Just finished this game and is beautiful. It does some annoying things but this game does so much right that it outweigh the problems and makes me love this game deeply. Kinda recommend a lot to be honest, is beautiful, everything on this game is beautiful. Also, is far better than the first hollow knight, i love this game
I am a fan of Metroidvanias and Soulslikes, and I have completed both Hollow Knight as well several Souls Games (among others). I fall squarely into the target audience for this game, and unfortunately, I cannot recommend it to anyone, even though I wanted to love it.
The art design, the music, the themes, characters and story are all great. The moment-to-moment gameplay is incredibly tight. The problem with this game lies with its poor difficulty balance, very punishing encounters, and tediousness. This makes the game a frustrating, unrewarding experience rather than an interesting and tough challenge.
Many times, the game feels actively hostile and antagonistic towards the player. The main issues lie not with the difficulty of the boss fights themselves, but the tedious runbacks, repeated and unskippable gauntlets, and some truly baffling design choices (such as having to farm shards to use tools, a major mechanic in the game). All together, this leaves you with the feeling of wasting your time, and beating a boss does not feel rewarding, rather you feel relief that you do not have to do this part of the game anymore.
This is a shame, since the game, otherwise, is briiliant, and the issues it has have long been solved by other games in the genre (Elden Ring being the prime example).
Of the target audience for this game, I believe only a small fraction will find it enjoyable. The rest will find their enjoyment overshadowed by intense frustration and a sense of wasting one’s time. Hence, I cannot recommend it.
I was one of probably many who created a GOG account for the sole purpose of playing this game on release (because every other store crashed due to the massive influx of buyers) and I can say I was not disappointed.
As someone that has completed everything on Hollowknight, barring the Pantheon of Hallownest (That boss rush is rough, man), the added difficulty to the game was actually a treat. I can understand the argument from many regarding its difficulty, but that's sort of Hollow Knight's style; That being a Metroidvania with those Souls-like elements. It's not for the faint of heart by any means and you may have to challenge bosses again and again, but if you're used to Fromsoft's amazing titles, then this is probably more of a pro for you than a con.
Difficulty aside, the art in each setting and the soundtrack are phenomenal! Christopher Larkin did the impossible by making even better OST's than in the previous game. The music mixed with the intense difficulty in combat provides a major adrenaline rush and the calmer themes of some locations had me wait a moment and enjoy the music before continuing my endeavors.
Overall, this game continues the success of its predecessor and is absolutely worth giving a try. Just remember to fight with patience, use the wide variety of tools to your advantage, and most importantly, explore!
Silksong is a poor sequel to a great game. It didn't learn any lessons from the first game, and it even threw out and regressed away from many of the things Hollow Knight did well.
Silksong is an exercise in exhaustion, filled with anti-player design decisions at every turn. You constantly feel the developer's hand (not anagonists; the developers) thwarting your progress through silly artificial barriers.
The difficulty is high (worse than all but but a few moments of Hollow Knight), but done in all the bad ways and not the fun ones. The game as a whole doesn't work because the developers despise the players and want you to know it. Upgrades are sparse and not meaningful making exploration mostly about completion and story since you don't get more powerful from it. Grinding for resources is frequent and required. The list goes on quite long...
The part that sucks the most? The game could very easily be made better to at least tie its predecessor, but the developers thus far have shown zero interest in doing so. The story/art/music/core game play/etc are all amazing.
Everyone I know online and in person quit the game, finding that its frustrating, irritating bits greatly outnumbered the fun and thrilling ones.
Prettymuch what it says on the tin, been a bit of a slog to get to act 3 and complete it. Would not recommend for those unfamiliar with platformers. played on pc with keyboard.