Disclosure: Team Cherry gave us a free Steam game code for review purpose.
Hollow Knight is a challenging, beautiful action adventure game set in the vast, inter-connected underground kingdom of Hallownest. A 2D action game with an emphasis on skill and exploration, Hollow Knight has you fighting a fearsome host of deadly creatures, avoiding intricate traps and solving ancient mysteries as you make your own way through fungal wastes, forests of bone, and ruined underground cities.
It was originally released for Windows on February 24, 2017 and was later ported to Linux on April 11, 2017. Hollow Knight uses Unity game engine which is also used by many indie games such as Aragami and Immortal Redneck.
Features
- Challenging game play that can be difficult but always fair.
- A collection of challenging “feats” the most skilled players can strive for.
- Find powerful new abilities and spells on your adventure to grow stronger and open new paths.
- Head to town to seek advice, purchase new items, and chat with quirky townsfolk.
- Hidden areas full of the toughest challenges and battles, for expert players.
Game Play
Hollow Knight is a game that perfectly strikes a balance between platforming and action. It has similarities with the popular and great classic game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997, Play Station). The game may seem boring and too easy in the early parts since you just do the usual jumping from platform to platform and easily killing basic enemies just run toward you.
Once you explore deeper to the various areas, enemies get harder to kill and the platforming also gets more challenging. You need patience in this game since you’ll probably die a lot in the platforming areas.
The fight with Gruz Mother shown in our 1st game play video may give the wrong impression that boss fights in Hollow Knight are easy. So far, in what I have played, my favorite boss fight is the one with Mantis Lords. Though the boss fight just requires memorizing patterns, it was surprisingly challenging. There are more than 30 bosses and I have already beaten four.
There are areas and powers I still have to unlock even though I have already played the game for about 10 hours. The game is really engaging that I would play it more and finish it after I’m done with this review. I never thought I would enjoy Hollow Knight this much.
Performance
The game was tested on my Linux gaming PC equipped with Gigabyte GTX 970 ITX and Intel Core i7 7700. Maintaining 60 FPS was easy and my PC was only drawing around 90 watts when running Hollow Knight at 1080p (1920 x 1080 resolution). My Linux gaming PC usually draws around 190 watts when running more demanding games such as Dying Light so I think those using low-end GPU’s such as Radeon R7 240 would be able to enjoy this game on budget 1080p monitors.
Closing Thoughts
If you are looking for an action-platformer that offers great value for the money, Hollow Knight might be the game for you. Don’t be fooled by its cartoon-like art design, it’s not an easy game meant for introducing gaming to preschoolers. It has a lot of content and will surely keep you occupied in your free time after work or school. PC gamers using Linux will also be delighted to know that Hollow Knight runs stable and has no graphical glitches on Linux. I have already played it on Ubuntu MATE 17.04 for about 10 hours and I did not encounter any game crash or system freeze. The game also properly recognizes the XBox 360 controller.
Hollow Knight is currently available at Steam for PhP 419.95. Steam Play is supported which means you only purchase the game once and you can play it on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Also, a DRM-free copy can be bought for $ 14.99 at GOG or at Humble Store.
The Game Giveaway
Team Cherry was kind enough to give us another Steam game code for a game giveaway. Joining is simple and you just have to do the following.
- Comment on Facebook “I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games“.
- The comment should include the link to your Facebook account and your Steam account together with a screenshot of your desktop while you are logged in at Facebook and logged in at the Steam app. Make sure your Steam profile is set to public.
- You can upload the screenshot at image hosting sites such as Imgur and Imgbb.
Here is a sample comment for guidance:
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games.
https://www.facebook.com/bossmac
http://steamcommunity.com/id/bigbossmac/
http://i.imgur.com/ahpy0lG.jpg
10 Comments
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games.
https://www.facebook.com/sebastiene.saturnino
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198108587391/
http://imgur.com/a/lHzTq
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games
https://www.facebook.com/bongares.ej
http://steamcommunity.com/id/lazyish/
http://imgur.com/a/0hxh6
Joanna Dela Cuesta
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games.
https://www.facebook.com/buhrylleee
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Buhrylleee/
https://imgur.com/a/7Pwkv
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games.
https://www.facebook.com/CT.cyberterror
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Rinzler19/
http://imgur.com/a/lpkbg
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games
https://www.facebook.com/nyltonchan
http://steamcommunity.com/id/tonylts
https://imgur.com/a/atDBr
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games.
https://www.facebook.com/nyltonchan
http://steamcommunity.com/id/tonylts/
https://imgur.com/a/atDBr
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games.
https://www.facebook.com/jcestomata
http://steamcommunity.com/id/TsukoYomi/
http://imgur.com/a/VE0K3
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games.
https://www.facebook.com/jcestomata
http://steamcommunity.com/id/TsukoYomi/
http://imgur.com/a/VE0K3
I want to play Hollow Knight and I support cross-platform PC games.
https://www.facebook.com/stephenomenal
http://steamcommunity.com/id/metalphen/
http://imgur.com/v4Tc33k