Hollow knight is an expansive metroidvania with a colourful cast of characters you will meet as you explore deeper into the world of hollownest, with a very striking visual style as well as precisely designed controls and powers which leads to a must own gameplay experience.
You have to appreciate how thoughtfully this game has been designed for players of all skills as this game begins a very approachable platformer it’s up to you how far you decide to take your journey down the rabbithole (or bugs nest so to speak) While it is possible to play through to an ending with a more simple journey providing a satisfying completion for those who aren’t looking to challenge themselves too much the game does go on to offer full completion and beyond content which goes as far as challenge area’s such as the secret path of pain and the optional post completion trials in the pantheon.
Alongside all of this there is a wide and expanding realm filled with area’s and biomes vastly different to each other to explore, all full of secrets you can choose to uncover hidden beyond walls and in other means. The further you venture into hollownest the more you uncover and the more gripped in the game you will become.
If you choose there are so many different pins you can equip all of which adapt to any playstyle you may wish to choose so anyone can find a setup comfortable for their wheelhouse, and this is separate to the greater powers you will absorb to open up the world to exploring new area’s in typical metroidvania fashion.
There are so many different bosses both secret and required all of which feel completely varied that you will never fight a similar boss across the entire game which is understated to how difficult it is to make all bosses feel different with different patterns and attacks that you will have to play in completely different ways for every boss in order to defeat them.
While I went on to 100% completion the game and defeat the second final boss form there is still more beyond I could have done, but this felt a satisfactory ending point for me having explored everywhere and defeated all the main world had to offer, just stopping short of the pantheons I felt adequately complete.
All of the inhabitants of hollownest felt varied and alive as you explore deeper characters aren’t simply held in their specified NPC area’s as you will often encounter a few moving alongside the story with you, which again there are secrets that should you choose events differently things can play out differently which is another very clever touch to hide such secrets for if you happen upon events in different fashions.
The characters continue to come alive with their communications with you which branch out as you explore deeper into the game and it really feels like all of the inhabitants are alive and invested in your exploration of the kingdom as you venture towards your ultimate destiny.
I have to state that the gameplay is top notch and you can’t fail to appreciate how tight the controls are as the platforming and combat are both undeniably fine tuned so you can pull off the precise manouvers you will require both for taking down challenging bosses and dodging around or through the onslaught of attacks you will face as well as tightly jumping around ledges and off tough platforming challenges without ever once feeling like the controls are letting you down, it’s truly a finely tuned set of moves that make you feel like if anything goes wrong it’s down to you and never the game letting you down.
It took me 42 hours for what I consider a thorough and full playthrough but your time may vary, and a simple quick ending can easily be achieved within 10 if you don’t wish to go for full completion. I feel that this game is so well designed with so many secrets and optional challenges that accommodate for every type of gamer as well as having such an artistically designed visual style that is diverse across the zones of hollownest while feeling tied in to the theme of the kingdom of bugs within it along with keeping characters which truly make the world feel alive that this game is undeniably one of the best platforming metroidvania’s around that this of course earns itself an indelacio star as one of the must own games for everyone.
Get hollow knight for yourself on steam now at https://store.steampowered.com/app/367520/Hollow_Knight/?snr=1_1056_4_1056_curator-tabs&curator_clanid=6860437
