Hollow Knight

Everything about Hollow Knight taps my buttons in all the right ways: a dark setting (collapsing empire, spreading plague) with lines of hope (you, mostly, but a lot of the characters just want to live normal lives and are rather upbeat about their world) and some genuinely funny moments (Zote), an ever-expanding map with a great in-game explanation for both the layout of the world and the method by which you map it, and mechanics that just keep getting deeper and more interesting as you progress. It's just fun as Hell, and definitely worth the cost at the door. Plus the patches have been adding all kinds of useful stuff that aren't necessary, but make things better, not just bug-fixes (which there have been none, during my play). Only complaint? It doesn't seem to support my Hori Fighting Commander, which is my preferred controller for 2D games. Xbox 360 controller support is spot-on, though.

Pros: - Great controls - Great metroidvania aspects - Great atmosphere/art/music - Levels crafted with a lot of care - Interesting cast of characters - Varied gameplay/areas Cons: - Backtracking - Can be too difficult Also I did not encounter any techical/frame rate issues in 15+ hrs of gameplay so far.

It's a masterpiece made with love and care. The atmosphere is charming, the music is mesmerising, the gameplay is engaging and challenging. Give it a try, you will not regret it.

I was prepared to really love this game: it's extremely well reviewed, it's odd, the artwork looks (and is) superb. But I always finish a game session by thinking "Oh, I just give up, I can't be bothered". There's none of the feeling of achievement + frustration + excitement + "I'd better stop now, it's 3am" that I've had from other games. This is not because this is wholly a bad game. It's not. It's beautifully designed. The artwork and sound are unique. Reviews tell me that the world is huge and full of a variety of incredible designs. Unfortunately, these virtues make it even more disappointing that - in the early stages I'm in - the designers haven't paid enough attention to the balance between frustration and enjoyment. The first thing that's wholly wrong is the save mechanic. No-one plays a game of this kind and expects that they won't die - often. But when a boss crushes me for the nth time, why do I then have to go back miles away and find my way back to the boss - for the nth time? The path back becomes extremely boring. This repetition gives the atmosphere of the game - visuals and sound - which should (and could, in a game of this quality) be absorbing and inspiring - a bad flavour, because you're doing the same thing again and again. Small enemies on the way regenerate as soon as you leave the room, which adds to the feeling of no progress. If I happen to lose a life on the way, I'm tempted to just suicide and start again with full lives. That urge is not a good sign when playing a game. What stops me is another game mechanic: if you can find your ghost where you died, you can "kill" it with two hits and regain all the "money" you previously gathered. But it's too easy to die while trying to do this, meaning all that money is gone. I just managed to kill the False Knight. I'm rich, and I want to cash in on my triumph. But no, I'm straight in to another - forced, no side turnings - boss battle with a long leadup from the savepoint.

This game is well loved, but I just don't get it. Pros: the art is fantastic, and the world-building is lovely. The controls feel great, and the skill development system is interesting. Cons: the world is large and non-linear, which should be fantastic but unfortunately just leads to a lot of wandering in circles. Your objectives are unclear, you often have to return to places you visited previously to make use of new skills (but there is no indication or method of tracking these sites). You die quickly and die often. The death mechanic is the part of this game I really don't understand: you respawn in a weakened state. forced to return from your last save checkpoint to the spot you died. This means a lot of re-treading the same route to either a) face the same enemy who just beat you, but in a weaker state or b) to immediately turn around again and re-re-tread the route in reverse to get back to the nearest save point. Maybe I just suck at these sorts of games, but I found myself loving the first few hours and then putting it away in frustration just at the point where the game should be richest.