T
he theme this month was
meant to be festive. And with
that in mind, Hollow Knight is
a stretch but it’s a winter-adjacent
excuse to play one of the best
Metroidvania games ever made.
Another is that it’s simply brilliant.
There’s a crispness to it all that
satisfies like stepping on a semi-
frozen puddle – a clear, sharp sense
of purpose that’s unusually
compelling, even if it can be a harsh
experience at times. The setting of
Hallownest is uniquely appealing
despite having the same wistful sense
of decay that British seaside resorts
have in October. It’s a place long past
its prime, full of echoes of former
glory. But it doesn’t have the same
oppressive gloom as its thematic
gaming counterparts, such as the
likes of Lordran. Despite it being a
tired, dangerous place, the flashes
of humour and humanity make it
endearing. There are squealing grubs
who are wonderful to rescue and
bored merchants who crave
adventure. Even the insects you
batter to death are oddly sweet. And
once it’s got you, it’s near-impossible
to escape from Hollow Knight’s
mesmerising charms – like some rare
breed of benevolent spider that
catches you in its web just to pay you
compliments and give a back rub.
The way Hollow Knight pushes you
further into its world, whether
through power-ups or crumbling
floors, is so compelling that 35 hours
here will seem like a nice afternoon
spent examining insects. And that’s
the low end of the scale: glance at the
Steam reviews and you’ll see them
from people with 100+ hours in the
game, all complaining that ten quid
for this much game feels like
burglary. That’s maybe a
measure of how good this
is – a game you’ll want to
pay more for.How HOLLOW KNIGHT puts the ‘warm’ in ‘swarm’
EXPECT TO PAY
£11DEVELOPER
Team CherryPUBLISHER
In-houseNEED TO KNOWThose are spores, not blood.
BUG SMACKS (But he’s still dead.)91
T
here are loads of things that stick
in the memory after your first
time playing David Cage’s Fahrenheit.
QTE boinking. The heartfelt
probably-necrophilia. Floating
kung-fu fights against psyche-insects.
And that means it’s easy to forget
how good the setting and opening
are. There’s a palpable sense of panic
to the opening crime scene that I
don’t think I’ve seen recreated as
effectively in any other game. And
while the story stays small, before the
SWAT teams and spirit mediums
arrive, it’s surprisingly effective
- more so thanks to some restrained
characterisation and seasoned voice
acting. It’s also maybe the
most January game that’s
ever been made.
FAHRENHEIT
76
P
laying Frostpunk sometimes is
like reading a historical account
of some fatuous, ineffectual king who
failed upward into a position of
power. “Idealistic but impractical, he
invested heavily in schools. But the
children stopped being able to write
when their fingers fell off due to
frostbite.” Compared to the constant,
escalating crises of Frostpunk, every
other city management game feels
like Farmville. And as well as being a
brilliant exercise in humility, it’s also
a useful way of learning to say no to
people. Or ‘yes’, if the question is
‘should we keep working even if it
kills us’. It sounds grim, but
Frostpunk is so good that
you’ll suffer this and more
just for a scintilla of success.FROSTPUNK
88
I
’m not saying that my current
playthrough of The Long Dark is
going badly. Just that I might struggle
to survive if I don’t manage to kill
this rabbit by chucking stones at its
adorable head. And I just ran out of
stones. It’s one of those games that
remind you just how dead you’d be if
you had to spend even one night
outside in mild temperatures, let
alone an endless winter in the wake
of a geothermal disaster. It’s a brutal,
unusually brilliant survival
game, but it’s utterly terrible
for your self esteem.THE LONG DARK
81
“THIS is for using the HAND
DRYER for AGES”.Things will be different.
But not in the way you hope.Come back here and
accept your fate, dinner.REVIEW