Hollow Knight Review: A Metroidvania Masterpiece

Hollow Knight opens with silence. A small figure descends into the ruins of Hallownest, an ancient insect kingdom consumed by a mysterious infection. There’s no exposition dump, no tutorial pop-ups, no quest markers. You’re given a nail (sword), a map that shows almost nothing, and a vast underground world to explore. It’s intimidating, confusing, and absolutely brilliant.

The World of Hallownest

Hallownest is one of the greatest game worlds ever designed. Spanning 15 distinct areas connected by a labyrinthine network of tunnels, shortcuts, and hidden passages, it rewards exploration with a consistency that few games match.

Each area has its own visual identity, enemy ecosystem, and atmospheric tone:

The interconnectedness is key. You’ll pass through locked doors, spot unreachable platforms, and notice suspicious walls dozens of times before acquiring the ability to access them. When you finally return with the right upgrade—a wall jump, a shadow dash, a crystal heart—the satisfaction of unlocking a shortcut or discovering a hidden area is immense.

Team Cherry never wastes space. Every room serves a purpose: a combat encounter, a platforming challenge, a lore fragment, a hidden collectible, or a shortcut connecting distant areas. After 50 hours, I was still finding rooms I’d missed, secrets I’d overlooked, and connections I hadn’t noticed.

Combat That Rewards Mastery

Hollow Knight’s combat is deceptively simple on the surface. You have a nail for melee attacks, a soul meter that fills when you hit enemies and drains when you heal or cast spells, and a dodge with invincibility frames. That’s essentially it for the first few hours.

The depth emerges through boss design. Hollow Knight features over 40 boss encounters, each with distinct attack patterns, phases, and strategies. The game teaches you its combat language through these fights:

• False Knight: Teaches basic dodge timing and punish windows
• Hornet (Greenpath): Introduces speed and aggression, demands reaction time
• Mantis Lords: Tests pattern recognition with multi-enemy coordination
• Soul Master: Combines platforming with combat, punishes greed
• Broken Vessel: Introduces infection mechanics and erratic patterns
• Nightmare King Grimm: One of gaming’s greatest optional bosses, demanding perfection

The charm system adds build variety. You equip charms in limited notch slots, creating different playstyles:

• Aggressive: Quick Slash + Strength + Steady Body for relentless melee pressure
• Spell-focused: Shaman Stone + Soul Catcher + Spell Twister for ranged damage
• Tank: Unbreakable Heart + Stalwart Shell + Quick Focus for survivability
• Explorer: Wayward Compass + Gathering Swarm + Greed for efficient traversal

With 45 charms and 11 notch slots, the combinations are extensive. Experimenting with loadouts for specific bosses or areas adds a layer of strategic preparation to each session.

Art Direction and Atmosphere

Hollow Knight’s hand-drawn art style is stunning in its restraint. The color palette shifts dramatically between areas—Greenpath’s verdant greens, City of Tears’ melancholic blues, Deepnest’s oppressive darkness—creating emotional responses through visual design alone.

The animation quality is exceptional for a small indie team. The Knight’s movement has weight and personality despite being a tiny silent protagonist. Enemies telegraph attacks with clear visual cues. Bosses have fluid, readable animations that make learning patterns feel fair rather than arbitrary.

Christopher Larkin’s soundtrack deserves special recognition. Each area has a unique musical theme that perfectly captures its atmosphere. The City of Tears’ piano melody evokes loneliness and faded grandeur. Deepnest’s ambient drones create genuine unease. Boss themes escalate with the fight’s intensity, with Nightmare King Grimm’s frantic violin being a particular standout.

The sound design extends to environmental audio. Rain patters in the City of Tears. Crystals hum in Crystal Peak. Insects chitter in the Fungal Wastes. These details create a world that feels alive despite being a kingdom of the dead.

Lore and Storytelling

Hollow Knight tells its story through environmental details, NPC dialogue fragments, item descriptions, and optional lore tablets scattered throughout Hallownest. There’s no quest log, no codex, no narrator explaining events. You piece together the history of the Pale King, the Radiance, the Dreamers, and the infection through exploration and observation.

This approach won’t work for everyone. Players who want clear narrative direction will find Hollow Knight frustrating. But for those willing to engage with its storytelling method, the lore is remarkably deep and emotionally resonant.

The central narrative—a kingdom’s attempt to contain a plague of light through sacrifice and sealing—touches on themes of duty, sacrifice, memory, and the cost of immortality. Multiple endings reflect different interpretations of the Knight’s purpose, with the “true” ending requiring significant optional content to unlock.

Key NPCs provide emotional anchors:

• Quirrel: A wandering scholar whose journey parallels yours, culminating in one of gaming’s most quietly devastating moments
• Hornet: A fierce protector whose motivations become clearer as you uncover her origins
• The Hollow Knight: The titular character, whose tragic purpose drives the entire narrative
• Grimm: A mysterious ringmaster whose Troupe brings both spectacle and challenge

The Free DLC

Team Cherry released four free content packs that would qualify as paid expansions for most games:

The Godmaster DLC alone adds more content than many full-priced indie games. The Pantheon of Hallownest—a gauntlet of every boss in the game fought consecutively—is one of the most demanding challenges in gaming. Completing it requires mastery of every combat mechanic and intimate knowledge of every boss pattern.

All of this content is free. At $14.99 for the complete package, Hollow Knight offers one of the best value propositions in gaming.

Where It Struggles

Hollow Knight’s commitment to player discovery creates friction points:

The Map System: You can’t see the map of an area until you find Cornifer, the cartographer, somewhere within it. Until then, you’re navigating blind. This is thematically appropriate but practically frustrating, especially in maze-like areas like Deepnest.

Early Game Pacing: The first 3-5 hours can feel aimless. Without clear direction, new players may wander into areas they’re not ready for, die repeatedly, and lose geo (currency) at their shade. The game doesn’t communicate that this is intentional—that getting lost is part of the experience.

Path of Pain: An optional platforming gauntlet in the White Palace that requires pixel-perfect precision across dozens of saw blade-filled rooms. It’s brilliant design for masochists and a source of controller-throwing rage for everyone else.

Backtracking: Fast travel via Stag Stations helps, but some areas require significant backtracking through previously cleared rooms. The Dreamgate ability (unlocked mid-game) mitigates this, but it’s easy to miss.

Technical Performance

Hollow Knight runs flawlessly on modern hardware. The 2D engine maintains 60 FPS on virtually any PC, including integrated graphics. Load times are near-instant on SSDs. The game has Steam Deck Verified status and runs perfectly on the handheld.

Controller support is excellent, with full remapping options. Keyboard and mouse work fine but controller is the recommended input method for the precision platforming sections.

The Verdict

Hollow Knight is a masterpiece that earns its place alongside Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night in the metroidvania pantheon. Its vast world rewards curiosity, its combat rewards patience, and its atmosphere rewards attention. The fact that all of this comes at $14.99 with four free DLC packs is almost absurd.

The game demands patience. It will not hold your hand, explain its systems, or point you toward the next objective. For players willing to meet it on its terms, Hollow Knight offers one of the most rewarding experiences in gaming—a world that feels genuinely discovered rather than merely consumed.

Play it before Silksong arrives. You’ll understand why millions of fans have been waiting.

Final Score: 10/10

Reviewed on PC (Steam) with a purchased copy. 65 hours played, 112% completion achieved.