Hollowbody Review - Shattered Memories
Konami is trying to figure out how to make Silent Hill games again. After more than a decade away from the series (and arguably many more years since a good one), multiple new Silent Hill projects have recently debuted or soon shall. Silent Hill devotees like me often wonder whether the publisher can recapture the magic of the series’ early games. But even if it can’t, at least we have Hollowbody. Made by a single person, Hollowbody sometimes goes too far past being a homage, but most of the time, it stands apart as a memorable entry in the crowded space of horror games drumming up the past.
This year, Hollowbody is the closest thing you’ll find to Silent Hill 2 that isn’t Bloober Team’s forthcoming remake. Its solo developer, Nathan Hamley (working under the studio name Headware Games), admits his love for the series is the driving force in creating Hollowbody, and there are times when that adoration is even too obvious. Everything from how you explore its world and unlock new pathways by solving tricky puzzles to how you fight enemies and even unlock multiple endings all feel pulled from the PS2 classic. An early section of the third-person survival-horror game takes place in corridors that are so similar to Silent Hill 2’s hospital section that it gave me deja vu, and the monsters that stalk just beyond the reach of your flashlight stumble into attacking you like that game’s iconic nurses.
There are even a few moments in which you come upon threateningly deep, dark holes that you drop into without knowing what’s on the other side. One corridor, in particular, prompted me to ask myself the same question that Silent Hill 2’s absurdly long stairwell previously prompted: “How long is this thing?” The callbacks border on copies at times, but Hollowbody doesn’t settle for being merely a clone of the developer’s favorite game–though it is fascinating to see how one person in 2024 can make something very much like a game that required a much larger team just a few decades ago.
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