Hollow Knight 2

What do we have to tell about Hollow Knight? To start with, this is a game with a huge map and its open world isn’t just for the genre’s sake. After you receive a couple of basic skills, you can get almost anywhere. The game is strongly tied into exploration: the first thing you should do after unlocking a new location is to find a map seller who will supply you with a piece of paper to draw a map as you travel. However, the route can be applied only by sitting down on a bench – it works as saving (you should discover it first, though, which isn’t always easy). Fast travel points are scarce, but inventive – for instance, you can ride a rhino beetle. There are also a few elevators and a Victorian tram.

The gameplay is standard for a metroidvania: jumping from one platform to another, overcoming abysses and avoiding thorns falling on your head from the sky. Double jumps, wall climbing, several types of attacks – the set of skills is pretty basic, but allows you to pick an optimal tactics in combat. At first, enemies will be quite easy to defeat, but their varieties and abilities will get more diverse and trickier as you proceed. Bosses are especially tough, you might require several attempts to beat them. Each boss guards a passage to the next location, so you won’t be able to bypass them.

There is also an interesting system of amulets. Their effects are different: from refilling mana to spawning tiny kamikaze. The latter can be particular helpful against bosses with minions. Amulets are also required to improve characteristics. You can carry them only if you have enough free cells, and their number subsequently increases. There are very few useless talismans, so there will certainly be situations when you want to temporarily replace one with another. One cell, for example, is occupied by an amulet that indicates your location on the map, but in a fight with the “boss” there is little sense from it – it is better to take one that increases damage during low health. There is much more to Hollow Knight, so why don’t you start playing right now?