Given the significance of the UK in gaming development it is surprising how rare games set here are. Even those that do exist tend to be either quaint backdrops like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture or ‘ye olde’ period pieces like Chivalry. Hollowbody breaks this trend by being set in a future dystopian version of an abandoned British city; taking this uncannily familiar location and using it to produce a love letter to classic survival horror. The resulting title is up there with the very best of indie survival horror games and feels like a lost classic from the PS2 era.
I’ve been following the development of Hollowbody for a couple of years and developer Headware Games has done a great job in chronicling the process of indie game production through their social media presence. I get a real kick out of this kind of information and seeing a game develop from early prototype through pre-release demos and finally the finished build is always a joy. From the very beginning Hollowbody has had a clear vision and a distinctive aesthetic and this has ensured that the final game is successful, both as its own thing and as homage to past greats.
The futuristic setting of Hollowbody feels like a banal Blade Runner – Edge Jogger, maybe? – complete with flying cars and neon skies. Everything feels like the future except, of course, for the exclusion zone, the site of a mysterious outbreak that left a twenty mile area sealed off for the wider population’s protection. The only people to venture into the exclusion area are never heard from again. Until, that is, your partner Sasha heads in to find out what happened and you have to go in to find her. The background takes in equal parts Resident Evil, Contagion, and Escape from New York and immediately established a clear narrative and emotional reason for Mica risking her life and I appreciated the generally understated but drip-fed nature of the story-telling here. No lengthy expositions or overloading but instead notes and uncanny radio interference combine to offer suggestions but not solutions as to what happened.
Visually, Hollowbody is superb. The PS2 era design looks fantastic, especially as you can up the resolution if you wish to achieve the kind of result that is normally only possible when upscaling PS2 titles via emulation. The world-building is similarly great and the early environments you explore felt eerily familiar but with a dark and deadly twist. Sound design is also a highpoint here as the atmospheric audio ensures that you are always on edge and occasional stabs of music at key events jar you into action. The full voice acting is totally off brand with the genre classics though, as it is actually excellent throughout and often gives a real emotional hit.
Streamlining the classic survival horror form, Hollowbody retains the mechanics and feel of the genre, but finetunes some aspects to avoid the usual frustration points. Rather than the limited inventory that is so ubiquitous in the genre (and which affected Signalis to such a degree) here you can pick up everything you need and carry it with you. That being said, there is less to collect than in other games as the focus is on exploration and occasional puzzles, rather than overly intricate escape rooms.
Juggling weaponry is less of an issue than normal as you can equip one melee weapon and one firearm and can switch between them through shortcuts similar to those found in third person action combat games. Early on you’ll rely on a pistol and a plank with nails in it, but more powerful weapons are scattered around for you to find. In fact, some firearms are hinted at in the achievements but I didn’t find them in my first playthrough, suggesting areas I missed.
The opening stages of the game take place in the tower block that was featured in the demos, and I initially thought the whole game would involve making my way up to its heights. Fortunately the range of environments is much greater than this. You’ll find yourself exploring the residential areas more generally, a churchyard, and underground areas before you reach the end of the game.
One area with less variety, however, is the enemies you face. Whilst there are the stalwarts of lumbering zombies, horrifying dogs, and the occasional larger foe, the focus is clearly less on these than the narrative and world-building. Combat itself is solid and there is the expected risk and reward in terms of taking on foes or evading them whilst managing limited ammo. Indeed there are very few unavoidable enemies throughout, with only a few set piece moments forcing you to fight.
Puzzles are well designed, but not as constant as in some titles in the genre. The tower block in particular had quite a lot of rooms that had no gameplay purpose, but did add to the feel of dread and tragedy that pervades the game. One general tip for new players is to make sure that you examine and read the descriptions of items in your inventory as an early puzzle took me far too long to solve, as I hadn’t made the lateral connection to an item I was carrying all along. I would also recommend having a paper and pen on hand as there are a couple of moments where you need to collect information, and it is generally useful to make a note of puzzles you haven’t yet solved.
