Later this yr, Bloober Crew’s remake of Silent Hill 2 will lastly grace our screens, for higher or worse (most likely the latter, in my view). A 13 minute-long gameplay demonstration was proven off final week, which seems to be… okay, however to be sincere in the event you ask it may have a tricky time going up in opposition to Hollowbody, a Silent Hill 2, Ghost within the Shell, and Blade Runner impressed survival horror recreation with the scariest setting anybody has ever confronted: Britain.
Okay, I admit it appears like I am being a contact sarcastic there (as a result of I’m), however the recreation actually is ready in Britain, or not less than fictionalised, futuristic model of it, and it genuinely does really feel fairly unnerving. In a single half that is positively as a result of the Steam Subsequent Fest demo slapped me proper down in the midst of a road in a vaguely acquainted trying, however considerably ruined metropolis that feels a contact too near residence. Within the different, there’s some sort of progress, I need to say, spreading all over the place that I felt sick simply , desperately hoping it would not all of the sudden transfer and contact me.
Hollowbody places you within the function of Mica, an “unlicensed black market shipper who will cease at nothing to seek out her lacking companion,” or so says the sport’s description on Steam, whose design and rendering might simply have been lifted from a PS2 horror recreation that most likely prices method an excessive amount of on eBay. And a PS2 recreation Hollowbody very a lot is, full with tank controls and a hard and fast digital camera angle that robs you of a few of your company similar to the classics do.
Regardless of being a throwback in gameplay, it felt refreshing to play one thing that understands older strategies aren’t dangerous – fastened digital camera angles can serve an necessary, structural objective, and allows you to ship info to the participant in particular and typically scary methods. Sure, there are soar scares, however largely the strain comes from not with the ability to go searching a nook earlier than you head down a hallway.
Very like the fastened digital camera angles, fight is very harking back to Silent Hill 2, too, full with easy melee assaults and weapons with restricted ammo. The demo is not notably lengthy, it solely took me round 45 minutes to beat it, and I used to be taking it slowly, so I am not fully positive how the largely easy gameplay may evolve. There was one puzzle I needed to clear up that whereas not overly difficult did have me pondering a small contact, and labored in tandem with an environmental narrative that was being instructed, leading to one thing fairly satisfying.
It is right here the place I hope the complete recreation actually develops itself, as a result of once more, the fight actually is sort of much like Silent Hill 2’s, however greater than something it is the setting that has gained me over. I discover it a bit irritating that video games are so not often set in the actual world, and when they’re they’re usually simply set within the US, or one thing like a nondescript jungle or desert that does not actually show a way of tradition or historical past.
Hollowbody, even in simply its temporary demo, does an ideal job of creating itself, presenting remnants of a close to future, now dilapidated in a a lot additional future, that feels each plausible, and regarding. Even simply strolling round and seeing these roadside site visitors bollards gave me a “that is Chappie” second, as foolish as it’d sound.
The thriller it units up, of your lacking companion, is engaging too, notably as a result of it withholds a lot info from you. All you possibly can actually be taught of the world within the demo had been by these tiny vignettes of previous conversations you possibly can eavesdrop on due to your radio, hinting at what may need occurred, supported by collectible paperwork of flavour textual content. They’re all ominous, suggesting an imminent societal collapse that has clearly taken place, and feels very reflective of what Britain has been subjected to over the previous decade and a half by a sure political celebration.
With such a brief however tight demo, you owe your self setting the time apart to play, as a result of even when there’s a little bit of jank right here and there, Hollowbody is well setting itself as much as be the perfect Silent Hill 2 recreation of the yr.
Try the opposite featured video games in VG247, RockPaperShotgun, and Eurogamer’s Wishlisted occasion on the hub web page – together with a good, meaty video that exhibits you why we’re so into the collected video games.
Try Hollowbody – and play the demo for your self – on Steam.