All the way back in 2017, a small, unknown indie game team known as Team Cherry released Hollow Knight, a Metroidvania 2D platformer. The game was immediately the center of much attention and received large amounts of praise for its gameplay, art style, and music. The game has ended up selling over 15 million copies, making it one of the most popular indie games of all time.

Despite all of this, I have never played Hollow Knight, as the game simply never greatly appealed to me. This changed following the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, a long awaited sequel (originally a DLC) for the Hollow Knight franchise. Upon the release of Silksong, servers began crashing for almost every online shop like Playstation and Xbox stores, Steam, and the Nintendo eShop, a feat unheard of for an Indie game. This, as well as some recommendations from Mr. Caudillo, prompted me to try the game out.

Nothing was more obvious from the beginning of the game than the terrible mouse and keyboard control layout. After completely reconfiguring my controls, the game felt much better, and I was able to progress. Some minor platforming and enemies await, followed by our first checkpoint. Benches are often used as checkpoints where we can rest and heal, nothing that wouldn’t be seen as unusual. Immediately after the first checkpoint is the first boss—Moss Mother.

The first boss provides a mildly challenging experience that I believe is mostly used for practice and allowing the player to become more comfortable in combat. At this point, it’s obvious why the first game sold so many copies and developed quite the cult following. The graphics, music, and environments are something that could be expected from that of an AA or even some AAA games, but not that of an indie studio made up of just three guys.

After the first boss, much more of the story is revealed. Simply put, we are on a mission to the top of the kingdom to escape, however that is also where our captors are. The entire game revolves mostly around exploration and fighting enemies, while also climbing to the top of the kingdom to escape. The Marrow is our next destination, where there are more bosses, enemies, and paths to take.

While most of my “review” appears positive, that isn’t to say the game is without its faults. Aside from the aforementioned terrible keyboard controls, the games currency system is terrible. Beads are used to purchase keys as well as other tools used to advance levels, and upon death, you lose the beads you held. This wouldn’t be too bad if getting these beads in the first place wasn’t so tedious.

Most keys cost 500 beads, while most enemies drop only five at a time. The only way to gain beads at a reasonable speed is to farm them, which is still not fast nor fun. The game is also hard. I would not consider this a fault, as the challenge of the game is the biggest part of what makes it fun, but it will definitely frustrate many people.

I may not have much experience with 2D platformers, but I have a lot of experience with indie games, and I can definitely understand why so many people love this game. The graphics and atmosphere are truly amazing, and the story is equally immersive. The game contains a fair amount of replay value, if you can even finish it, as playthroughs can range from 30 to over 120 hours. All this for only $20 in today’s game market is certainly a steal and Silksong is a game that I can definitely recommend.

You can purchase your copy of Hollow Knight: Silksong on Playstation, Xbox, Steam (on both Mac and Windows), and the Nintendo Switch 1 and 2. You can learn more about the game at their website: hollowknightsilksong.com.