Review: Hollowbody

Few horror games are more influential than Silent Hill. P.T. maybe? But that was a demo for Silent Hills, so it sort of still counts. Okay, to be most specific, Silent Hill 2 is incredibly influential, which leads us to Hollowbody.

The PS2 was the best platform for horror. It was the last platform where a girl could feel safe to avoid monsters while dressed in her finest, shortest skirt. Dudes could search for their missing wives in the outfit she picked out for them. Combat barely functioned in most instances. Hollowbody longs for those days, as do I.

Hollowbody (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Headware Games
Publisher: Headware Games
Released: September 12, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

The big difference that Hollowbody brings to the Silent Hill 2 formula is its semi-futuristic setting. You play as Mica, who is enjoying her future dystopian life when her very special friend Sasha goes missing. Sasha left to find some answers about what happened to the “Western Cities,” which suffered some strange biological event that forced the government to nuke it from orbit. It was the only way to be sure.

The whole event was covered up really well, leaving some people to wonder what had happened. You start out playing as Sasha as some creepy stuff happens, then you switch to Mica, who is piloting her awesome flying Ferrari over one of the Western Cities. She’s condescending to her AI cruise control for the last time, and it gives out on her, leaving her to crash in the battered remains of an English suburb. From there, the sci-fi thing kind of becomes marginal as you wander the ruins of a desolate town.

The setting is easily the best part of the entire game. Not that an empty town is anything new, but it makes good use of lighting and grey grime to sell the idea that this was once a lovely place to live, but is now decaying in isolation. The constant rain leads to a great atmosphere, even if it kind of disappears when you’re indoors. The camera will occasionally fix on a well-composed view. A lot of the horror is derived from the mystery and tragedy of what happened in this place, and that gets sold well, visually.

However, beyond that, I think Hollowbody really has trouble finding an identity. It really sometimes feel like PS2 Game: The Game, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it is a bit disappointing. As I mentioned, the whole future angle is actually rather subtle, and it tells its background in ways that you’d probably expect. There are written documents and what are essentially audio logs. 

Environmental storytelling is there, but there’s little commitment to it. A lot of places feel the same. There’s a part in the game where you enter one house, then need to cross the street to another, and they might as well have been the same house, given how the occupants both decorated and died. Even interactable objects in environments aren’t as prevalent as you might expect, despite the fact that Mica has a comment for every video phone she sees. Some areas, such as a number of apartments in one section of the game, don’t feel necessary at all. They don’t add to the atmosphere, they sometimes don’t hold any useful supplies, and they’re not narratively interesting.

The level design, in general, isn’t all that stellar. One section of the game has you trek through a large public park, find a locked door, and then have to backtrack through the park, back the way you came. It’s a long, boring hike, and nothing really changes to make it interesting again.

Then there’s a sewer section. I’d say this feels very PS2, but sewer levels never really went out of vogue. They were boring then, they’re boring now, and aside from some disorienting camera tricks, they’re boring in Hollowbody. Also, it does the thing where it asks, “Do you want to pick up this item?” but you have unlimited inventory space. Explain to me why I wouldn’t want to pick up the key. What would possibly be the consequence?

There are only two really solid puzzles in the entire runtime. It took me a bit over four hours to complete the game, and while that may seem short, more could have been made from it. The section in the apartments is way longer than it needed to be.

The opening is a long stretch without monsters, which can be an effective way to build tension, but Hollowbody doesn’t capitalize on this. For a moment, I wondered if there were supposed to be monsters but I had hit a bug and they didn’t spawn. Eventually, they show up, but it wasn’t after a period of teasing that something dangerous was lurking. The enemies just show up. I think there’s a narrative reason for it, but the isolation isn’t used well.

Even when they do, they aren’t much of a threat. Not that I expected Hollowbody to turn into an action game, but I did think there’d be some hostility. Enemies shamble in small groups, and their only advantage is they can sometimes attack with little warning. I completed the game with over 100 pistol bullets remaining and a pocketful of shells. I began losing health more frequently at the end, but that’s largely because I was stubbornly using melee attacks.

Speaking of which, I found three melee weapons in the game, and I have no idea if one is better than another. I had this problem with Rule of Rose, so maybe it’s period accurate, but it feels strange that I couldn’t tell the difference between a guitar and a makeshift axe.

The story is fine, but that’s mostly all in the background. I love a good “everyone died, no one knows why” plot, and Hollowbody does it uniquely in some ways. However, what goes on in gameplay is less stellar. What irked me the most is that Mica gets phone calls from a mysterious voice throughout the game. They kind-of sort-of act as the antagonist, and having them call up the protagonist to taunt them really ruins their mystery. Not that you immediately know who’s on the other end of the line, but knowing that they’re a passive-aggressive dick is enough.

It feels like the setting was well established, as was the central premise, but actually getting the characters from point A to point B turned out to be a struggle. Not all that much really happens to Mica beyond a couple of plot points and a voice in her ear. We don’t really learn all that much about her relationship with Sasha, aside from a few warm and regrettable memories. The story doesn’t really feel like it’s about her or her friends.

I also feel like the ending was a foregone conclusion. However, I did get one ending out of a few. I’d be interested to know how things turn out in the others. Maybe there’s a better payoff in one of the others. As of right now, I’m not even sure what the criteria for them is.

Hollowbody isn’t bad. It’s a solid effort for a solo developer. There is a lot of skill on display, 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 needs work. Nothing about it is disastrous, and if you’re a fan of PS2 horror, it can be worth a look at its abbreviated runtime.

It’s just not the most memorable experience, either. Hollowbody stakes its identity on being a PS2-inspired horror game and has trouble building on that and finding its own identity. The world it depicts is enticing, but it struggles to find a story there. On the other hand, it’s not uncomfortable to play. It’s enjoyable for what it is. It’s not completely hollow, but it’s far from solid.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}