Gamescom 2025: Hollow Knight: Silksong’s impressions

This is incredible, but the hollow knight: Silksong really exists. The game that was declared six years ago, and developers from the small Australian Vishni team, and then, with some exceptions, not only appeared on the premiere on the air, but also arrived directly at the exhibition sites in Cologne. Thus, I could try the first 15 minutes of the most expected time today, although this is “only” 2D Metroidvanii.

Do not expect a revolution

When it works, there is no reason to change something, it can be summarized by my very first impressions after a few minutes of the game, because Silksong resembles the first hollow knight in almost everything. Whether it is unique, unlucking visual stylization, which works without any problems in 2025, and the developers again took care of every detail of the character and design of the character or simple, but very functional sound, which is not only for the great, but also help you play to correctly determine the enemy attacks.

But do not expect anything innovative from the gameplay. If we think that the two protagonist Hornet, who has several new abilities, is almost the same as in the original game. You pass various places, solve light environmental puzzles and gradually collect new skills that unlock your path to inaccessible places.

Of course, fights are important, and here it is necessary to add that new types of enemies were added. And IU relatively simple should be at least a small tactic and skillfully move in the environment. Fortunately, thanks to accurate management there are no problems, because the character does exactly what you want, and everything looks very smooth. And both in the classic movement of the lever, and on D-Pad, which I used almost all the time, but in fact I have enough.

Weapon

The culmination of the demonstration was a fighting battle that reminded me of how intense the hollow knight could be. For several minutes of attempts, when I gradually discovered how the boss attacked, and discovered his weaknesses, while I had to move on the battlefield and avoid constant attacks, seemed completely magnificent, and I completely got into the game, until I forgot that I was still in the exhibition. Instead of the boss, it was such a quick dance of two opponents, thanks to the absolutely smooth and beautiful animation of all the movements of the characters.

Icing, but in this case, a huge cherry, cake – music. A change in the intensity of string instruments and an urgent melody transferred the entire battle with the boss even higher, and thanks to music it was so intense. I could not defeat the boss, but I really liked every moment of the battle.

Finally, I would add that I played a demonstration on the Nintendo Switch 2, in particular, in S mode, compiled by S for the controller. The management was without problems, and the name was completely smooth with high quality image, as expected in this game in style. Moreover, this is a name, which should also be played very well in a portable device, but almost any, at least a little new device, you should not have any problems.

Moreover, but does it matter in general?

In general, I really liked the short playful demonstration of Silksong, but I think I need to have moderate expectations. The huge excitement that plays in the game is too high, and there is a risk of a similar situation with Cyberpunk 2077, when people gradually understand that this is really “simple” video game in the case of Silksong. This is not necessarily wrong, because that it works fine here, you simply cannot wait more than a slightly more configured and sophisticated hollow knight. And this means really good Metroidvania.

Hollow Knight: Silksong will appear this year aimed at PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

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