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It doesn’t take many words to describe how big the launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong was. It brought down not one, but three online stores as soon as it hit the digital shelves and surpassed all concurrent player counts in less than a day. That’s a worldwide gaming event that we rarely see nowadays and won’t likely see happen again for some time, and with good reason. Back in the day, Hollow Knight took the crown of the Metroidvania genre, standing at the top as the most memorable, gorgeous, and challenging one. While I’ve only played for a few hours and there are still many more things to say, as first impressions go, Hollow Knight: Silksong has everything to take the crown as the ultimate Metroidvania.
Same Beauty, Bigger World
Hollow Knight is one of the few Metroidvanias that truly enthrall you with its world. Every beautifully painted landscape, accompanied by the eerie lighting and soothing music, draws you in instantly, and that’s the same thing that has happened with Hollow Knight: Silksong, if not more.
Silksong features a new protagonist, Hornet, who many might be familiar with already. This time, she gets transported to a foreign land full of bugs, silk thread, and singing denizens, and her job is to ascend to the peak of this place as she traverses gorgeous yet deadly locations. So far, everything has been worth the wait, as Hollow Knight: Silksong respects that iconic aesthetic from its predecessor, but makes the world feel much larger and even more enthralling.
I haven’t explored all the zones yet, and I don’t think I will for a while because the game is brimming with things to do, and it opens up after a couple of hours, but this sequel is better and bigger in every aspect. The exploration mechanics remain largely unchanged, but Pharloom feels more intricate to explore. There are several puzzles and locked areas right off the bat, which I hope I get to solve as I dive, or rather, ascend further into these lands.
It might be too early to tell, but these couple of hours have convinced me that the reason why Team Cherry wanted to keep everything under wraps was to blow us all away with the scope of the sequel, and if that was the mission, well, I tip my bug hat off, because mission accomplished.
Deadlier Than Ever
While Hollow Knight: Silksong feels similar in many aspects to the previous iconic Metroidvania of the series, the truth is that it also feels vastly different. For starters, the challenge. I’m not a Hollow Knight expert who has spent thousands of hours in all the content the prequel offered. Yet, I consider myself good enough in the genre to defend myself a few hours before going into “locked-in mode.” Well, Silksong just showed me how big of a noob I truly am in Metroidvanias.
Looking at the first two areas, I can already tell the difficulty ceiling is harder and not one I can easily reach by chaining air attacks together. Enemies have new attack patterns, and all of them hit like a truck. I didn’t expect to die during the first boss, but I did, three times. And I don’t even want to tell you how badly I performed during the Bell Beast encounter, which was great, by the way, but it really shows how much more challenging and engaging this sequel will be.
The difficult encounters aren’t exclusive to bosses, however, as the enemies you find as you explore Pharloom are pretty intricate, too. Even the weakest foes, those pilgrims who’ve lost their minds during the climb, are there to make Hornet’s ascent a living hell. Yet, this isn’t a complaint. It is me showing excitement, especially since I like my Metroidvania experiences as challenging and unforgiving as possible, and Hollow Knight: Silksong nails that aspect down perfectly.
So far, my experience with this long-awaited store-breaking experience has been much better than I thought. I was already excited to dive into the game that seemed like a fleeting dream, and after much waiting and unhealthy amounts of copium, it is all that I ever wanted. While it is way more challenging than its predecessor, at least in the opening hours, I’m sure everything will open up as I keep exploring the woven lands of Pharloom. But even with Hornet’s limited skills and enemies that can kill you with two hits, I’m having a blast with what aims to be the greatest Metroidvania of this year.
