Hollowbody review: Survival Horror played safe

The PS2 aesthetic has become the new hotness within the last few years, particularly within the survival horror genre. Games like Crow Country, Signalis, and Conscript have all taken cues from the classic games of that era, namely Silent Hill and Resident Evil, each finding an audience among fans of the genre. This week, a new game has joined the fray. A game with clear parallels to the aforementioned survival horror classics – parallels that stem not only from its art style, but from its ethos, its eerie, desolate, and mystifying atmosphere, and perhaps most importantly, its fixed camera angles. This game is Hollowbody.

A trip through desolation

Officially described on the Steam store page as “a tech-noir survival horror short story, set in the urban decay of a long abandoned British city,” Hollowbody finds Mica, a smuggler, on the search for her lost partner Sasha. This search leads her to a city that had been long closed off, abandoned, and essentially left to rot by the British government after a catastrophic event that occurred years past. As you’d expect, the endeavor entails a plethora of less-than-welcoming encounters.

It’s a fairly generic premise that works to tell a fine story, but honestly, I was far more interested in the game’s subplots and uncovering the mystery of just what had occurred to bring this city to such ruin. To paint a picture, you’re walking through a city covered in black, fleshy mass, crawling with necromorph-like creatures, and littered with bodies on every corner. It’s a city that was forsaken by a disastrous something, and learning what exactly that something is, and how it got there, is what kept me engaged the most during my roughly 4-hour playthrough.

Along with the left-behind notes and documents you would find in any other survival horror game, Hollowbody has a nice mechanic where Mica can tap into radio signals that allow her to listen to previous events that occurred in the location she’s standing in. I enjoyed finding and listening to those events, as they gave more meaning to the scenery around her in the present and provided more insight into life right before the catastrophe.

Survival Horror gameplay returns

Anyone who’s played a survival horror game will be familiar with the gameplay presented in Hollowbody. You’re walking through weird, dark corridors, picking up and reading old documents, and trying to save as much ammo as possible while navigating past various enemies, only this time with a mix of both fixed and dynamic camera angles. I found the camera variation to be mostly a nice touch, however, there were more than a few instances where helpful items were placed in areas of the screen that were almost invisible due to camera placement and just due to blending into the environment.

Combat felt right in line with what I expect from this genre You have a variety of options for melee fighting, along with, of course, your trusty pistol. It’s a pretty simple combat system with an instant lock-on similar to Signalis; the challenge comes when fighting multiple enemies at once, or trying to figure out how to get past an enemy without getting hurt or wasting your precious ammo.

Like any survival horror should, Hollowbody features an array of clever-enough puzzles to solve. I did notice they began to get a bit easier the further I got into the game, but I still got that “aha!” feeling when I understood what I’d need to do. The game doesn’t implement every staple of the genre, though. For example, Hollowbody does away with some of the more tedious mechanics of survival horror games like inventory management and heavy backtracking, in service of retaining a much shorter and tighter experience for the player.

A competent Silent Hill-like

At a glance, it’s clear that Silent Hill and Resident Evil were major influences on indie horror game Hollowbody. While its retro PS2-style visuals are what initially drew me toward the game, inside of that is a competent survival horror experience that, while not doing too many things different from its predecessors, establishes a world and setting that’s worth exploring. If you’re looking for a game to scratch the itch of those classic survival horror experiences, Hollowbody is definitely worth your time.

This review is based on a Steam version of Hollowbody purchased by the reviewer. Hollowbody is available now on PC.

Josh Childs

Contributing Editor

Josh is a writer from Maryland with an admiration for horror, indie games, and anything with a great story. The first game he fell in love with was Kingdom Hearts on the PS2. Today, you'll find him online raving about Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, or the hot new indie game of the week. You can find him on Twitter @JTheMogul.