Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight provided the best 40 hours of gaming that I have ever experienced. Each location have its own, unique atmosphere. Graphics are absolutely beautifull. Fight is really challeging, on every stage of the game. Exploration of the Hollownest and feeling of being lost are unique, that was even better than in Dark Souls I. Lore is really deep, mysterious and up to the climate. To sum up: there is nothing that could go better. This game is perfect.

Hollow knight is a game that takes values ​​sedimented over the years of games like Metroid, Castlevania : Simphony of the Night and even Dark Souls and creates something unique. The exploitation is high level, with complex and diverse areas that seems to have no end. The combat is interesting, with battles against unusual and cool bosses, that are generally quite aggressive as well. The story is told by spaced narrative, in the shape of characters and scenery. The soundtrack is melancholic but extremely well made and inspired. The main character learns new skills, where some are by equipables. Like the style made in the witcher 3, where you have to choose well what to equip in the slots, because it is limited, it works very well. Finally, it's an excellent game that has surpassed all my expectations, and still has free and very well conditioned ingame DLCS. Team Cherry is undoubtedly one of the best indie developers and deserves as much support as possible. I hope you have a future as bright as this game does. Go Team Cherry!!

Up until now my favorite metroidvania was, unsurprisingly, Super Metroid. Hollow Knight has taken that place with incredible ease. It has superb, buttery smooth gameplay; dying is never the fault of a cheap game mechanic, control is always in your hands and the combat is very rewarding. The plot is amazing, but it's also completely (and I do mean completely) out of the way if you don't care about it, it's lying there for interested adventurers to uncover and delve into, it will never get in the way of your fun and will never be thrust on you. The animations and art style are memorable and masterful. Music is incredibly atmospheric. This game is nothing short of perfect.

Hollow Knight is pretty great overall. It utilises a really well done hand drawn art style, with character, enemy and environment designs that are unique and grimly cute. Its ambience and music are also pretty good, lots of tunes to get you hyped for an epic battle, to unsettle you as you trudge through hostile environments, and to just let you take in more serene moments. Overall the game has a somewhat dark and esoteric feel to it. The story of the world is quite intriguing, and is told through pieces of information gleamed from the diverse and interesting characters and by prodding around various points in the world. The full map of the game is large, and the individual areas are diverse in design and theme, and are also connected to each other in interesting ways, if you can find the shortcuts. Exploring the world is a lot of fun overall, usually done by making very good use your movement abilities to traverse platforming segments that range from easily doable to downright sadistic. Being thorough in your exploration can reward you with new or improved abilities, interesting information about the world, useful items and alternate pathways, which is always nice. The combat system is pretty simple, you start with a basic slashing attack with your sword, and can slash in any of four directions, and eventually get some extra abilities added to your arsenal, but battles are typically fast paced and can require good timing, reactions and strategy. The game world is populated with varied enemies that range from barely threatening, to highly lethal, with the most powerful regular enemies having damage, speed and defensive abilities that could even rival some of the bosses. This game has boss fights by the way, quite a few, and most of them are epic fights against powerful foes that will require you to showcase the best of your combat abilities, with the game's great soundtrack assisting in increasing the awe factor of these battles. Add in responsive controls and a smooth movement system, and you've got an overall intense and highly enjoyable combat experience. This game isn't without its flaws sadly, but I found them easy to get over. The world isn't exactly dense with fast travel points, so if you want to revisit specific parts of areas, you're going to need to be ready for a few treks. Can be mitigated somewhat by finding shortcuts, but not completely. The game's checkpoints, which you respawn at after death, can also feel like they're in rather short supply sometimes, particularly in more difficult areas. In any case, I'd recommend this game greatly to anyone, particularly those fond of Metroidvanias and 2D action games.

Graphics 5/5 Dialogue and atmosphere 5/5 Combat and audio 5/5 Music 7/5 Worth full price.