Hollow Knight Review
A hand-drawn descent into a ruined insect kingdom, Hollow Knight is the rare indie that feels genuinely endless — in the best way.
Made by a tiny team, Hollow Knight has the scope and confidence of a studio blockbuster. Its ruined kingdom of Hallownest is one of the most atmospheric worlds in games — a melancholy, hand-drawn maze that keeps unfolding long after you think you've seen it all. Team Cherry, a small studio from Adelaide, funded it through a modest Kickstarter in 2014 and released it on PC in February 2017. Nearly a decade on, it remains a benchmark for the metroidvania genre.
A world that keeps opening up
You play a silent, nameless Knight who descends from the sleepy town of Dirtmouth into the kingdom below, a place brought low by a dream-borne Infection that drives its bugs to madness. That premise is delivered in fragments, and the world does most of the talking.
As a metroidvania it is exemplary: each new ability — a dash, a wall-cling, a double jump — quietly reshapes a map you thought you'd memorised. Crucially, Hallownest doesn't funnel you down one path. Its interconnected regions branch in several directions, whole areas can be missed entirely, and the mapping system is deliberately stingy about giving away the kingdom's secrets. It can be disorienting, but the payoff is a genuine sense of discovery that few games in the genre match.
Combat, charms and bosses
Combat is precise and demanding, with boss fights that double as the game's emotional peaks. Your main weapon is the Nail, and every hit fills a Soul vessel that you can spend either on healing or on offensive spells. That single trade-off gives every encounter a tense rhythm: do you stop to heal and risk a punish, or keep the pressure on?
Charms are where builds come in. Found or bought across the kingdom, they tweak everything from Nail reach to how quickly you gather Soul, and each one costs a limited number of notches, so loadouts become a puzzle of their own. Die and you drop your Geo currency and some of your Soul capacity, forcing a tense return trip to defeat your lingering Shade and reclaim them. It's a demanding structure, but the controls are so tight and responsive that failure almost always feels like your own fault rather than the game's.
Beautiful and bleak
The art and score do the heavy lifting on tone. Hallownest feels mournful and alive at once, and the game trusts you to piece its story together from environment and implication rather than cutscenes.
Ari Gibson's hand-drawn art gives each region a distinct identity, from the fungal gloom of the lower caverns to the glittering, hostile crystal mines and a gothic capital city, and the traditional frame-by-frame animation brings a huge cast of creepy and endearing bugs to life. Christopher Larkin's orchestral score is the perfect partner: restrained and sorrowful while you explore, then soaring when a boss arena seals shut behind you.
Four free expansions and a 2026 refresh
Team Cherry kept adding to the game without charging a cent. Hidden Dreams arrived in August 2017 with new boss fights, The Grimm Troupe followed that October with a major new quest, and Lifeblood in April 2018 brought upgraded bosses and refinements across the whole game. The fourth and final pack, Godmaster, added Godhome and its Pantheons — consecutive boss gauntlets that culminate in the brutal Pantheon of Hallownest.
Hollow Knight: Godmaster is out now, and to celebrate the game is 34% off on Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac and Linux! Experience the Knight's final chapter and take your place amongst the gods of Hallownest!
— Team Cherry (@TeamCherryGames) August 23, 2018
The game reached Switch in June 2018 and PS4 and Xbox One as the Voidheart Edition that September. On 5 February 2026 it arrived on Nintendo Switch 2, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S with higher frame rates, higher resolutions and additional effects, as a free upgrade for existing Switch, PS4 and Xbox players, while PC gained full 21:9 and 16:10 support. The long-awaited sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, finally launched in September 2025, but the original has lost none of its standing.
Who it's for
If you love exploration for its own sake and don't mind being lost, this is essential. Players who want clear objectives and gentle difficulty should know that it asks a lot, particularly in its optional late-game challenges. Everyone else will find a remarkably generous package that easily runs to dozens of hours.
Official resources
- Hollow Knight official website
- Team Cherry news: Godmaster launch
- Hollow Knight on Steam
- Hollow Knight on GOG
- Hollow Knight on the Nintendo eShop
- Hollow Knight on Wikipedia
The verdict
The deliberately sparse signposting will test some players, but that sense of being a little lost is part of the magic. Alongside Hades, it's proof that the best indies stand shoulder to shoulder with anything the big studios make.
What we loved
- Enormous, intricately connected world
- Tight, weighty combat and platforming
- Haunting hand-drawn art and score
- Extraordinary value for the price
What held it back
- Sparse map and direction can frustrate
- Long stretches between save benches
- Difficulty ramps hard in the late game
