Hollow Knight: Silksong - Review

What can one say for a game that a massive amount of people had been waiting for, for seven years. Not only that, but a game that was so highly sought after on steam’s wishlist of games that upon release day, multiple sites including the Steam store, Nintendo online store and more froze and shut down. Is this game bound to the legend of how great it is? Does it all live up to the hype? Well, that all really just depends.

Before we get into it, can we please just acknowledge the fact that Hollow Knight: Silksong was originally supposed to be a free DLC for the kickstarter Hollow Knight campaign, in which Team Cherry expanded the game so much to the point where they’ve made a whole new sequel. Not only that, it's much larger, and also the fact that they had to pretty much start from scratch due to the slight height and dimension of the protagonist, Hornet, compared to the Knight from the first game (from what I was told). It was definitely a huge undertaking. And sure, you can absolutely say they left the kickstarter backers hanging for seven years. But what they got out of it is something far bigger and better than originally promised. There are also talks about the fact that Team Cherry managed to create a working process while developing Silksong to the point where they had so much fun doing it, they just wanted to keep going (neither true nor false), which is something amazing and clearly shows how great the game is.

Now, in terms of whether someone would love this game or if the hype around it is true. Well first off, I wanted to call out that I didn’t play Hollow Knight on release or backed it via Kickstarter. In fact, I played it a couple of years after its release and was encouraged to play it by a friend. However, I avoided it like the plague… not because I’ve heard anything about it, but more so the visual graphics just turned me off. It really reminded me of when I was studying Multimedia in University, and you get to program an Adobe Flash game. Something that never felt like a “true” game. However, upon playing Hollow Knight, I knew it was definitely something special. It left a special place in my heart that I would consider it one of my all time favorite games. Post completing the game and its DLCs, all other metroidvania games may have come close, but was never the same. You can say it left a void in my heart… that is until Team Cherry kept teasing us with updates of Silksong over the years. Whether it’s a quick announcement on their site, an image or even a demo with always a follow up of going radio silent.. It gave me hope that something was brewing and happening. The question is, with all this torture bound to being teased every half a year or so, would it add up to the legend? Well, if you’re a fan of the first game, then absolutely yes. It’s more or less the same feeling of exploration, world building and character development. Not only that, but Team Cherry had gone even further into creating references, easter eggs and secrets scattered within the game.

Without giving away too much of the game and keeping it spoiler free (which I highly recommend), Hollow Knight: Silksong follows the main protagonist you play, Hornet, who had been captured from Hollownest and is being transported to a new kingdom known as Pharloom. From there, you explore the different themed areas of Pharloom until you’re able to get to the Citadel to try and unmask why you were captured, and who’s controlling the lands. And as one can expect, you’ll meet a whole lot of characters, enemies, and bosses (mini-bosses included) along the way.

A couple of things that have been an addition to this game is the task list known as wishes. Think of them as side quests that you can complete. Not only does this give you items for some of them, but also gives you the opportunity to explore the kingdom. Again, without giving away too much, but I would absolutely encourage players to finish all wishes before getting to the last boss. These wishes are usually found at a ‘board’ at town locations, or given by talking to NPCs. Other changes is the ability to change attack styles known as Crests. Hornet starts off with the Hunter crest, which gives her the angular down attack to use. However, there have been a lot of people over the internet who have complained that they found it difficult when wanting to pogo in some areas which requires you to bounce off spikes, or objects to reach higher places. In my opinion, it’s not a game issue but more so a skill issue. That said, should you have trouble with it, there are other crests players can change to, which gives the down attack (amongst other attacks) a more direct downward slash. I was able to find four different types of crests, but apparently there’s more than that. And lastly and as expected, you inventory which you can build up Hornet’s abilities such as dash, double jump, upgrade her Needle (weapon), upgrade health bar and silk thread bar, which she uses to heal or use for special attacks when you’ve collected enough. Again, not wanting to give anything away, but players really should go into this game blind to get the full immersive experience as you only get one unspoiled playthrough.

In terms of the map and areas, Silksong’s map is absolutely huge. Much like Hollow Knight, Team Cherry has definitely given this game so much thought in terms of the layout. For example, where one area sits under or on top of the other, it impacts other locations next to them. Each area is somewhat thematic, for example, you’ve got Moss Grotto, which is a very greenery area with, you guessed it, moss growing in the area. There are areas such as the Deep Docks that are fire themed all the way to Bilewater, which is what I consider Hell in the game. It’s almost as though all areas are a character of its own, and also hosts a specific type of boss.

So, going back to the original question… does Hollow Knight: Silksong live up to the hype? Again, if you’re a fan of the first game, then absolutely. Everything about it is as good as Hollow Knight, but with a little more to it. It definitely brings you back to the world building of Hollow Knight. If you’re a fan of FromSoftware and love a great challenge, then you definitely won’t get disappointed. However, there are people out there that apparently have issues with this game in terms of difficulty. And if that’s the case and you’re reading this, I’d highly encourage you to just keep trying and get past it. I’m not the best player of games, but I’ll keep trying until I get past it. There’s nothing that can compare to the feeling of defeating a boss or a challenge that you’ve been at for hours, and get that shaky hands and chest pumping.

I can, hand on my heart, say that this is probably a biased opinion. And I’ve never given any game a 10 out of 10… but this is definitely one that deserves it. The thought that went behind it… and also the fact that Team Cherry didn’t give any game codes out pre-launch to ensure that they’re fair to the original Kickstarter backers is something to commend them on. Not only that, but a game as amazing and massive as this being only $30AUD is insane. This clearly shows that the devs are not in it for the money, but truly love what they’re doing, unlike some AAA publishers.

The Score

10

The Pros

Amazing game play and world building

Fantastic animations, weapons choices and game time

A massive amount of NPCs, enemies and characters to meet

Hours of game play

The Cons

Could be a little difficult for some people

Not something that you could play casually

A whole lot of easter eggs and hidden areas that you could miss out on