The retro horror comeback has been one of my favourites in years. Not only do we have the recent re-releases of the classic Resident Evil titles. But we’ve had new games that take the best of old-school horror and bring in more modern sensibilities, may that be better control schemes, quality-of-life features, or just a straight-up visual upgrade. 

Tormented Souls and Signalis are two of my favourites in recent memory, both providing an incredible mix of old-school design and modern features. Hollowbody, despite some great ideas and an incredibly atmospheric setting, unfortunately, didn’t grab my attention as much as I wanted. Still, I don’t want to completely disregard it and I hope this solo developer does a lot more horror games.

Hollowbody is set in a dystopian future, where a mysterious infection has ruined the outside world. You play as Mica, who sets out on a journey into the exclusion zone to look for her sister, waking up in a nearby desolate town that was overrun by the infection. You know Sarah was here so you must find her and escape before it’s too late, but there’s plenty of horrors to stop you.

The story of Hollowbody is fairly straightforward, for the most part. However, like most survival horror games develops into something bigger. It does a great job building up the world with plenty of notes and “signals” that delve into the world’s dark past.

Hollowbody starts off really slow, with an incredibly dull and unimaginative prologue that didn’t set the stage well enough. However, when you start playing as Mica the tension ramps up with a surprisingly well-crafted and tense opening segment that has you exploring the city streets leading up to an abandoned apartment complex. Once inside, you will discover atrocities and disturbing sights leading up to the first monster encounter. They even managed to pull off a well-executed jumpscare in the opening hour.

Of course, being a title inspired by classic horror titles we see another return of classic camera angles. This is a favourite of mine and Hollowbody does play with this as well, mixing it up frequently. When exploring the town itself the camera will follow Mica. Although, it’s clunky and often doesn’t add to the experience. It’s in the closed-off smaller environments where the fixed cameras do a wonderful job of ramping up the tension.

Combat, unfortunately, is where Hollowbody does suffer, especially in the opening hours. Dealing with one or two of the infested can easily be done with a melee weapon. Bait an attack, move backward, and then back in with a combo. It’s very rare to have a difficult encounter against a single enemy; the only instance was fighting a large and stronger one in an enclosed space. Things do get a bit more interesting when dealing with multiple enemies at once as positioning becomes key. However, I found it’s better to just run around them. Enemies can be avoided for a huge chunk of the game and they don’t really provide much threat.

To help fight on top of a surprisingly wide variety of melee weapons you will gain access to a pistol and a shotgun that feel appropriately powerful. Though I found myself using them more as a tool, a single shot should be enough to stun most enemies allowing you to slip by. Resources aren’t overly scarce either. I finished the game with a full arsenal of weapons and ammo left over, with plenty of health supplies as well, meaning I could just tank my way through. Don’t be afraid to get into a little combat. Unfortunately, the game’s only real boss fight didn’t grab me as well. It doesn’t really let you unleash your saved-up resources into it and acts more like an underwhelming set-piece.

Exploring the large and expansive streets of the town is the least engaging part, as it feels like there isn’t enough to see or do, and enemy density means you can just ignore them. However, in the more enclosed spaces of the apartment complex or winding sewers is when Hollowbody is at its absolute best. Not knowing what is around the corner or through the next door is wonderfully tense.

Hollowbody took me around three hours on the game’s “intended” difficulty setting. I did a good amount of exploration, but missed out on a few of the bigger secrets, so make sure to explore the environments thoroughly before proceeding. This gave very little challenge and there is no higher difficulty until you’ve completed your first playthrough, giving you access to New Game + as well. Different endings can be achieved depending on your actions so a decent amount of replay value is on display here. I just wish they would let us skip the intro segment for New Game + as it drags on for way too long.

Punishing mode really ramps up the challenge. Introducing one of my favourite mechanics. Enemies don’t die unless they are burned; giving a call back to the legendary Crimson Heads in the Resident Evil 1 Remake. But unfortunately, this isn’t unlocked at the get-go for survival horror enthusiasts to dive straight into.

A wonderful display of retro visuals with modern techniques is on display here. With a very atmospheric Silent Hill-like environment and story-telling within these locations. The dynamic-fixed camera angles and clever lighting all come together for a game that is genuinely creepy at times.

However; there’s also a lack of detail. Whilst exploring the apartment complex the corridors would feel lifeless and the rooms that you can explore are very similar. You will be seeing the same things throughout. A little bit more variety in environmental and room design would have gone an incredibly long way in immersing me in the world. Too much just looks identical.

The sound design is also pretty decent thanks to great atmospheric design, hearing the growls of enemies on the other side of a door or the silent whisper of the wind. It’s all appropriately moody. However; I’ve encountered numerous audio bugs with frequent dropouts. The worst is when the music would just stop then drop back in seconds later louder than before. It made me think I missed something but nothing actually happened. It happened frequently enough to really pull me out of the experience. Hopefully, this is fixed up soon.

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.

 

Graphics: 8.0 Spooky retro-horror styling with more modern techniques.	Gameplay: 5.5 Hollowbody has good ideas but its execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Sound: 6.5 Decent enough sound design, but I encountered a fair few bugs that brought it down.	Fun Factor: 6.0 Tense and interesting enough to hold my attention, but doesn’t offer anything overly compelling
Final Verdict: 6.0

 

Hollowbody is available now on PC.

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070,  Ryzen 7 7800x3D and 32GB RAM.

A copy of Hollowbody was provided by the publisher.