Few horror games have a greater impact than Silent Hill. PT maybe? But it was a demo for Silent Hillsso it still counts. Okay, to be more specific, Silent Hill 2 is incredibly influential, which brings us to Hollow body.
PS2 was the ultimate horror platform. It was the last platform where a girl could feel unthreatening dodging monsters while wearing her best, shortest skirt. Guys could search for their missing wives in whatever outfit she chose for them. Combat barely worked most of the time. Hollow body misses those days, me too.
The substantial difference that Hollow body brings to Silent Hill 2 formula is its semi-futuristic setting. You play as Mica, who is enjoying her future dystopian life when her a very special friend Sasha disappears. Sasha set out to find answers about what happened to the “Western Cities,” which experienced some strange biological event that forced the government to launch a nuclear bomb from orbit. It was the only way to find out for sure.
The whole event was really well covered up, leaving some people wondering what happened. It starts with you playing as Sasha as some scary stuff happens, then changes to Mica, piloting her awesome flying Ferrari over a Western city. She makes one last dig at her AI cruise control, which refuses to obey her, leaving her stranded in the ruins of an English suburb. From there, the sci-fi becomes marginal as you wander around the ruins of an abandoned city.
The setting is definitely the best part of the entire game. Not that the empty city is anything up-to-date, but it uses the lighting and grey grime well to sell the idea that this used to be a stunning place to live, but is now decaying in isolation. The constant rain creates a great atmosphere, even if it does fade a bit once you’re inside. The camera occasionally lingers on a well-composed view. Much of the horror comes from the mystery and tragedy of what happened there, and that’s sold well, visually.
But apart from that I think that Hollow body really struggles to find an identity. It really does feel like PS2: The Game at times, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s a bit of a letdown. As I mentioned, the whole future subplot is actually pretty subtle, and tells its story in a way you’d probably expect. There are written documents and what are essentially audio diaries.
Environmental storytelling is present, but it doesn’t have much of an impact. Many of the locations feel the same. There’s a part of the game where you enter a house and then have to cross the street to another, and they might as well be the same houses, given how they’ve decorated and the dead residents. Even interactive objects in the environments aren’t as common as you might expect, despite the fact that Mica has a video commentary on every single thing she sees. Some areas, like several apartments in one section of the game, don’t feel necessary at all. They don’t add to the atmosphere, sometimes don’t contain any useful supplies, and aren’t narratively engaging.
Overall, the level of design isn’t all that impressive. In one section of the game, you wander through a enormous public park, find a locked door, and then have to go back through the park the same way. It’s a long, uninteresting trek, and nothing changes to make it engaging again.
Then there’s the sewer section. I’d say it’s very PS2-esque, but sewer levels have never gone out of style. They were uninteresting then, they’re uninteresting now, and aside from a few disorienting camera tricks, they’re uninteresting in Hollow body. It also does this thing where it asks, “Do you want to pick up this item?” but you have unlimited inventory space. Explain to me why I I wouldn’t like to I want to pick up the key. What are the possible consequences?
There are only two really solid puzzles in the entire game. It took me a little over four hours to complete the game, and while that may seem brief, it could have been more. The apartment section is much longer than it should have been.
The beginning is a long section without monsters, which can be an effective way to build tension, but Hollow body doesn’t operate it. For a moment I wondered if there were supposed to be monsters, but I hit a bug and they didn’t appear. Eventually they did, but not after a period of teasing that something risky was lurking. The enemies just appeared. I think there’s a narrative reason for it, but the isolation wasn’t used well.
Even if they do, they don’t pose much of a threat. I didn’t expect that Hollow body turn it into an action game, but I thought there would be some hostility. The enemies hang out in miniature groups, and their only advantage is that they can sometimes attack with little warning. I finished the game with over 100 pistol rounds and a pocket full of shells. Towards the end, I started losing health more often, but that was mainly because I stubbornly used melee attacks.
By the way, I found three melee weapons in the game and I have no idea if one is better than the other. I had this problem with The Rose Principleso maybe it’s true from the era, but it seems strange to me that I can’t tell the difference between a guitar and a makeshift axe.
The plot is good, but that’s all in the background. I love a good “everyone’s dead, no one knows why” plot and Hollow body does it in a unique way. What happens in the gameplay is less great, though. What annoyed me the most is the fact that Mica keeps getting phone calls from a mysterious voice throughout the game. They act as antagonists in a way, and the fact that they call the protagonist to annoy them really ruins their mystique. Not that you know who’s on the other end of the line right away, but the knowledge that it’s a passive-aggressive jerk is enough.
The setting seemed well-established, as was the premise, but actually getting the characters from point A to point B proved to be a struggle. Not much happens to Mica beyond a few plot points and a voice in her ear. We don’t really learn much about her relationship with Sasha beyond a few fond and cringeworthy memories. The story doesn’t feel like it’s about her or her friends.
I also feel like the ending was a foregone conclusion. But out of the several endings, I’ve gotten one. I’d be interested to see how things play out in the others. Maybe one of the others has a better ending. I’m not even sure what the criteria for them are yet.
Hollow body It’s not bad. It’s a solid effort for a solo developer. There’s a lot of skill here, 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 could operate some work. Nothing about it is disastrous, and if you’re a fan of PS2 horror, it’s worth checking out its reduced runtime.
But that’s not the most unforgettable experience. Hollow body stakes its identity on being a PS2-inspired horror game, and has trouble building on that and finding its own identity. The world it presents is enticing, but it has trouble finding a story there. On the other hand, it’s not uncomfortable to play. It’s enjoyable for what it is. It’s not completely empty, but it’s far from solid.
