Commissar SFLUFAN Posted September 16 Share Posted September 16 Save 10% on Hollowbody on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM A tech-noir survival horror short story, set in the urban decay of a long abandoned British city. Solve environmental puzzles, manage limited resources and fight for a way to escape beyond the wall. OpenCritic reviews: Game Information Game Title: Hollowbody Platforms: PC (Sep 12, 2024) Developer: Headware Games Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 78 average - 60% recommended Critic Reviews Spoiler Try Hard Guides - Erik Hodges - 10 / 10 Quote Hollowbody is the best horror game of the year, standing out with its remarkably good use of tension and incredible atmosphere. Clocking in at about three hours, your short time with this game will surely be memorable, tense, and terrifying. VG247 - Kelsey Raynor - 5 / 5 Quote Hollowbody is a testament to the work of Hamley, and is phenomenal within its own right, but the dedication to various cult classic horror and sci-fi games only adds to how enamored I was with the game; this is how you make a game heavily inspired by other media while making a whole new experience entirely, in a nutshell. But don’t get me wrong, Hollowbody is so much more than its inspirations, made up of multiple moving parts that provide fans of the survival horror genre with something new and refreshing. Final Weapon - Saras Rajpal - 4.5 / 5 Quote Hollowbody is a brilliant tribute to horror games released over the past thirty years. Despite some small glitches, a short runtime, and a gameplay/story that doesn't quite reach its full potential, the game manages to create a modernized spin on the survival horror genre with smooth gameplay, a horrifying atmosphere, and a premise that is likely to draw any longtime horror fans into its rich and terrifying world. Gameliner - Eilish Janssen - Dutch - 4.5 / 5 Quote Hollowbody is a nostalgia-fueled horror game, inspired by older Silent Hill titles, with excellent art, sound design, and a gripping story that evokes despair, loneliness, and fear, making it ideal for horror fans. TheSixthAxis - Steve C - 9 / 10 Quote Hollowbody does a great job of capturing the mood and feel of survival horror classics whilst removing some of the genre's more annoying aspects and sits at the very top of the indie horror tree alongside the likes of Crow Country and Signalis. Use a Potion - 8.5 / 10 Quote Hollowbody is an engrossing horror experience that’ll keep players on the edge of their seat thanks to its sinister world design and harrowing storytelling. I absolutely loved exploring each eerie locale, whilst the clever puzzle design and enjoyable combat ensure it gets all of the basic elements of the survival horror genre right. Sure, the melee combat could be a bit clunky, but it’s a small issue in what is otherwise a thrilling old school-inspired horror adventure. IGN Spain - Esteban Canle - Spanish - 8 / 10 Quote Hollobody is a tribute to the survival horror era with ideas from PS1 and PS2, but with a slight twist and its own setting and aesthetics that results in a tremendously interesting experience, even if it is not always consistent in its approach. NookGaming - Andrew Camac - 8 / 10 Quote Hollowbody is exactly what I wanted as a fan of survival horror. I will fully admit the early section did rock me somewhat in terms of enjoyment, but by the end of the game, I was eager to jump back in with a higher difficulty to find what I had missed and earn even more bonuses. It's got a thought-provoking story, some genuine scares, and gorgeous visuals all nicely tied together in a short but sweet package. Hollowbody is a quick horror fix that'll no doubt stay with you a lot longer than you might initially think. Evilgamerz - Peter Derks - Dutch - 7 / 10 Quote The game has high highlights in terms of atmosphere. However, that is surrendered in the middle of the game for boring walking around and solving too easy puzzles. That makes the game a bit difficult to recommend. Nevertheless, outside of the middle part I enjoyed Hollowbody a lot. It is a game that gives an interesting look back at how horror games used to be. Including that stiff combat that we have now exchanged for more action-oriented gameplay. Game Rant - Dalton Cooper - 3.5 / 5 Quote Hollowbody is a solid survival-horror experience that takes clear inspiration from the genre's early 2000s offerings. God is a Geek - Lyle Pendle - 7 / 10 Quote Hollowbody is a classic survival horror experience which will delight fans of those PS2-era frights, but some of the dated elements will frustrate. video games are good - Nathan Hermanson - 7 / 10 Quote Hollowbody is a good game that feels even more impressive when you realize that one person pulled all the strings to bring it to life. Hamley is an incredible talent whose attempt at replicating the PS2 era of horror slots in near-perfectly with its inspirations. It's flawed, but some of the best horror games are, too, and the vibes are worth sinking into no matter what. WayTooManyGames - Kyle Nicol - 6 / 10 Quote I wanted to like Hollowbody more than I did. It’s a game clearly made with a lot of passion for the likes of Silent Hill and Resident Evil. A classic-style survival horror. There’s a fair bit to like, however lacklustre encounter design and a disappointing final boss let down some excellent world-building and a really tense atmosphere that lasts throughout the whole game. CGMagazine - Jordan Biordi - 5.5 / 10 Quote I’d say Hollowbody was disappointing but everything it gets wrong about the horror genre is so common it's practically expected at this point. Capsule Computers - Claudio Meira - 5 / 10 Quote Hollowbody offers an intriguing biopunk setting but fails to engage players due to clunky gameplay, underwhelming sound design, and the lack of a gripping story. Other reviews: ‘Hollowbody’ Excels in Its Bleak Mood, Evoking PS2-Era Survival Horror [Review] BLOODY-DISGUSTING.COM Despite not taking full advantage of its sci-fi setting, 'Hollowbody' effectively calls back to classic PS2 era survival horror titles. Quote I’m always on the hunt for something that will recapture that classic survival horror feeling of the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 