Hollow Knight: Silksong review: A flawed masterpiece

Hollow Knight: Silksong has been one of the most challenging reviews for me in two distinct ways. One, as you’ve probably heard or experienced, Silksong is a difficult game. Playing through the game at all, let alone for a review, was a challenge to my gaming skills and my mental fortitude. The brutal runbacks, the frustrating bosses, and the endless challenge rooms. But it also made me seriously consider how I write reviews.

There are many ways to write a review, but two major factors to consider are the game's objective quality and the individual’s personal experience. At the end of the day, all reviews are subjective, but a reviewer should also have some level of objectivity; it’s just a question of where the balance lies. A game can still be good, even if it just doesn't quite fit the reviewer's preferences. For example, I’m not a huge FPS fan, but that doesn’t mean I should just give Battlefield 6 a 3 out of 10. Even though it’s not my kind of game, I can still recognize its strengths and what others can appreciate about it.

So, that brings me to Silksong. By all accounts, this is a great game. This review is in a unique position because it wasn’t created in solitude before the game was released publicly. Reviews have been out for weeks, and they are mostly glowing. The action, the world, the animations and art style, the music. Everything about Silksong is fantastic. But did I have fun playing Hollow Knight: Silksong? The best I can say is sometimes.

Was Hollow Knight: Silksong Fun?

Normally, with a review copy of a game, I’m not able to use guides. So thank goodness this wasn’t an early review copy. Hollow Knight: Silksong has a dynamic, highly detailed, and gorgeous world that begs to be explored. But it’s also easy to get lost, or to get stuck trying to do something you’re not sure is optional or not. Most of the time, I would say that challenges compensate you with a fair reward, but when you are doing your best to beat the game in a timely manner, the hours spent on an optional boss or optional platforming challenge start to add up.

The word I would perhaps use to best describe my time with Hollow Knight: Silksong is stressful. I remember my naivety going into the review. I knew it would be challenging, but I believed I would get the hang of it after a few days. But it never felt that way. Every challenge felt like a wall, something that would hinder my progress for the day, or at least for an hour or two. Which leads me to perhaps my biggest issue with Silksong.

I still believe this is a great game; I’ve just had to face the reality that it’s not a great game for me. Silksong requires your attention, and a lot of it. To try to play this for a few hours every night after work, and not have the time to dedicate to “getting good,” it’s going to be a struggle. Also, considering that I am someone who’s admittedly not the best at fast-paced action titles like this, there are bound to be some rough edges.

Highs & Lows

Even though I believe all this, that’s not to say that Hollow Knight: Silksong didn’t come with some brilliant moments as well. I compare it to a roller coaster: there will be some high highs, but they are often preceded by low lows. There are two bosses in particular, I think, who are a perfect example of this, and they are bosses I know have been controversial, considering Team Cherry decided to patch them shortly after release. The bosses I’m talking about are Moorwing and Sister Splinter.

These are two bosses the player will encounter in Act 1, and I had very different experiences with them overall. Both bosses brought me to my wits' end, but Moorwing in particular broke something inside me. After spending two days doing nothing but fighting and dying to Moorwing, I couldn’t take it anymore. At some point in the many attempts, I talked to Garmond, who will gladly help you defeat the boss. Eventually, I realized that Garmond and his trusty steed were invincible. Left to his own devices, Garmond would eventually defeat Moorwing himself. But no matter what, I still couldn’t bring down this boss. Until I gave up, in a way. I ran, jumped up to a ledge that Moorwing couldn’t reach but wouldn’t end the fight, and sat quietly as Garmond chipped away at the boss. This was one of my lowest points in the overall experience. I still think about how dishonorable it felt.

Then, there was Sister Splinter. I struggled against this boss as well, but I had no Garmond to get me out of it this time. The biggest problem was when the minions were summoned. They added too much chaos, which was too much to avoid and defeat, while also worrying about the boss and the environmental hazards she would create. Then, practically by accident, I used my Silkspear and saw the vision. Normally, I would preserve my silk as much as possible to make sure I could get a heal in when needed. But when I realized that one user of Silkspear, positioned well, could take out two minions and clear thorns from the battlefield in one go, it was like I had found the key to the puzzle. I only needed a few more tries after that to defeat Sister Splinter, and it felt euphoric to finally move on without using some silly trick like with Moorwing.

Hollow Kight: Silksong is littered with experience like this. The kinds of highs that make all the struggle feel worth it, only to be met with another low that puts you on the verge of quitting the game. These days, it’s not often that I complete a game without it being for this job, and I know for certain that had I not had to keep trying my best with Silksong for this review, I would have put the game down a long time ago. In many ways, I don’t consider this a reflection on the game's quality; there are many reasons to keep playing. But the combo of it all would have led to this outcome, at least for me.

Impeccable Design

There is a lot to love about Silksong. The character designs, from Hornet herself to the adorable singing Sherma, are so memorable. In the early days, I would often find myself singing Shakra’s song to myself and always getting excited whenever I heard the faint tune of her song in a new area. When it comes to design, I often think of the silhouette test. If I only saw the enemies' silhouettes, I would still know which ones they are and how to react to them, which is an impressive feat given the variety.

This also extends to the various biomes. There are many, and while they all have a consistency of clearly belonging next to each other and being from the same game, they are also easy to tell apart. From the colors used to the common enemies, to even the overall vibe, the world of Silksong is one that I loved to explore in those rare moments of safety and control. If I could take the difficulty and turn it all the way down, I could see myself spending hours casually exploring this world. I do remember a moment early on when I heard about PC mods and thought to myself, "I wish I hadn’t started the review on Switch 2." But that would not have been an honest experience of the base game anyway.

Finally, Hollow Knight: Silksong would not be the same if Team Cherry had not nailed how great it feels to move. Every so often, you are able to get into a flow state of movement as Hornet and blaze through certain areas like the wind. It is unfortunate that this mostly comes up on the tenth run-back to a challenging boss, but at least it sometimes makes the constant, lengthy, and dangerous run-backs more enjoyable.

Final Thoughts

Hollow Knight: Silksong is a challenging game to play and to review. I want to make sure to thank my editors for their patience with me on this one. It’s really made me sit down and examine not just the game itself, but how I write reviews.

I understand why some fans might argue that the frustration and unrelenting challenge of Silksong is by design. That it ties into the overall story of a deadly pilgrimage from the depths to the Citadel, one that should feel hopeless and impossible on some level. This is a great concept, and a well-executed story that matches the vibe of nearly every corner of the game world. But I don’t think this is the only way to get that message across. If the point of the game is not to have fun, that’s not a great point.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is a great game, I just wish it wasn’t weighed down by overly punishing challenges, unforgiving environmental hazards, and the unfortunate repetitiveness that comes from a tough boss fight that takes a few real-world minutes to get back to. This is a flawed masterpiece. If you’re willing to look over the flaws, or perhaps they aren’t even flaws to you, I can understand this being one of the best games of all time. But personally, I really had to push myself to keep playing at many points. Thankfully, that’s at least not for lack of quality, but for an abundance of brutality.