Hollow Knight is a must play experience that rewards exploration and risk with a rich and challenging world, filled with varied boss battles and atmospheric locations. Finely tuned and responsive controls, balanced power-ups combined with a sometimes taxing but fair difficulty, go hand in hand to provide an adventure that could well span 40 or 50 hours in the hands of a completionist. (Highly) Recommended.

Hollow Knight is a game that concerns itself with wonder. From the charming visuals, to the moody score, to the enormous world that is fully realised and constructed with a sense of logic. It might not redefine the Metroidvania genre it occupies, but it polishes and refines to such an extent that it may well be the best example since Symphony of the Night. And whilst that could very well be a bold claim, and a giant task to live up to, Hollow Knight is an engrossing experience that demands the player’s attention as they unlock the world of Hallow Nest piece, by piece, by piece.

What’s immediately striking is the visual aesthetic, a cartoonlike, almost hand drawn world populated by denizens with an immediately recognisable character. Hollow Knight’s world is insectoid in the main, and as such enemies are often almost half recognisable, echoing a part remembered real world counterpart. Each area is markedly different, with unique inhabitants, and as a result exploration never feels too similar or repetitive. The score, ambient and often forboding, is never overbearing and whilst not eternally memorable, is a perfect accompaniment to the Knight’s adventure. And what an adventure that is, with a living world and a story driven by hints and maybe’s, lore drip fed in clues and by perhaps unreliable or malicious foes. It’s not immediately clear what the grander goal of your quest could be, but as the journey develops the finer details coalesce and it all comes together in a tale that’s so much greater than is immediately apparent. Some people may find that initial lack of narrative push difficult, but the pitch perfect gameplay is perfectly balanced to gently nudge the player in the right direction until the momentum builds enough to propel the player towards its conclusion.

So what does playing Hollow Knight actually involve? Fundamentally as a Metroidvania the game sees you gradually explore a huge interconnected map, jumping, dodging and overcoming enemies to discover new areas and secrets. Some paths onwards could be visible but inaccessible, blocked by environmental factors or seemingly impossible adversaries. But for every direction that’s a no go, there’s another trail to travel, with potential rewards to be reaped, which in turn might open up somewhere else to journey. That refreshing lack of enforced linearity, with no two players tackling the game in the same sequence, allows for a refinement of technique and skill evolution that rewards the curious. Those aforementioned rewards generally come in the form of new abilities that usually give our protagonist additional movement options, and sometimes additional combat options. Furthermore, whilst the Knights main combat tactic of sword swiping evolves little from his humble beginnings, special charms can be acquired, equipped and combined to bolster his offensive and defensive capabilities. From sprinting a little faster, to marking your position on the map or gathering up dropped currency (known here as “Geo”) the charm mechanics can be tactically manipulated to provide an advantage whatever the situation, be it a difficult boss or challenging platforming section.

Collected Geo can be spent on additional charms, charm slots (the starting allowance of 3 slots can be expanded up to 10, with better charms requiring more notches), and later weapon upgrades. Combat is simple yet satisfying, with the controls tight and responsive and deaths highlighting player inadequacy rather than an unfair game mechanic. In addition to his melee attack, the Knight has a pool of magic that he can employ on learned spells or to focus on healing himself. Healing takes a little time to kick in, and in having to remain motionless there’s an immediate risk reward mechanic to tricky situations. Do you risk pushing on to finish off a flagging foe? Or do you heal and potentially be killed off or interrupted, wasting your limited mana pool. And it’s here that another oft talked about system crops up...the death penalty. On meeting your maker, the Knight is restored at his last save spot, minus his accumulated wealth, and with around a third of his magic metre locked away. A quick glance at the map will reveal that a ghostly shade now sits at the site of his death. This is the “Souls-like” aspect of the game that sees you able to defeat your ghostly shade in order to recover your riches and restore your magic, and is a great touch that allows exploration without too much fear of punishment. Death can still happen in a moment, and Geo lost easily, with the potential penalty increasing as the Geo count grows, but there’s a wonderful freedom and challenge created by a system that punishes you for death, but not irrevocably so.

With its giant world the game is massive, easily occupying 40 or 50 hours of playtime, and yet with a precise critical path known in advance it’s quite possible to whiz through the game in a fraction of that time. But it’s enticing not to do so, the simple joy of exploration and unlocking additional powers and charms possessing an addictive quality seen only in the finest games. However, there is one aspect of the game that is initially jarring, and takes a little getting used to. In fact it’s possibly the closest thing the game has to a flaw....the mapping system. Unlike many traditional Metroidvania’s the map doesn’t draw itself in real time, but relies upon resting at save benches to update. Additionally, to display a current location marker an equipped charm is required. This can in turn mean long spells of trekking around in unmapped areas looking for a point of safety. Admittedly this is jarring at first, and given the size of the map and the potential avenues of exploration available, takes some getting used to. But as far as flaws are concerned that’s about as far as they go. Perhaps some might criticise the lack of explicit storytelling, and others the scope of the world, but whilst Hollow Knight doesn’t reinvent the genre, it polishes and hones it into a must play masterwork. And that’s not even mentioning the additional dlc that expands the challenge, the battle colosseum or the multiple endings that reward the curious player, interested in the world he inhabits.

Hollow Knight would be an accomplishment from any source, but it’s a towering achievement for a first release from the small Team Cherry. Close the curtains, dim the lights and dive headlong into the world of Hallow Nest….