Hollow Knight: Silksong

[h3][i]Hollow Knight: Silksong[/i] | Complete Game Review [/h3] (100% In-Game Completion at 60.7 Hours) [hr][/hr] I thought [i]Hollow Knight: Silksong[/i] would make me feel like a nimble warrior but in reality, I’m just a very determined pinball. [b]Gameplay:[/b] Compared to [i]Hollow Knight[/i], [i]Silksong[/i] is faster, sharper, and more aggressive, pushing you to stay on the offensive. Hornet’s mobility opens up combat and traversal in a way that feels incredible once mastered, but the game leaves little room for error. Early on, the game can feel difficult and punishing but once it finally clicks, the gameplay becomes one of the most fluid and satisfying systems in the metroidvania space. ★★★★★ [b]Graphics:[/b] Hand-drawn and absolutely dripping with personality. The new world of Pharloom trades the decaying loneliness of Hallownest for something more vibrant yet no less haunting. Every area feels distinct, detailed, and alive in its own strange way. I kept pausing just to take it all in… right before the game reminded me that standing still is a terrible survival strategy. ★★★★★ [b]Sound:[/b] The soundtrack matches the pacing perfectly and adds real weight to both movement and combat. Not every track stuck with me the way the music from [i]Hollow Knight[/i] did, but [i]Silksong[/i] still nails the atmosphere where it counts (pun intended). ★★★★☆ [b]Story:[/b] Just like its predecessor, the narrative is fragmented and intentionally vague. You’re given various goals throughout but the ‘why’ is buried in subtle clues and environmental storytelling. It’s intriguing if you enjoy piecing things together, but if you want a clear, direct narrative, this won’t give it to you. ★★★☆☆ [b]Replayability:[/b] A variety of builds, tools, and hidden paths provide some incentive to return. However, unlike its predecessor, the absence of pathway split-route achievements reduces the drive for meaningfully varied re-runs. Beyond optional challenge playthroughs involving steel soul mode and speed running, its long-term pull feels more limited. ★★☆☆☆ [b]Final Thoughts:[/b] The game refines what made the original great while demanding more from the player in return. [i]Silksong[/i] is faster, tougher, and—in the wise words of Hornet—expects the player to ‘git gud’. Nevertheless, it also feels incredibly rewarding once you start to master the movement and combat mechanics. [h3]Overall Rating: 8/10, gorgeous, unforgiving, and definitely worth the inevitable suffering. [/h3]

"This is like when the smug kid (you actually want to hate) is indeed the best in class". I never jived with Team Cherry's silent treatment during Silksong's development, to the point I didn't even buy the game for a good while, but now that I've played it... man, this is a total masterpiece, it surpasses the original Hollow Knight (and that was the best metroidvania ever at the time) and it is maybe matched only by Nine Sols in recent years. Silksong is a crazily big, dense and rich game, and it's also polished to near perfection. Everyone's favourite bug in red, Hornet, is captured by strange bugs and finds herself in the kingdom of Pharloom, drawn to the citadel high above the land to understand who wanted to kidnap her and why. It's a setup with just the right intrigue to give you a clear objective throughout, but also vague enough that you're free to just go nuts. Much like HK, the storytelling in Silksong is actually super interesting. You're basically witnessing the death throes (maybe) of another kingdom, but you learn more about its history and its structure by multiple sources: dialogues (many NPCs this time around), bestiary entries, collectibles, and just the environments themselves, which actually could be playing the biggest part. The story you get out of it is tragic, dark, incredibly captivating and not too esoteric to understand. The sense of history the game world has is unparalleled in the genre, better than the first HK (and it was one of its selling points even back then IMO); the same is true for the world design and its impeccable sense of geography. Pharloom is a fantasy bug kingdom alright, but it feels rich, complete, believable, one of gaming's most exciting worlds. Plus, Hornet is great as a protagonist, she has a personality which is expressed in different ways and she's a total and utter badass. I loved playing as her. The gameplay has familiar foundations, but many improvements. It's metroidvania perfected. Combat is snappy, fluid, fun. Hornet has incredible agility and almost all of the traversal abilities can be incorporated into combat. You have different Crests, classes of sort that alter your basic needle moveset and some core abilities, and also have different notches to equip tools. Tools are an evolution of HK's charms and come in three colors, with red being akin to the Castlevania subweapons. Add into the mix some Silk Skills that act as HK's spells and you have an incredibly rich, flexible and customizable setup. You could have different Crests for bosses and exploration, or hone on your one favourite and master that. Up to you. The exploration is similarly incredible. Pharloom is nonsensically large, and there are a ton of areas to explore, each completely unique and each brimming with countless secret passages, setpieces, collectibles, subtle stories to tell. The sense of wonder and discovery is one of the game's biggest strengths for me, and the basic game loop that comes from it is intoxicating. Even when the game doesn't reward you with something tangible (like a new tool), you can almost always find something unique and strange. Now, something about difficulty. I don't know if the game's difficulty has been significantly patched since launch, but I just can't see the problems people talk about. Silksong is a hard game for sure, but it always keeps a sort of openness. Most tricky situations have unconventional solutions that reward exploring (High Halls gauntlet? You have two NPCs that can help and you can permanently disable an enemy type. Bilewater boss runback? There's a hidden bench to find. Etc.). Also, you have so many options to tackle a boss or an arena. I've seen that many people really hated the arenas, especially before bosses, and it's true they're way more common in this game but I found them fine? Like, instead of a boss fight, I saw those instances as a mix of different challenges and I found them very stimulating. Then again, I might not be a good average case for this. I've played tons of metroidvanias and had 100% completion in Silksong in 36 hours, which is way below the average. So I don't know, it was a tough game, but always completely fair and never frustrating for me. Zero. Nada. Artistically and musically, this has few rivals. The art style is immaculate and so full of unnecessary details that bring the world to life. Animations are painstakingly crafted, the visual theming is so strong. The artists at TC are savants, and the same can be said about maestro Christopher Larkin for having crafted - once again - one of the best soundtracks of all times. There are SO MANY incredible tracks here, and the contribution of the music to the mood and atmosphere can NOT be overstated. It clicks all the pieces together. Overall yeah, I am FUMING to say this, but Team Cherry did go above and beyond and did craft a complete masterpiece. Just don't be quietly smug about it next time, eh?

An amazing game which is very difficult. This game doesn't respect your time or efforts, and can be very sadistic, though this is what makes it so fun for many. If you think you can't endure that pain, just use mods and tweak the difficulty for your liking. Modding community of this game is amazing and can give you many quality of life upgrades. Many people look down on mods, but what's the point of trying to win approval of people you will never meet and prevent you from enjoying this masterpiece of a game. I like to think mods as death of the author, where once the art is release, no one not even the author should dictate how you experience it. It's your own unique interpretation, sure the game dev intended to make this game hard, but I think it's justifiable to modify it and experience this game in your own way, way which gives you maximum joy.