Remember that time a three-person indie developer by the name of Team Cherry crashed Steam, the Nintendo eShop, and the Xbox/PlayStation stores all at once? You will if you were one of the million-or-so gamers trying to pick up the highly anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong at 16h00 yesterday. There we were, just begging to give our money away when the clock struck, only to be kicked out continually for what felt like an eternity.
After Nintendo’s eShop finally took our bucks, we can gladly say that the twenty-minute (plus seven-year) wait was all worth it. Here are our first impressions of Hollow Knight: Silksong, a stunning metroidvania, which can be had for a measly R185 on Steam and the Nintendo eShop (it’s a different story for Xbox and PlayStation gamers). It’s impossible to avoid spoilers entirely, but we’ll do our best (nothing past the first area) here.
Even more Hollow Knight
If you were expecting anything other than an expanded action-adventure metroidvania that’s got all the DNA of the original Hollow Knight, you’re bound to be disappointed here. Silksong throws players into the red dress of Hornet, an NPC from the previous game that’s bigger, faster, and more dangerous than the Knight.
We think we’re in love. We’ll keep even the basic story under wraps, at least for now, and let you uncover its mysteries yourself. What we can say is that Hornet is a perfect addition to the world of Hollow Knight — dropping the silent-type we saw last time for an expressive MC that only serves to accentuate the lore on offer here.
Easily the biggest change to the Hollow Knight DNA is the addition of a quest system that immediately makes Silksong a more approachable option, even if you aren’t technically getting the full story here. It’s basic, but it gives players a Zelda-like goal right from the get-go that’ll keep even the newbies on track.
We’ll just get this out of the way quickly – performance. On our Nintendo Switch 2, we had absolutely no trouble running the game at a smooth 120fps (at 1080p) docked. Still, it’s worth giving the 4K/60fps mode a try — especially if you’re rocking an OLED display of your own — just to see those vibrant visuals really pop.
Full of bugs
You might be worried that Silksong does the typical sequel thing by re-skinning all the enemies of the last, and in the first thirty minutes of gameplay, we had those worries too. With the base movements, Silksong keeps the enemies basic — right up until you unlock new movement abilities — when the game decides to ramp up the variety to better suit Hornet’s unique style and, more importantly, difficulty.
Silksong is a difficult game, no doubt about it. We’ve seen a couple of complaints that the game is too hard, and to say that, we say: skill issue. Sure, the game is unforgiving, with almost every boss dealing double damage and even the environments occasionally catching you by surprise with 3-mask damage, but it’s all the more engaging for it. It’s easy to forget the game has only been out for less than 24 hours. Give it time, folks.
Part of the reason for the bump in difficulty is the massive changes to the charm and healing system. Rather than depleting your Soul meter to regenerate masks (lives) one at a time, Hornet requires a full spool of silk (gained by bashing enemies, repeatedly) to heal three or fewer masks in a single go. It’s a unique blend of give and take, with health restoring quicker, but requiring more precise hits to stay alive in those heart-wrenching boss fights.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is a game that demands mastery — more so than the famously unforgiving Hollow Knight. Every input counts, whether you’re running through what you think is an area void of bugs or facing down the final boss. We can’t wait to see how the game expands on our currently limited moveset.
Now that’s how you platform
Silksong is bigger than Hollow Knight could ever be, and we don’t just mean in scale, but the levels themselves are massive. That makes sense — what started as a simple DLC for the base game that would have added Hornet as a playable character was quickly scrapped due to her varied moveset, prompting the developers to just… build her something entirely new. That world is Pharloom, and the vibes here are simply unmatched.
Part of that is due to Silksong’s highly detailed worlds that don’t just serve as a medium for some terrific platform, but because the world all serves a much larger narrative, an element we simply loved to see make a return here. Silksong doesn’t need dialogue to keep you engaged (although it has it in spades). Instead, it’ll let this intricate world do it all for you, and boy, we couldn’t be happier about it.
It’s easy to see where those seven years went after you get a glimpse of even one of Silksong’s intricate labyrinthine areas. Not only is the forefront brimming with vibrant bugs and things to see, but it’s the backgrounds that really shine through. A lot of that is down to Pharloom itself, which is a more vibrant and varied world — different to the damp and utterly blue underground players traverse in Hollow Knight.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention one of the most important aspects when it comes to nailing Hollow Knight: Christopher Larkin’s exemplary soundtrack, which encapsulates this kingdom of Pharloom perfectly without ever missing a beat. Whether it’s bringing you to tears as you disturb a group of butterflies in passing, or making your heart thump before you’ve even seen what’s around that corner (spoiler, it’s a boss), Larkin has done it again.
Hollow Knight: Silksong first impression
Weave all those elements together and you’ve got what is possibly the greatest metroidvania to date, brimming with content, a refined moveset that feels wholly new, insanely difficult bosses, and a mystery that’s just begging to be uncovered. All that for R185? Even after our roughly six hours of gameplay and counting, we still feel like we’re on the run for having stolen something, and we’d gladly fork over a couple more bucks for the experience.
