The bug-fantasy hyper-capitalism we didn't know we would get.

Something personal ahead
Feel free to skip this part, but perhaps this small paragraph will help you understand my review.

Like so many, I started my journey by playing Hollow Knight years ago. With its nearly 300 hours and many more shared with friends and online content it belongs to my most played games and I can safely say that Hollow Knight is my favorite game of all time. At some point I am going to have to write a review about that game too. I can't go into all the details as to why, but this will perhaps make the expectations a bit clearer, that I had for Silksong. It was the follow-up to one of the most memorable experiences I had in my life. And it had six years to build them up.


Gameplay:
Where do I even start.

Hollow Knight revolutionized the Metroidvania-Genre, making other games like it a sub-genre I like to call Hollow-Likes. You've got games of all names and sizes mimicking it, one of the biggest ones clearly being Ori and the Will of the Wisp. So with its own niche in this big name we all awaited the next entry and it only ever had two choices:

1. Revolutionize upon itself or
2. Just be Hollow Knight 2

Silksong chose none.

Starting to play Silksong was like returning to an old friend that just felt different. The first few minutes I just saw Hollow Knight with wall-ledging. You even could perform the good old fly-pogo-skip to get to the first mossberry, one of the most famous speedrun skips in the original. However something was off. Enough people shared their opinion about the diagonal pogo already, but there was more. Enemies were more aggressive, did more damage, stayed out of reach. With Hollow Knight basically everything rushed to you. In Silksong you had to rush to them.

Getting to that feeling and realization was an interesting journey. Over the course of 80 hours I learned to play like Hornet, not like Ghost. The gameplay feels as smooth, if not smoother, than the first game. Precise, agile, fast, empowering, punishing. Every button press does what it is supposed to do. Every attack flies as it should. Every ledge gets climbed as long as you do it right.

The beginning was rough with the difficulty curve feeling so different than Hollow Knight’s. What I always loved about the first game was the relatively low entry barrier for its part soulslike DNA. Fighting the False Knight was so easy and so predictable and still you had to get used to the idea of a soulslike-metroidvania. However, with years in the making, the Hollow-Like-Genre now existed.

So the gloves were off.

Silksong is challenging from the get-go. You run into a wall expecting a smooth start and that threw people off. However after some time everything changes. Once you learn to play as Hornet the game becomes surprisingly easy. Or is it something else that changes?


The exploration:
Leading to the second big part: The exploration. You've got yourself a world full of wonders, secrets and mysteries, bosses and lore come hand in hand. It never gets old, when you come to a room with something that you marked earlier, just to find that there is A WHOLE NEW AREA you didn't know about right there. I had that feeling with the Sands of Karak just popping there out of nowhere. I remember being basically done with the game (or so I thought), realizing that according to Steam achievements I was still missing more than five maps.

Interestingly enough I think of Silksong as a much more linear game than Hollow Knight. Every area felt like it was the only real way to go. Yes, you do learn later on, that there are different routes. But Pharloom was an empire built by a society, not a natural cave being inhabited by different bugs. It was only when I saw people missing other parts of the map than me, that I realized, that perhaps my way to approach an Metroidvania has changed.

And yet - the amount of content you could discover was off this world.

However, psychology is an interesting thing. I remember the pure joy of Hollow Knight, when beating a boss and hundreds of Geo popping out, charms being unlocked, mask shards being earned - And I remember the emptiness, when beating nearly any boss in Act 1 more often than not just leading to an unlocked story progression and perhaps some shell shards. Early on exploration felt meaningless, because there just were no real rewards and this was only reinforced by the feeling, that early-game-maps for Silksong just weren't as exciting until you reach Bellheart, as too many of them felt same-y once you leave Moss Grotto. This changes, but it does do a bad first impression.

To me, all of this ties into the world, that Team Cherry wanted to build. But more on that later.

This problem solved itself with Act 2 big times. I felt the effect setting in incredibly fast once I started that part of the game and I suddenly got rewards so fast, that I actually was progressing as a character. After that, the game got easier as you went. Power came with exploration - after you crossed a certain threshhold. It pains me to say that my itch for exploration was lessened by this simple change. However I do want to emphasize the greatness, that this game’s map goes to. The map and it’s variety is incredible with lore built right into it.

It should be fun, exploring Pharloom.


The story and the Writing:
As with its predecessor the story tells itself through a world built with care and thought. Unlike its predecessor, Silksong is easily understandable by just playing the game. The story is much less obscure, with Hornet actually able to speak as a matter of fact. While the quality of the world is as incredible as the masterpiece that was Hallownest before, to me the story of Silksong was just a bit less intriguing than Hollow Knight. The stakes were lower and the narrative challenge felt more achievable. The world, through being more perceivable, was less mysterious compared to saving and exploring the haunted kingdom of Hallownest.

And yet, my heart jumped with joy as I realized, that there is indeed an Act 3. So take that as a hint, at how good the writing actually is.

I do have to move into heavy spoilers here for the last part of this section.
I have mentioned one thing many times before: Everything changes, once you leave Act 1 and enter Act 2. To me, this is no coincidence. To me, this screams one thing: Silksong is a story about hyper-capitalism or the nature of cults or whatever. Don't worry please, I won't get into politics here, but just for a moment reminisce about the nature of Pharloom. It is a society built upon many trying to get into the big citadel that have barely nothing. There are no fancy structures in Act 1, the only real city is built out of the bells being thrown away by the citadel. Even in the citadel, there are 2 classes. And to no one’s surprise, once you reach the citadel, you get money, mask shards, tools and all of that galore. This is Team cherry telling us: Yes, there is much wealth in these “holy” halls – but they built this up on the backs of the simple bugs, that offer everything they have for a chance of salvation. Not all, that shines, is gold.

The citadel is no gold.


Music, graphic and technical stuff:
The music from Christopher Larkin is an enormous feat to bring Team Cherry’s game(s) to life. How can you not love about nearly every music after Act 1, how can you not love the main story boss fights music like Weaver, Clockwork Dancers, Phantom, First Sinner and so many more? As with so many parts of Silksong, the music just gets better, as you progress through the game. The quality is sheer immense.

(The last 20 % of the review are in the comment)