Hollow Knight: Silksong PAX West Demo Impressions

The wait is finally over for Hollow Knight: Silksong, a game with such a legendarily anticipated arrival that, for a while, fans feared that the game might never come at all. The hype around a sequel to Team Cherry's hit metroidvania Hollow Knight is almost on par with Grand Theft Auto 6 or the mythical Half-Life 3, and for good reason: Hollow Knight was a master stroke in metroidvania design. Incredibly tight controls, a stunning and distinct art direction, memorable storytelling, and unrelenting challenges all contributed to a game that enjoys a massive and well-deserved fanbase. Silksong was first announced in February 2019, and since then, fans and journalists have eagerly awaited any crumb of Silksong info.

The Best War Games recently attended PAX West in Seattle, Washington, where we got our hands on a demo of Silksong on the Nintendo Switch 2—though it was disappointingly brief. The demo we played consisted of two levels that could be chosen: Moss Grotto and Deep Docks. Each level took us just under ten minutes to clear, and there was very little interaction with the game's broader systems and narrative. Our demo primarily consisted of brief platforming challenges, discovering a few hidden rooms, fighting basic enemies, and not much else. However, it did give us a hands-on look at how Hornet plays in Silksong, with an agile kit that harkens back to her role as a boss encounter in Hollow Knight.

Opening Cinematic, Hornet wakes up and regains her powers

9 Things Confirmed for Hollow Knight: Silksong

The wait for Hollow Knight: Silksong might finally be coming to an end. This is what is known about the highly anticipated sequel right now.

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By Seth Powell

Hollow Knight: Silksong's Hornet Feels Great

NintendoSwitch2_Hollow Knight Silksong_Screenshot-1 — hollow knight silksong gameplay screenshot

Of course, the greatest change from Hollow Knight is Silksong's playable protagonist, Hornet. Hornet was a central and mysterious character throughout Hollow Knight, serving as both a recurring boss and a helper on The Knight's journey. This time around, players take control of Hornet, who boasts an entirely different moveset faithfully based on her actions in Hollow Knight. She's a bit faster and has more reach thanks to her spear, which can be thrown just like during her boss encounters. Additionally, Hornet's dive attack is a diagonal thrust from above. This new move's diagonal nature may take some getting used to, and players who relied on the "pogo" strategy of dive attacking an enemy's head repeatedly may need to find a new approach.

One of the most handy tricks Hornet brings to the table is her ability to mantle ledges: as long as Hornet interacts with the edge of a platform or ledge, she'll climb right up. This makes platforming much more forgiving, while also broadening level design options by implementing ledges just high enough to grab onto. Finally, Hornet has a sort of tumble-like dash ability that can also be used in the air, giving her some defensive options. Undoubtedly, there will be plenty more abilities and upgrades to be discovered in the full game.

Hollow Knight: Silksong's New Biomes

NintendoSwitch2_Hollow Knight Silksong_Screenshot-2 — hollow knight silksong gameplay screenshot

The first level we visited, Moss Grotto, felt like a fairly basic early-game biome. As its name suggests, it's a lush, mossy biome featuring bodies of water that Hornet can swim through. The biome is populated by very simple enemies analogous to those encountered throughout Hollow Knight's opening hours, with the only memorable one being an enemy with an armored head that resisted our attempts to execute a dive attack. As is tradition in Hollow Knight and the metroidvania genre, each level hid a few secret locations, either just out of frame or behind destructible barriers. Sometimes we'd find level-up currency, Slik, and other items that would presumably come in handy in the game's hub area. Moss Grotto featured strong verticality, with lengthy platforming climbs made more complicated by flying enemies armed with ranged attacks.

Lastly, we finished off with a jaunt through Deep Docks. This biome was much more interesting—even when considering the vast array of biomes from the first game. Deep Docks is a dark, fiery, industrial region with dark metallic structures and blazing furnaces. It was more straightforward to navigate than Moss Grotto's more open-ended layout, with signs pointing toward benches or other landmarks and a clear path toward the level's final encounter. While Moss Grotto had us experience the classic metroidvania conundrum, 'I'm not sure where to go next, and I bet I'm missing something obvious,' Deep Docks was intuitive to traverse throughout, leading us directly to the final encounter. We didn't see a proper boss fight, but rather a challenge room fending off a small gauntlet of enemies before the demo came to a close.

This demo primarily illustrated the game's controls, core gameplay, and visuals, and Team Cherry aced every category as expected. The game looks and feels like a worthy Hollow Knight sequel, with a fresh character, new environments, and enemies that put Hornet's kit to the test. Whether the game's narrative or its version of Hollow Knight's charm system holds up to the original will remain to be seen, but so far, it looks like Team Cherry will have met the lofty expectations held by countless gamers.

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