I've ever played. The hand-drawn animations are simple, but charming with character designs and voices that I will certainly never forget. The relief of finding Cornifer, or the intrigue of a character like Hornet. All of these characters are in equal parts memorable and well-written. The dialogue and story are reminiscent of Dark Souls, in that there are a lot of plot threads that the player can either interpret as they want to, or completely unfounded for someone who doesn't set out to find them. All of the art and story are pushed to even greater heights by Christopher Larkin's excellent score. The boss themes and area music are excellent, memorable and instill every emotion they want to instill. From fear, to challenge, to epicness, to serenity. Hollow Knight's soundtrack is one of the things I loved the most.
All of this comes in a complete package that, even if you are thorough, you will still have much to do in when you finish it. The amount of content is almost unbelievable when compared to the price-tag. The amount of sheer quality content is a testament to the passion of the developers. The Grimm Troupe is my favorite out of the DLCs with one of my favorite bosses and music added to the already complete package that is the base game of Hollow Knight. I fully expect someone to instill more than 60 hours into this adventure.
Hollow Knight comes to a gorgeous climax. Once your each the end, which I won't spoil, you start to see everything come together. The last 30 minutes of your playthrough will most likely combine every aspect I have talked about. The adventure to the final area, accompanied with beautiful and exciting music, art, and writing with a final segment that puts every one of your skills acquired to the test. And once it's all over, all you have is an even more vast, exciting and beautiful possibilities for adventure.
Even after the end, Hollow Knight instills an adventurous spirit into the player and encourages you to see it all and once you're done, look back at everything and marvel at how excellent, detailed and beautiful the game of Hollow Knight is.
I'll try to tackle every major aspect one at a time. Exploration is clearly the most important focus of Hollow Knight. Given what I said in the first section of the review, it should not surprise you that Hallownest instills a desire for exploration and adventure to the player. It encourages you to go off the beaten path, or actually, it has no beaten path whatsoever. Hallownest is filled to the brim with secrets, areas and atmospheres to take in and experience to the fullest. From the eeriest and deepest parts of Deepnest to the gothic City of Tears, the game is not only atmospheric, but well designed with an encouragement to explore every last inch of it and see everything that it has to show. The map mechanic works with this to never show you exactly what is where, and entice you to find out by yourself, or perhaps get lost.
When you get lost, all you have to yourself is your nail. You will face off against cute insects and terrifying monstrosities that will test your skills as a player but always offer fairness above anything. The combat is simple, but allows for endless possibilities and combinations of abilities through the Charm mechanic. Mixing and matching different playstyles for variety and an added level of challenge. Like any Metroidvania, you gain power-ups and abilities that unlock more paths to explore and more tactics during combat, but your go-to will always be your trusty nail sword, which you can use, refine and upgrade as you wish. The simplicity of the combat combined with the customization aspect grant Hollow Knight a challenging, but fair and fun combat system.
Moving on to the art: This game has an art-style and atmosphere which are unlike anything I've ever played. The hand-drawn animations are simple, but charming with character designs and voices that I will certainly never forget. The relief of finding Cornifer, or the intrigue of a character like Hornet. All of these characters are in equal parts memorable and well-written. The dialogue and story are reminiscent of Dark Souls, in that there are a lot of plot threads that the player can either interpret as they want to, or completely unfounded for someone who doesn't set out to find them. All of the art and story are pushed to even greater heights by Christopher Larkin's excellent score. The boss themes and area music are excellent, memorable and instill every emotion they want to instill. From fear, to challenge, to epicness, to serenity. Hollow Knight's soundtrack is one of the things I loved the most.
All of this comes in a complete package that, even if you are thorough, you will still have much to do in when you finish it. The amount of content is almost unbelievable when compared to the price-tag. The amount of sheer quality content is a testament to the passion of the developers. The Grimm Troupe is my favorite out of the DLCs with one of my favorite bosses and music added to the already complete package that is the base game of Hollow Knight. I fully expect someone to instill more than 60 hours into this adventure.
Hollow Knight comes to a gorgeous climax. Once your each the end, which I won't spoil, you start to see everything come together. The last 30 minutes of your playthrough will most likely combine every aspect I have talked about. The adventure to the final area, accompanied with beautiful and exciting music, art, and writing with a final segment that puts every one of your skills acquired to the test. And once it's all over, all you have is an even more vast, exciting and beautiful possibilities for adventure.
Even after the end, Hollow Knight instills an adventurous spirit into the player and encourages you to see it all and once you're done, look back at everything and marvel at how excellent, detailed and beautiful the game of Hollow Knight is.
neptea
2 years ago