Don't you love games that basically softlock you mid-playthrough by emptying out your inventory when loading a level and then saving? The combat is the most basic turn based strategy rpg stuff, the investigation boils down to walking through the levels, activating the markers that pop up and choosing one of multiple options on how exactly to interact with it. It is not always which one is the right answer and why. In one instance the recommendation by one of my characters (their knowledge about such interactions is one of their traits) even recommended the right one - and then it turned out to be false. Mysterious stuff is indeed happening in this game, but not the right kind.
The basic game is actually very good. Movement is fluid and fast, The Gunplay is good, The levels are well designed and reminiscent of the olden days (except bigger) and so on. But you can't see half of it. Wide portions of the levels are so dark that the first clue that an enemy is in front of me was getting his shotgun blast right into my face. I sometimes had to scan dark areas with the crosshair, seeing if it would turn orange, meaning it was right over an enemy. Also, this game being in the same vein as classics like Quake, death can come quite sudden at times. Did you just jump across a wide chasm with the secondary fire of your blade? Thus having the blade and not a better weapon equipped? And suddenly find yourself face to face with a huge acid throwing beast you couldn't see from the other side? BOOM! you're dead. Wouldn't be anything special, if you wouldn't have to rely on consumable items (soul tethers) for your saving. In a game where death can come so sudden, that is simply not a good idea. That wasn't a thing back in the day with e.g. Quake for a reason, I imagine. Why the devs chose to deviate in such an important aspect from the tried and true formula is beyond me. Especially in such an annoying way. I hope in the finished game you will at least get an indication when you're drawing near a shrine (those serve basically as one-time autosaves). I placed more than one soul-tether before turning a corner and standing in front of one of those... would be quite the quality of life improvement. As the game is now it is a great game marred by those two needless annoyances.
On the PLUS side: -> gorgeous Art Style and animations -> great soundtrack -> good controls and overall gameplay On the NEUTRAL side: -> gameplay not inventive or revolutionary or something -> randomness in Bosses' behavior limits necessity of memorization On the NEGATIVE side: -> randomness in Bosses' behavior can render some situations downright unfair.
... the latter not in a good way... Sometimes you teleport around like in a laggy online game. It's not fun to try to dodge away from a group of enemies only to suddenly find yourself right in their midst. Every time a new level loads, you have to manually go back to full screen. The controls also are a bit laggy, as if this game had some input lag. The skill point system doesn't have that much impact in the first half of the game - if you don't get every single secret, you can only upgrade one of the bigger weapon skills before the first boss, which brings me to: If you die in this game, e.g. the boss is back to full health but your spent ammo is still gone? That's crap. The enemies themselves don't have much variety. Just keep away, dodge projectiles if any and unload on them. Use melee to be more ammo efficient, but that's just it. You remember the Archvile from Doom that forced you to break line of sight? The hitscanning Zombiemen, that gave you a good reason to prioritize those weaker enemies while dodging the bigger ones? Or the Revenant that made you dodge homing missiles? None such more complex enemies here. Also, you can't revisit earlier levels to find all the secrets, which seems just an unnecessary hindrance. And of course, expect the bosses shooting through solid walls to kill you or enemies spawning in behind you when you pickup a key. It is a throwback to the good old times, after all :-)
This is a very good Metroidvania game. Your character handles well, the art is great, good atmosphere, good combat system.... And then there are some flaws that just didn't need to be. When you die, you lose all your money and you have to collect it at the place you die, similar to Dark Souls. But sometimes your spectre (or whatever your shadowy mirror image is supposed to be) appears in places other than where you died. Mostly where they are easier to reach, i appreciate that. But sometimes it appears at an even more difficult to reach place. WHY? It doesn't seem intentional, so i guess its just sloppy programming. And given that this game is a 2D Metroidvania, "use of a controller is highly recommended", as the loading screen warns you. It seems that Hollow Knight does not recognize half the controllers on the market. For example, it works with my XBOX 360 controller just fine (if you disregard the fact that this has a shitty d-pad) but will not acknowledge that my 8BitDo even exists. Programs converting your inputs to keyboard inputs usually help, but for me, they have issues, so i am stuck with the 360 and its D-Pad had me curse humanity thricefold already. It is completely beyond me, how a game in 2017 has such issues (looking at you too, Street Fighter V), especially since they are still unresolved, so long after the game's launch. It's like Ford brought out a new car but forgot windshield wipers and a door lock.
