Let me start with this: I beat the original Hollow Knight twice (to very high degrees of completion) and loved it both times. I know what I’m doing. I understand the grind. I know what it means to master mechanics, to stare down brutally difficult bosses and come out the other side with a sense of earned satisfaction. Hollow Knight was, and still is, a masterpiece. But Silksong? Honestly, it feels like Team Cherry forgot what made the first game work.

After years of near-total silence, all we knew was that Silksong was in development. No dev diaries, no regular updates, no real explanation of how different this would be. Just a vague promise that something was coming. And now that it’s finally here? This is what we waited for?

From the very beginning, Silksong throws you into a totally unfamiliar character with a completely different set of mechanics. That’s fine in theory, but in execution, the whole thing feels loose and slippery. Movement is floaty and awkward. There’s this strange sprint mechanic that ends with a gummy-feeling jump, and for some reason that’s central to how you move around. It never feels good.

But the real issue isn’t just the new movement. It’s how the game treats difficulty. There is no gentle climb. There is no graceful ramp-up. Right out of the gate you’re dealing with double damage, minimal healing, enemies that swarm you, and punishing runbacks that make even getting to a boss feel like a Herculean task. And the bosses themselves? Many of them feel like spam fests. Instead of being finely crafted one-on-one duels, they throw in adds and fill the screen with chaos just to make the fight harder. That’s not clever design. It’s padding.

And what do you get for your trouble? Practically nothing.

That’s one of the biggest sins here. The reward loop that Hollow Knight absolutely nailed has been dismantled. In the original, there was this perfect balance of exploration, danger, and reward. You always felt like something was just around the corner. A new charm. A new ability. A new path that made you feel clever for finding it. That pacing was flawless. It made you want to keep going.

In Silksong, the hamster-drip of progression is gone. You push through some of the hardest, most punishing areas in the game... and then your reward is simply arriving somewhere else equally dangerous. Often more dangerous. The game barely lets you breathe, let alone enjoy the fact that you just overcame something huge. And now, instead of feeling encouraged to explore, you hesitate. Because the risk of losing everything is so high, and the payout just isn’t there.

Rosaries are a perfect example. The in-game currency is hard to come by early on. Getting 500 rosaries takes serious effort. And the number of times I’ve collected 300 or more only to double die and lose all of it? Too many to count. Sometimes it's a bad checkpoint. Sometimes it's an enemy placed just right. But it keeps happening. And yeah, maybe I suck. But I don’t suck so bad that I couldn’t make it to Greymoor, right? Clearly I’m doing something right. I’ve made progress. And yet I still feel like I need a life preserver.

So the question becomes, is the problem with me? Or is it with the game?

Would it really be so hard to include a different mode for people who just want to enjoy the world? Something that doesn’t throw double damage at you right from the start? Something that lets you take in the music, the art, and the lore without getting beat into the dirt for daring to explore?

Because here’s the truth. Right now, every time I go somewhere new, I don’t feel excited. I feel dread. I’m not wondering what I’ll find. I’m calculating how many hits I can take before I lose everything. That’s the biggest difference between this and the original. Hollow Knight gave me anticipation. Silksong gives me anxiety.

And if the game makes me feel like that every time I pick up the controller, then it’s not for me. And if you’re looking for a game you can relax into, one that lets you fall into its world and lose yourself in its details, it’s not for you either.

Instead of just parroting “It’s so hard, I love it,” maybe we should take a step back and ask who this game is actually for. Could it be better if it were just slightly more accessible? Would that hurt the experience for hardcore players, or would it actually open the game up to a larger audience? Wouldn’t it be great if more people got to fall in love with this world?

Right now, Silksong is a wall. Beautiful, haunting, expertly crafted in many ways- but a wall all the same. And most people will bounce right off it.

If you want to make a game that challenges the best players in the world, mission accomplished. But if you want to make a game that lives up to the legacy of Hollow Knight, it needs more than punishment. It needs heart. It needs balance. It needs to reward us for pushing forward, not just laugh when we fall.

Well, I made it about thirty minutes before I was tearing up. I don't know if it's an amazing game yet, but the storytelling is absolutely amazing. It's also the most atmospherically stunning game I've played in some time. Would highly recommend rolling the dice on this if you're even remotely into the Final Fantasy game series.

If you loved the original Hades, this truly does improve in just about every aspect. It takes a little getting used to but once you do, you'll find yourself going back for more pain time and time again.

Fun. Same as and very different from Spider-Man. Wait for a sale since there's about half as much content, probably less.

Installed on a UFO benchmarked system.

Got into the first building and went down the stairs.

Got my purple powerup.

Reviewed in the menus.

Game froze. Escape button wouldn't exit menus or bring up any settings. Alt F4 to exit.

Five stars, no notes. You've done it again, Bethseda.

This game has more brains than a zombie pot luck.

It's not Doom 2016. That was perfect. This is a step back from that game in a lot of ways.

Marauders are the dumbest thing they could have possibly added to the game. If I wanted to shoot at something that could block every shot I'd play basketball against LeBron.

Beyond that, pretty good. But they'll make you rage quit at least once.

It's 85% of your original Subnautica game with new environments, new toys and tools, and your friendly fish-punching prawn suit.

I'd definitely buy this but wait for the story update. 34 hours in and it's been challenging knowing exactly where to go or what to do to progress and there are a good deal of unfinished items in the game. That said, it's super fun and quite well baked at this point and I'll STILL do a full replay once that story line update is released.

30 seconds of oxygen remaining.

Positive affirmation that I am, in fact, not an actual genius. This game adequately dashed any hopes I had of being an actual NASA logistics engineer... so that's one less lifelong regret off my list. 10/10.

Wow. After having no idea what to expect from this game, I'm officially hooked. It's quite alien from anything I ever played, extremely immersive, gorgeous to witness, and it teases out new discoveries and surprises on an almost nonstop basis. This game, so far, has been impossible to get bored with. Highly recommend.