Hollow Knight (Nintendo Switch) Review

Welcome to Dirtmouth, a town fading away into nothingness. In wanders a traveller, a Knight with a Nail to hand, who chooses to descend into the depths of the once great civilisation of Hallownest. The mysterious character chooses to explore, like others before him, to discover its hidden treasures, hoping to avoid the same fate that befell previous curious intrepid voyagers. After all, most have fallen to the vast array of weird and wonderful beasts corrupted by a strange poison that has seeped to the core of the land, affecting not just the evil creatures, but also the intriguing cast of characters residing within the labyrinthine corridors, caves, and decaying dominions encountered.

Part of the enjoyment of Hollow Knight simply comes from the rich collection of interactions to be had whilst searching every nook and cranny for secret pathways, unusual pieces of lore related to the glory days of the land being traversed, special booty, and much more. Sometimes statues may be stumbled upon that look like they might hold a secret, and whilst some do indeed, others merely contain - sometimes cryptic - messages to enhance the overall atmosphere of the quest. It is this extra level of thought put into Hollow Knight that helps elevate it above fellow genre stable-mates.

Much like past greats, such as Super Metroid, the various post-Symphony of the Night Castlevania releases, and seen more recently in Image & Form's sublime SteamWorld Dig 2, the amount of detail, care, and attention poured into the crafting of Hollow Knight's world is phenomenal. This has clearly been designed by a team with a great love of the now extremely familiar sub-genre of action adventures, what everyone knows as the 'Metroidvania' style, and everything people enjoyed so much from the past has been brought together here, with more added on top for good measure.

Team Cherry has pumped more and more content out, adding new challenges, characters, treasure, and all sorts of other goodies into the mix, as well as tweaking the core gameplay as it has gone along to ensure not only does Hollow Knight continue to provide for its current owners in terms of longevity, but also in terms of improving the overall experience based upon feedback. It is an all-important lesson that other developers would be wise to take note of and implement more often.

Just as people have spent many an hour traversing the land in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so too can the depths here be exhaustively explored…and yet still secrets will be regularly uncovered. When you think everything has been revealed, suddenly an accidental swipe of the Knight's weapon will expose a breakable wall. It is a wondrous to find all of the secrets, root out all of the missions and side-quests, play around with various upgrades and abilities for the hero to see what works best, and finally best the epic challenge that many bosses offer.

Three update packs - Hidden Dreams, The Grimm Troupe, and Lifeblood - had already been included at the time of release back in June, and as of writing this, the fourth and final chunk of free content has just landed in the form of Godmaster, which brings with it even more fun characters to interact with, missions to go on, as well as more tantalising bosses and excellent music (it is basically a Boss Rush mode, but done with extra style). Team Cherry has done an amazing job of keeping Hollow Knight going, and has been rewarded with over a million sales to date, all of which are thoroughly deserved, and it can only be hoped that more gamers have the chance to sample this exquisite adventure.