I’m playing Hollow Knight Silksong, a platformer with a deep exploration system and challenging combat mechanics that combine into a thoroughly enjoyable experience for my gaming taste.
The platforming element as a base for gameplay makes movement the key dynamic to master. The main character, Hornet, needs to continually unlock new movement mechanics to access the ever expanding map. Dashing, wall jumping, double jumping and floating on air currents all become available as the game progresses, and many of the environmental puzzles require the player to creatively chain these abilities together to traverse the dangerous terrain. I find this fun because there are many ways to solve environmental challenges. This movement system is deepened by the Crest system, where equipping different quests completely changes how the Hornet moves; for example the Hunter Crest makes Hornet perform a diagonal jump attack, while the Reaper Crest makes her slash directly beneath her. Players can customize their experience by choosing crests that match their style, or mix them up to take on different challenges.
One of the main reasons to mix up crests is in the challenging combat throughout the game, where even mobs of enemies are capable of sending you back to the checkpoint if you don’t take the time to study their movesets. The game also rewards fighting smaller enemies in an area because bosses will generally combine and augment moves from mobs. The better you get at fighting mobs in an area, the better you are likely to perform against the region boss. This is a clever use of formative and summative assessment strategies from learning theory to add a long term reward to behaviour that could be considered grinding in other games.
As an extra note, the soundtrack of the game is incredible and ideal for long study sessions!
