The wait is finally over. Loyal fans of the indie game Hollow Knight have at last received the sequel, which was announced over five years ago. The delay left many disheartened, with some even believing the release to be mythically elusive. Digital storefronts crashed and lagged the morning of Silksong’s launch as servers were overloaded by eager fans. At long last, the game is here–so was it worth the wait, or did several years of delays prove too much for the Australian developer Team Cherry?
Hollow Knight: Silksong follows Hornet, the former princess of Hallownest and an adept NPC who repeatedly tested the player’s combat prowess in the original game. This sequel places players in her shoes, allowing them to wield her adroit and acrobatic fighting style. The story picks up after the events of Hollow Knight and opens with Hornet being taken captive for unknown reasons by a cadre of veiled bugs, then transported to the gloomy kingdom of Pharloom. When a winged monster intervenes, Hornet escapes her bonds and begins her journey to uncover the truth behind her capture.
The current state of the video game industry is an uneasy one: prices are climbing, developers often favor live-service models littered with expensive downloadable content and microtransactions, and consumers are frequently left unsatisfied. At times, it feels as though every vestige of creativity and passion in game design has been supplanted by corporatism and greed. Yet Silksong’s mastery of craft proves that video games are more than the soulless cash grabs the industry so often seems to produce.
Every aspect of Silksong borders on perfection. Its art style manages to be both hellish and cute. The NPCs deliver minimal, esoteric dialogue that perfectly captures the mysterious, alluring world-building for which the first game was praised. The level design, paired with challenging combat, exemplifies the best of the Metroidvania genre. And at a mere $20–when many expected to pay double–the game is a rare bargain in today’s market.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is proof that the future of video games is not as bleak as it may seem. Team Cherry once again demonstrates that a quality game does not require hyper-realistic graphics, a nine-figure budget, Hollywood actors, or even all three dimensions. All it truly takes is solid design and skilled developers.
