Hollow Knight

Metroidvanias are making comeback. And I can't be happier. The genre is built with the most attractive aspects of gaming, but It's also one of the hardest genre's to pull-off in terms of level design and mechanics.

Other than mechanics and level design, both Metroid and Castlevania shared great another awesome aspect, which is the atmosphere. And in Hollow Knight, the atmosphere is one of the first aspects that pulled me towards it. The art is a simple, shibi-like, but the settings are in a dark depressing world. But yet, the world is filled with intriguing characters and eldritch locations.

Like most Metroidvanias, you start with simple abilities, but it's how you use the simple sword attack or jump, and how you acquire new abilities that complement or build on those abilities is what’s awesome. You get to strengthen your weapon, wall-jump, dashing, etc. The only issue I had with the abilities is how long it takes you to get them. Added to that, are shops you find which sell you items that also upgrade aspects of your abilities. You purchase the upgrades with game currency, but you're mainly restricted with slots which you assign those items to.

The game's atmosphere takes pages from the Souls games, but it doesn't stop there. Losing in the game will make you drop all your game currency, but like the Souls games, you will have a chance to gain it all back by finding your dead soul. Die again before you do, and you lose it all. So there is a certain level of rogue-likeness to the game. Still, the game balances the difficulty by giving you an ability early on that would let you regenerate health, but you could do that only if you killed enough enemies.

You can have the greatest combat system ever, but if you don't have enemies to match it, it would be useless. And I've seen many games fail at that. Hollow Knight is one of those games that both combat and enemies complement each other. If you take the combat system on its own, you will think it's too simplistic. It's the implementation with the enemies that truly make it. At the beginning, you will face the usual enemies that stroll from side to side. Then you get the flyers, shooters, giants, ghosts, etc. In short, there is a huge variety in the enemies in terms of gameplay, and design.

In closing, if you're looking for an excellent Metroidvania with terrific Dark Souls inspired atmosphere, great level and enemy design, look no further. And if you're not looking, you definitely should.