eras, and Hollowbody does the trick. Even if it doesn’t quite lean into the sci-fi vibes as much as I would have preferred, its greatest strength is its mood created by the gorgeous visuals. Running through the rainy streets past burned-out cars and strange biomechanical growths set such a great tone for the game, the kind that I’m always chasing in my media. I wish the level design had more complexity to it, but it kept you moving through environments at a fast enough pace that I couldn’t be too mad at it. If you’ve been staring at the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake with skepticism, or just want something that can evoke that game without simply remaking it, the tragic world of Hollowbody is diving into. Review: Hollowbody - Rely on Horror WWW.RELYONHORROR.COM A modern hidden gem. Quote Hollowbody is an effective throwback to the PS2 era of survival horror, that also successfully establishes its own unique identity. The graphics and sound are of a very high standard, and the story is nuanced and compelling. I would recommend Hollowbody to anyone looking for a polished indie horror title that delivers a quality story and scares. It’s retro without feeling overly nostalgic for its predecessors. Don’t leave this one in the dark. This is one game that deserves to be illuminated. Review: Hollowbody Feels Hollow Despite Its Strong Presentation - Siliconera WWW.SILICONERA.COM Hollowbody is a striking and moody survival horror game inspired by classic PS2 titles, but offers little in terms of mechanics or narrative. Quote The best thing about Hollowbody is arguably its presentation. The game looks great and the atmosphere of this alternate universe UK is brimming with a foreboding feeling. The combination of noir and cyberpunk elements is a match made in heaven and the menus and UI elements are great. I found particularly interesting the HUD that appears when you find remains of a human body, telling a brief story of who they were and what happened to them. Even though I said that the game is mostly vibes, fortunately these are pretty strong. I also need to point out that Hollowbody was developed by a single person in its entirety, which is absolutely impressive. Hollowbody has a pretty fascinating atmosphere and really strong vibes, but fails to deliver a fleshed-out survival horror experience. The game is clearly inspired by classic PS2 titles in the genre, but this comes at the expense of the game offering unique mechanics or a thoughtful narrative. And while I have pretty strong feelings about Hollowbody, I still want to jump back into New Game+ and try to get other endings and find answers to the mystery, no matter how vague they might be. Review: Hollowbody – Destructoid WWW.DESTRUCTOID.COM Thanks, I've been working out. Quote Hollowbody isn’t bad. It’s a solid effort for a solo developer. There is a lot of skill on display, though I think it should have been planned in a more holistic way. The flow could be better, the narrative could be tighter, and the level design needs work. Nothing about it is disastrous, and if you’re a fan of PS2 horror, it can be worth a look at its abbreviated runtime. It’s just not the most memorable experience, either. Hollowbody stakes its identity on being a PS2-inspired horror game and has trouble building on that and finding its own identity. The world it depicts is enticing, but it struggles to find a story there. On the other hand, it’s not uncomfortable to play. It’s enjoyable for what it is. It’s not completely hollow, but it’s far from solid. Hollowbody is almost a great survival horror game WWW.ROCKPAPERSHOTGUN.COM Hollowbody is good horror, but flawed survival horror Quote I moan - I must make clear - because I love so much of what Hollowbody is doing elsewhere. Without spoiling anything, both the end boss and ending are so good I was left asking where this sort of creativity was during the actual game. The unfolding tale of why everything has gone to shit feels terrifyingly plausible. Also, I must shout out the mundane British detail gone into specifying that a train ticket in a hellish underground station is an "off peak single." I don’t want to scare you off Hollowbody, because if you’re looking for a creative indie horror you can finish in a few hours, there’s a lot of really special stuff here. But if you’re coming in fresh off the back of games like Signalis, Tormented Souls, or Conscript, you might find the skeleton propping up the story a bit malnourished. Hollowbody Review - Shattered Memories - GameSpot WWW.GAMESPOT.COM Hollowbody straddles the line between Silent Hill homage and clone, but more often than not, it's a nostalgic and creepy success. Quote Hollowbody is scary, dreary, and sad; it's all the things I love about horror games. Sometimes, it embodies these feelings because it nearly repurposes the same monsters, places, and predicaments from the games that inspired it. But it's not all familiar, and the things it does differently are its best attributes, like telling a story conscious of and concerned about sociopolitics and offering a minimalistic but unsettling soundtrack of its own. Maybe the last great Silent Hill game is behind us. I don't know. But I do know its memory remains alive in successes like Hollowbody. Hollowbody Review: Tension-Filled Survival Horror With Classic Mechanics NOISYPIXEL.NET Hollowbody by Headware Games offers a retro-modern survival horror experience. Set in a decayed exclusion zone, it blends atmospheric tension, classic survival horror mechanics, and a gripping narrative that will appeal to fans of Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Quote Hollowbody is a love letter to the survival horror genre of the early 2000s. It’s not without its flaws, particularly in combat variety and puzzle depth, but its strengths far outweigh its shortcomings. For fans of classic survival horror, it offers a beautifully atmospheric, tension-filled experience that feels both nostalgic and new. It becomes a game that you want to see through, if only to witness how far this rabbit hole goes. I’m looking forward to seeing more from this developer in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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