TL;DR:
Pros
- Gameplay that feels good with clean, satisfying movement and strikes
- Lush, immersive art and sound design to pull you in
- Every-hit-counts fighting that feels high-risk, high-reward
- Sprawling, endlessly fascinating world full of fun characters
- Difficulty level that scales well and isn’t too discouraging (for me)
Cons
- Builds feel too limited and overly stabilised, with less potential for creative play
- Could do with more shiny doodads to collect
Overall: 5/7 – Smooth, sharp, beautiful and just the right amount of humbling
Reviewed on PC (Windows); available on Windows, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. $8.19 (Steam)
Hollow Knight: Silksong is Steam’s Game of the Year, and I understand why. Team Cherry’s high-demand Hollow Knight sequel had been stuck in development for years — to the point where hardcore fans of the Metroidvania-from-Hell were modding themselves even stupider, more pointlessly difficult challenges to parkour through just to pass the time. So the fact that it’s here at all is a big deal. It’s also a great game.
Silksong follows Hallownest’s former princess-protector Hornet, familiar from the first game, as she ascends through an unfamiliar bug-filled kingdom full of tough foes and strange happenings. You don’t have to have played Hollow Knight to enjoy this game, since it’s a fully new setting. And there’s not much to give away about the premise: like the first game, it’s tight-lipped about the whats and whys, but the idea is much the same. Slash. Dash. Platform for your life.
I’ve been taking my time exploring the sprawling world of the game instead of rushing. So, while I can’t comment on the whole thing, I can confidently confirm what it does well to pull in players immediately, as well as what’s familiar, what’s new and exciting, and what surprisingly didn’t meet my expectations.
Fair warning: maybe don’t play this if you don’t like bugs.
Lush art, juicy sound design
First things first: this game is a treat for the eyes and ears and feels super good to play. (The camera shaking might be a bit much for some, but there’s an option to turn it off.)
Amid a living, breathing tapestry of rich landscapes, Hornet herself moves in a pleasingly thematic and satisfying way — spidery, acrobatic, lightweight and loping, with attacks reminiscent enough of her fearsome prequel moveset to bring some nostalgia into the mix.
The game also features a lot of glittering shards and gorgeous red, clinking beads as a part of its design, which is an added way to sink your teeth into the sensory experience of playing it. Maybe I’m biased, but I like shiny things. More on that later.
While the soundtrack is beautiful as expected, what really makes the game is how immersively and effectively it uses its sound. Multi-layered tracks swell as you explore, fading into eerie silence as you near a big fight; heart-stopping symphonic crescendos complement a boss’s own thudding, crashing heavy attacks. Through it all, choruses of clanging bells, whippy blades and roars that make you feel the jitters of an intense fight in your whole body — plus Hornet’s own screams of pain to really sell it.
One of Silksong’s biggest strengths lies in its sound, and it can’t be adequately written about — only experienced.
Really great fights
Speaking of fights: Silksong’s gameplay experience is pretty much seamless. It’s a game where every hit counts, and it makes those hits not only smooth, sharp and clean to deliver but super satisfying every time they connect. On the flip side, when you get hit, the game makes sure you feel it. Victories and losses alike are big and dramatic, so when you die, it’s impactful, and when you defeat a boss, it’s the most satisfying thing in the world.
Boss fights are definitely one of the big draws of Silksong. Each one packs a unique punch (sorry), and I very quickly found some memorable favourites. Even more to the game’s credit, the gnarliest bosses typically start out feeling absolutely insurmountable, then become super fun the moment you lock in.
Going from fumbling your way into Death by Spiky Thing to somersaulting into a devastating final strike is measurable, gratifying progress that makes you feel like a great player. The only tiny thing that can take getting used to is that the hitboxes aren’t always entirely intuitive. To save you some trouble: Hornet’s horns aren’t part of her hitbox. Thankfully.
Difficult — but not miserably so
People have mixed opinions on this, but I don’t think the game’s too tough to enjoy. Yes, it’s difficult. But Team Cherry didn’t lose its way by making ‘difficulty’ its whole brand — Silksong keeps itself approachable to all Metroidvania fans and not just those who love pain.
To me, Silksong strikes a great balance between challenging and enjoyable. Maybe I’m just a better player after Hollow Knight, but the game has scaled well in difficulty for me so far, and hasn’t stalled my progress yet. Boss fights can take dozens of tries or just one, but I haven’t hit a point where I’ve felt frustrated by a lack of progress.
A big part of both games for me has been launching myself at a boss over and over until sweet victory. But what keeps me from getting discouraged in Silksong is that it usually leaves me the option to go explore somewhere else instead. In fact, when a fight feels too difficult to progress farther, that’s typically a design choice to stop the player from wandering into regions they’re not ready to handle. The world feels more open this way, and less like you’re running up against concrete walls to advancement.
Sprawling map full of secrets
I haven’t uncovered the whole map of Silksong, but I’m already getting a sense of its massive scale. Regions open up fairly fast, but always hold on to a few secrets as you progress, leaving something to mark for later once you’ve unlocked more abilities.
In the meantime, you never get bored because there are intriguing sights to see and a zesty lineup of carapaced characters to meet. And because this time around, your character can actually talk, you can have actual conversations. Mostly.
Even with looming threats around every corner, it’s always worth exploring just a little farther. But…
I want more trinkets
Here’s my main disappointment, and it’s more personal than anything. Silksong drops the ball on one thing that Hollow Knight did really well, and it’s the shiny collectables. Why are there so few?
From combing the first few regions, I realised that the Charms that made the first game’s exploration that much more rewarding just don’t seem to be a big part of this one. Of the equippable items, many are simply bought, not glittering loot from tough minibosses. (And yes, maybe I’d like a bigger reward for beating those.)
Hollow Knight conditioned me to expect more from the exploration aspect of the game, and there’s just something lacking here. This is tied to the new gameplay mechanic, a ‘Crest’ with a few dedicated slots for equipping limited power-up ‘Tools’, as opposed to the Knight’s dozens of Charms.
I have no problem with changing up gameplay to keep things fresh. But I am a little sad that my build options are so much more limited than before. While Hollow Knight lets you jam whatever you want onto your available Charm notches, the Tools are all categorised by function — attack, defence, exploration utility — and at the outset, you can only equip one of each type at a time. The result is that your build is very well-balanced and a bit boring. Swing and a miss with this decision for me.
But that’s just a small gripe amid a lot of praise and respect I have for this game. For a sequel that had some massive hype to live up to, Silksong is a fantastic example of a game that doesn’t make its challenging nature into a status symbol. It’s approachable for old and new players alike, pouring focus into its smooth and immersive gameplay to make for an all-around amazing Metroidvania experience that makes you proud of your own progress.
Silksong is well worth its $8.19 on Steam, especially with a free expansion on the way in 2026. A bundle of the game and its soundtrack is also available for a discounted total of $10.94.
