Hollowbody

Hollowbody was provided by Headware Games for review. Thank you!

Hollowbody, a retro survival horror title from Headware Games, is a blast from the past and a breath of fresh air! This game will instantly feel familiar to fans of classic titles like Resident Evil 1 & 2 on the PS1 or Silent Hill 2 on the PS2, but it still feels modern and engaging thanks to its fresh takes on the formula. It pays homage to yesteryear's classic survival horror games while introducing innovative elements to the genre with its eerie setting, resource management, and environmental puzzles. Created as a passion project by one man, Nathan Hamley, Hollowbody is a staggering achievement in the horror genre.

Story & Setting

Set against the eerie backdrop of a long-abandoned British city, you assume the role of Mica, a shipper on the black market who is desperate to find her missing partner, Sasha. She is not licensed and is driven by desperation. When you breach the defenses of the isolated exclusion zone in the hopes of finding your partner, mayhem ensues, your GPS stops working, and your hovercraft plummets to the crumbling streets below. The city is falling apart, leaving you to fend for yourself in a dangerous and mysterious labyrinth with limited supplies.

I don’t want to give too much away, but the story being told here is the highlight of the game for me. It stuck with me long after the credits rolled, and I longed to know more. Nathan has done an incredible job of building a detailed world where horrible events occur. He drip-feeds snippets of what’s occurred while leaving much to our imaginations. I was left wanting more. I want to know more about the residents and what happened to them. I want to know more about Sherwood and explore the medical experiments that are hinted at. I want to learn more about the mysterious caller and what motivates them.

It's a true compliment to Nathan and his ability to craft a nonlinear story with such depth. I hope this is just the first chapter, as the exclusion zone is an intriguing place, and I would love to learn and explore some more in future games. A prequel would be amazing! At the very least, if the epilogue is anything to go by, Nathan isn’t quite finished telling this story, which is exciting.

Visuals

This is hard to describe, but this game doesn’t resemble the old retro horror titles from the 90s. Instead, it looks like how you remember them. I think our brains are wired just to automatically upscale old graphics to HD when we recall old games from our past. In simpler terms, this will make you immediately think of older games, but they are far more impressive in the visuals department. From the raindrops hitting the camera lens to the lighting and visual flair in each unique environment, Hollowbody is impressive from the get-go. There are no low polygon jagged edges, and the locations you visit feel crammed with details.

The fixed camera points jump from one perspective to another, revealing more of the space you’re walking through, but it never feels obstructed or clunky. Dead bodies, gore, blood, grime, and slimy growths fill the screen to always keep you in an unsettled state. This exclusion zone is filthy and abandoned, telling its tale of rot and decay.

The color palette is muted, and you rely on your flashlight to see. Everything looks grey and gloomy in your spotlight, and even inanimate objects look threatening in the dark. Shadows and dreary lighting go a long way toward immersing you in this horrific landscape. These elements all come together so that every minute you play feels unsettling.

Gameplay

The game blends resource management, combat, and puzzle solving adeptly. Some of the puzzles are trickier than others but never feel frustrating. There is a strong narrative that slowly reveals itself the further you progress through cutscenes and collected documents. There is a real sense of a once-lived world here, and the balance of action and puzzle-solving is quite good. Enemies can be bullet sponges, so deciding to save your ammo and use melee weapons can be the difference between life and death.

Puzzles are never too difficult (although I did get badly stuck on one—more on that later!). They usually entail finding the thing to open the yolk, but occasionally, you will be tested mentally. For me, though, the harder the puzzles were, the more satisfying the game became after solving them. I felt a sense of accomplishment and progression every time I solved a challenging puzzle, which felt great.

Game Length

The game's length can vary depending on how quickly you can solve some of the puzzles and how much you want to explore. There are unlockables and a new game plus for those who want to experience the game again with new gameplay elements added (first-person perspective…..yes, please). There are also plenty of collectibles and achievements for the completionists among us. I rolled credits at the seven-hour mark, but after speaking with the developer, I am a little slow!! It doesn’t help that I got badly stuck on a puzzle for over an hour, and also, I did take my time exploring and reading as much of the in-game lore as possible.

If you want to mainline it, you can expect to roll credits around the four-hour mark, but I would advise you to take your time and soak in the atmosphere.

