Retro survival horror always piques my interest; be it the wonderful Crow Country or Heartworm, show me Saturn-era visuals and tank controls and I’m in. I played the demo for Hollowbody on Steam a while back and had it on my list to get to, but now it’s been ported to Xbox proved to be the perfect time to finally check it out. It’s more Silent Hill than Resident Evil, but I enjoyed my time with it thanks to a compelling story and traditional survival horror progression, even if there are a few niggles that I found along the way.
The UK has been hit by a deadly virus outbreak, and outside of those wealthy or important enough to be evacuated, the rest of the population have been cordened off by high walls around their towns and cities. These exclusion zones are rife with death, anarchy, and mysterious goings on, and a small band of resistance is aiming to find the truth about what happened. When her partner Sasha goes missing inside one of the zones, our protagonist Mica takes her hovercar in to find her.
The world of Hollowbody is one of near future tech, flying cars and black market dealings, though beyond the opening it falls back to more traditional, retro tech like flashlights, train tickets, and shotguns. Throughout, the atmosphere is excellent, never really letting up even in safer areas, and the constant death and destruction is evident at every turn.
We’re given two options of play in Hollowbody; fixed camera, or third person, and a mix of either tank or 3D controls. The options are nice to have, but I can’t help but feel I’d have preferred the choice made for us. I played the majority in fixed/tank mode, which worked fine though there was a constant feeling that it never quite landed as well as it could have. With a mixture of fixed and moving cameras like in Silent Hill, it felt a bit off at points where I’d be trying to explore an area to look for an item but it could be obscured by the camera changes.The third person option seemed to be suited to certain areas like these, though again it never was quite as well implemented as I’d like with awkward aiming and an invert Y option that reversed between exploring and aiming.
Despite my issues with the controls though, I did enjoy exploring Hollowbody’s world. There are hidden signals to collect that expand upon what happened here, and again the sense of atmosphere made even the more well lit areas somewhat frightening to explore.
Combat is a mostly optional affair, with plenty of creatures in our way looking to maul us. They are, for the most part, slow moving and can be dodged around to save ammo, and remind me of the original Resident Evil in this regard. Unlike that game, we retain full movement as we aim, and also get a handful of melee weapons such as a spiked bat or makeshift axe (a road sign cut off at the base) that prove surprisingly effective against most enemies.
Elsewhere, it’s survival horror 101; plenty of backtracking in areas to find hidden keys and items, albeit the areas are broken up into small chunks so this isn’t as laborious as it sounds; jump scares as we gain a new item and go back through a previously cleared area; groans and moans teasing off screen threats; and combining items to make a new one to solve slightly overengineered problems (the puzzle with an electrified bathtub with an item in the bottom springs to mind).
Conclusion
It’s a well put together collection of what I love about the old school games, and Hollowbody holds it all together with a compelling, dark tale, and decent puzzles and progression. That the controls don’t quite work as well as we’d like is a small downer – it’s far from unplayable, just a little more awkward than we’d hope – but it’s not enough to make this any less than a solid recommendation to retro survival horror fans all the same.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
