Hollow Knight: Silk-We played! | Gamescom 2025
Blog Andrew Joseph 20 Aug , 2025 0
I finally played Hollow Knight: Silk. No, I'm not going to brag, but find myself having to enter it just to convince my eyes that actually happened. Yes, it may be only about 20 minutes, but the long-awaited sequel shows little disappointment.
In the 2025 Gamescom demo, I faced two areas of choice: Moss Grotto or Deep Docks. Of course, I was going to try both, but first go to Moss Grotto – nothing except that green is my favorite color – it turned out to be the right decision. This sun-drenched meadow seemed to be the beginning of the silk, and I fell into it because of a brief cutscene, in which one of the cages of Bumblebee (the protagonist of the playable princess protector) broke the metal wagon she was trapped in, folded the bridge, and its bridge was occupied. The developer team Cherry has been keen from the start to immerse us directly into the world of Hollow Knight, thus making fun of the legend by directing Romino’s Pharloom Folly.
As for the Moss Grotto itself, it feels like a (re)introduction to the core mechanism of the Hollow Knight. In Velvet is probably a maze scattered throughout the world, scattering a mixture of basic platforms and simple battles across its meadows. It all ends with the boss fighting a great queen-like insect that tries to lock me in her nest. Moss' mother disturbed my little boss, sending them by unlocking long-term Hollow Knight muscle memory as I jumped over the diagonal attack and escaped the shaky rocks falling from the sky. This is the action platform 101, but it still feels incredibly satisfying.
Then I quickly moved to the deep dock, which turned out to be a completely different proposition. Tools like Kunai can be thrown horizontally to Pierce Foes and have added skills like my Arsenal, as well as familiar dashboard abilities. Natural things can get more complicated, with more items juggling, which is reflected in the horizontal design of the deep dock, which includes the labyrinth's clanking metal elevators and numerous semi-hidden poles that can operate them. I might have been there for only a few minutes, but without a spectacular map from Cornifer, I could already see myself hopelessly lost.
After unlocking the Boss Arena, I faced much greater enemies than any threat I encountered. The lace is a ballet white insect, not too big, bumblebee, dazzled me, and the complex combos delivered at speed made my brain unable to calculate quickly. Being defeated, I kept moving forward, knowing that it would be another day of battle, and none of them I particularly hoped that dozens of people waiting behind witnessed my failure time and time again.
Although it is too early to measure the overall difficulty of silk, the later area jumps are worth noting, and the enemy's abilities are far beyond simple products and darts. I usually welcome the development of adding complexity and combat in terms of sequels, so I don't have a big problem here. I just hope that overall, combat won’t get too tired as exploration and progress often stops. Discovering the secret of the Hollow Knight's world is probably my purest joy for me. I don't want silk to hit brick walls often.
However, there are concessions that make you feel stronger than the original version. Health now regains skills, which means you are free to throw kunai away without sacrificing potential life-saving healing. Attack is still the best form of defense, it echoes some of my favorite systems like control, doom eternity, and of course the original Hollow Knight. The fact that you can only trigger healthy ones when the silk white stick is full is emphasized, thereby encouraging more offensive moves to quickly establish the situation. Dodge will only make you go so far in Hollow Knight Velvet.
All these tweaks and changes will be combined to create a more aggressive minimad, and while I certainly have a soft spot for the original Hollow Knight, I found myself immediately attracted to the velvet more. The 2018 game often leaves you behind, but here I immediately feel more capable and ready to fight the invaders. As someone who has traditionally likes faster action games rather than more modern genre examples (I really tried hard not to use Soulslike here). Biodesign remains one of the highlights of the sequel, while the borders are adorable opponents almost Too cute to prick. At one stage I was locked in a room with some tingling people, over their heads, on their heads, melting rocks towards me, and a chunky little round guy who took a pot and a shield. I almost felt like killing them.
But in fact, in any case, combat is never the highlight of Hollow Knights, but the level of exploration and discovery lurking in every exquisite environment. While I barely scratched the surface of the secrets Silksong stored in this regard, the initial impression is expected to be scattered with nooks and crannies filled with insect friends and enemies. Platforming through these mazes is still a pleasure. A pleasant balance between precision and floating jumps can test your skills and when reluctantly falling into gaps, it is crucial to be unfair. Adding a cloak in the sequel can greatly help it, and the edges are free to grasp even if they make minor misjudgments.
This time the environment was even more colorful and I was immediately attracted to me. Cyclone scattered around the caves with lava and glowing green moss dresses, hanging over dirt, floating naturally over the glittering pool. Bumblebee's red cape harmoniously shows that Saturday morning cartoon look against a painted background, you'd expect if someone hangs in the Louvre. Bumblebee also feels bigger on the screen, with a larger frame than her hottest monster’s predecessors dominating the frame. Visual design feels like a deliberate choice, aiming to create more dynamic travel feel this time. It is these ideas (from the remodeled combat design to its repainted world) that seem to play to a magical level, even in this small dose, the Cherries have been brewing something.
Yes, we've been waiting for many years for sequels for many years, but everything at this stage shows that it's worth it. There is a clear view in every aspect – it's a playable art, and it's just as fun to waving as you watch (I should know that the Gamescom queue is long). It's probably the shortest in the demo, but so far Silksong is singing to me, even more than the original one.
Simon Cardy is a senior editor at IGN who can mostly find feeling desperate in the Open World Olympics, indulging in Korean cinemas, or in Tottenham and the New York Jets. Follow him in Bluesky @cardy.bsky.social.