Hollow Knight: Silksong Review - An Uncompromisingly Brutal Masterpiece

It’s a strange feeling, sitting here watching the credits roll on Silksong.

After 31 hours of thrilling, maddening adventure, I’ve torn through a game I spent seven years obsessively waiting for. But Silksong is a difficult thing to want to savour. It’s the kind of game that turns hours into minutes, that slithers into the back of your head and whispers to you so that even when you finally do put it down, you can’t help but think about immediately going back to it to see what else it has to offer.

Even now, as I write these words having finally conquered the game’s ultimate boss, I find my mind drifting back towards the caverns and crannies of Pharloom. The locked doors I’ve yet to open in the Citadel’s creaking, neglected hallways. The many, many secrets I know I’ve left undiscovered.

Silksong is, quite frankly, a masterpiece. Team Cherry has created a sequel that is confident, sprawling, and uncompromising in its vision — sometimes to a fault.

The game follows Hornet, a former boss/ally from the original Hollow Knight, as she finds herself kidnapped by a group of fanatical bugs and dragged to the distant land of Pharloom. Much like Hallownest, Pharloom has seen better days. Many of its inhabitants have fallen under the thrall of a mysterious higher power, and the few friendly faces to be found live in near-constant danger.

Where Hollow Knight’s story was really secondary to the action, there to be pieced together by anyone who really cared, Silksong has a much clearer narrative thread. It helps that Hornet is infinitely more loquacious than the mute knight of the first game, able to convey her motivations to the more amenable residents of Pharloom via some beautifully flowery dialogue.

The characters you meet along your journey are endearingly bizarre, and well worth speaking with at any opportunity. Sherma is a particular highlight, a small bug with faith that everything will work out if they just believe enough. Encounters with them are always heralded by the distant sound of their song, a desperately catchy number that makes me want to wrap Sherma in a big hug.

There are plenty of side quests to take on for this cast of critters, too. You’ll find yourself tracking down optional bosses, finding lost siblings, and searching every corner of the world to gather fleas for the flea circus. The flea circus. I feel that one is worth repeating.

Structurally, the adventure offers the same intoxicating blend of metroidvania and soulslike that made Hollow Knight such a hit. Hornet explores a labyrinth of interconnected biomes, fighting bosses and collecting new abilities to open up new paths and, ultimately, make it up to the Citadel high above Pharloom to have a word with the being behind her abduction.

Silksong may not exactly reinvent the wheel, but its systems have been refined and polished to within an inch of their life. The world design, in particular, is triumphant. From the full-on Bloodborne-esque horror of the Citadel’s medical ward, to the verdant greenery of moss grotto and the barren wastes of the Blasted Steps, each biome is alive with detail, hidden areas, and unexpected shortcuts.

The enemy variety is absolutely staggering, every single area containing its own deadly critters with completely unique moves, designed to constantly keep you on your toes. The designs of these beasties are also best-in-class, with enemies ranging from genuinely terrifying to so adorable you genuinely feel bad putting them down. But, you know, they were in the way.

The world is occasionally intimidatingly vast, but you’ll want to comb every inch of it. On more than one occasion I broke through a fake wall and stumbled across an entirely new, cavernous hidden area with its own unique enemies, bosses, and items that had absolutely nothing to do with the game’s critical path. Silksong constantly rewards your curiosity with new trinkets, tools, and — quite often — a hidden boss battle that will make you want to tear your own skin off and eat it.

Ah, the difficulty. The elephant beetle in the room. Much has been made of Silksong’s difficulty over the last few days. It’s been a while since I’ve played Hollow Knight so I can’t say for sure, but this sequel certainly feels like more of a challenge — perhaps not a huge surprise, given Silksong started life as post-game content for Hollow Knight.

This game has kicked my butt and spat in my eye more times than I’d care to count. I’ve lost entire afternoons attempting to take down the same one boss. Silksong is often brutal, occasionally frustrating, and — whisper it — very rarely, maybe, even a little bit unfair.

Of all the choices Silksong makes, the most contentious and baffling has to be the overzealous application of double damage. You’ll start off with five units of health, and from the word go, you’re presented with things that take two chunks of health from you in one hit.

A large number of common enemies, most bosses, and a surprising number of hazards like spikes or pits will gobble up your precious life-force. In certain situations, you might find yourself hit into a hazard by an enemy and will have lost four of your five health units in less than a second. And this is during the early game. As you explore and upgrade, things will get (relatively) easier, but the barrier to entry in Silksong is genuinely ludicrously punishing. A complete and utter lack of accessibility options in this day and age feels like a pointless omission.

There is, eventually, more freedom to experiment with various different builds if you’re able to persevere beyond the game’s first act. Exploration will reward you greatly. My favourite build consisted of a robotic drone that would fly out and attack enemies which, when paired with a specific charm, would also cause poison damage. It made some of the tougher fights infinitely more doable. If you’re really banging your head against a certain boss, nine times out of 10 you can simply go somewhere else, explore, upgrade, and come back slightly more prepared.

If you do have the patience to get on the same frequency as Silksong, its boss battles are among some of the finest I’ve ever played in any video game. Learning patterns, mastering parries, and ultimately going into a successful run is a blur of chaos and pure adrenaline. This is a much faster and more aggressive game than Hollow Knight, one that is in many ways to its predecessor what Bloodborne was to Dark Souls.

One other potential wrinkle for many will be the increased emphasis on platforming. Hollow Knight’s only real platforming gauntlet was the entirely optional Path of Pain. Silksong takes that infamous segment and liberally portions it out across the entirety of Pharloom, on more than one occasion putting a hefty platforming challenge in between a checkpoint and a boss.

I understand some people will (and evidently do) hate this. I’m the kind of sicko that loves Celeste, however, and absolutely love the renewed focus on precision platforming. Stringing together wall jumps, grapples, and attacks to reach new heights is a joy. I daresay one particular runback to a certain boss towards the end of Act 1 is specifically designed to get players used to some of the challenges to come in Act 2.

Silksong is a game that refuses to be anything other than what it is, an unflinchingly robust and brutal sequel that will push you to your limits. Persevere, and you’ll be able to see past its more frustrating choices to experience one of the greatest games of the year, and a testament to giving developers the time and freedom to realise their visions.

Pros: Incredible combat, vast world to explore, unforgettable cast of characters

Cons: Overly difficult early game, some frustrating checkpoints

For fans of: Bloodborne, Metroid Dread, Celeste

9/10: Exceptional

Hollow Knight: Silksong is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 (version tested). Read a guide to our review scores here.