Minor Gripes

As much as I loved this game, there were one or two tiny gripes that I should mention. These are just nitpicks and could be fixed in a future update or patch:

Positioning for Interactions: Sometimes, the game is a little sensitive about where you stand when interacting with an object. You might have to line Mica up exactly in front of an object before the interaction prompt appears. More often, it appears and disappears when you move ever so slightly. It's not a deal breaker, but it can frustrate a little, especially when you’re already tense.

Interactions after use: This minor point should be easy to fix. After you’ve picked up an object from a particular spot, the prompt will stay there to ‘pick up the object.’ It's no big deal at the moment, but if you’re ever backtracking over areas, getting prompted to pick something up that is no longer there can be annoying.

Inconsistent Voiceovers: Some dialogue, thoughts, and interactions are voiced, and some aren’t. It's not a biggie, but it felt a little random. Things I thought were important didn’t get speech, while other trivial interactions did. The Steam page boasts ‘full voice acting,’ so I would love to see this fixed, as the voice acting was excellent.

Weapon Balance: This is just me putting my logic hat on. You start with a handgun, and later on (if you explore well enough), you can get a bow and arrow. From a game progression standpoint, it makes sense that the bow is stronger than your starting weapon. But a bow and arrow should never be better than a pistol. Am I wrong?

And there endeth the complaining. Honestly, none of the above had any great effect on my enjoyment of the game. I am simply mentioning them for complete transparency. They didn’t bother me, but perhaps they may bother other players, so they are worth mentioning.

Hollowbody - Steam Deck Performance

I played a review copy of Hollowbody before launch, so officially, there is no Steam Deck support yet. That said, it was flawless on deck! No crashes, bugs, glitches, or noticeable slowdown occurred. I left all the in-game graphic settings at their highest and ran the Steam Deck at 10W, which was perfect. I capped the FPS at 60, and although it doesn’t remain stable (in open spaces outside the apartment block, the frame rate dipped to as low as 40), it doesn’t affect gameplay. This is not Call of Duty; your movements are meant to be slow and deliberate.

The frame rate makes little difference in your enjoyment of Hollowbody, and it’s the perfect title to play on the Steam Deck. I advise switching off your frame counter, turning off the lights, and having a spare pair of underpants on hand as you explore the nightmare world of Hollowbody!

Recommended Settings (55 FPS)

If you want the best quality and aren't too concerned about battery life, then you can use the following settings:

-Cap FPS at 55 (this is only due to occasional frame rate dips in large open spaces. Steamdeck struggles to maintain 60)

-Set TDP to 15W

-Set in-game graphic settings to medium

This will give you a very smooth, stable frame rate with no dips and allow for a gameplay length of approximately two hours.

Quality/Battery Settings

If playing for as long as possible is more your cup of tea, then these settings will be perfect for you:

-Cap FPS at 30

-Set TDP to 8W

-Set in-game graphics to Ultra

You have a decent frame rate, gorgeous visuals, and a battery that lasts longer. The expected gameplay length on a full battery is approximately three hours.

Whichever you choose, you're in for a treat. The retro-style graphics and the slow, methodical gameplay mean neither performance nor visuals are a high priority. Having your pants scared off you, though...well, that's a different matter entirely!

Conclusion

I loved my time with Hollowbody. The fact that a single individual created this boggles my mind. It’s very clear that Nathan has a passion for writing, and his crafted world shows glimpses of real depth that deserve to be explored. The visuals are gorgeous while scratching that nostalgic itch for horror games of the past. The compelling story keeps you gripped as it’s slowly revealed to you. The gameplay is solid, with a healthy balance of action, exploration, and problem-solving. The sound design, from voice acting to shambling zombie screams, is realistic and unnerving. The experience, on the whole, is well worth your time, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Like all good horrors, this one sticks with you after it ends, whether in book, film, or game format. You’re left wanting to learn and know more. You’re left to draw conclusions about certain events, which was satisfying. The horror is less zombie action like Resident Evil and more psychological like the Silent Hill series. At times, I thought I was seeing unnerving things…. maybe that’s just me, though! Hollowbody is an incredible piece of work from a developer with a bright future ahead of him. It doesn’t overstay its welcome and leaves you wanting more. What more could you ask for?

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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