You all have probably seen tons of “best of 2010s” lists in the past few weeks, which is why this is not going to be a list. However, I too wanted to share something that had a huge impact on me in the last century. So, without further ado, let me introduce you my favourite video game of the 2010s: Hollow Knight.
To be honest, I’m not usually much of a gamer. I’ve got eight games in my Steam collection though I rarely play them… Except for Hollow Knight, that I’ve played for 132 hours as for now. I discovered the game trough a YouTube channel where a girlfriend reviews games that her boyfriend plays. The video had footage of the boyfriend playing Hollow Knight and seeing how adorable the protagonist looked made me fall in love with the game immediately.
So, what exactly is Hollow Knight? It’s a Metroidvania released in 2017 by indie development group Team Cherry. The creation of the game was made possible through a Kickstarter since Team Cherry only consists of three members and had never released a game before. Yet somehow with just a couple of people and relatively little money they managed to create what is in my opinion the best video game ever.
The protagonist is an adorable little knight who arrives at Hollownest, a once blooming but now collapsed kingdom inhabited by bugs. Though it seems like the knight is on a mission of some sort, you can’t be sure because the lore isn’t really explained to you at all in the beginning of the game. And that’s one of the things I like the most about Hollow Knight: you have to find out what has happened by yourself, gathering pieces of information from different bugs here and there.
As the knight you get to explore a large open world full of surprises. And the world is absolutely gorgeous: it’s got several different areas with a unique, beautiful art style and animation. And we must not forget the amazing music that makes sure every area has a special atmosphere different from the other areas. You’ll come across tons of friends, enemies and bosses that can sometimes be a bit hard to beat, at least they were for me. I wouldn’t say Hollow Knight is too difficult though. The fighting mechanics are fairly simple yet smooth, and you’ll get used to them really quickly. And the game goes easy on you at first, introducing you to super easy enemies at the beginning and then slowly making them stronger. And your character grows stronger too, when you find or buy spells and charms and upgrade your nail, which is your weapon in the game.
If you got interested at all, I really recommend trying Hollow Knight. Because it was developed by an indie group more interested in making a good game than making money, it only costs 15 € on Steam. That’s very little considering how vast the game is, as it consists of not just the main game but several free expansions. This is a quality game if there ever was one, perfected as thoroughly as possible, which makes it absolutely delightful to play.