Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is an independent metroidvania from the small Australian studio Team Cherry, whose scope, atmosphere and depth put many big-budget titles to shame. The player controls a nameless insect knight who descends into the vast underground kingdom of Hallownest, once a thriving insect civilization now plagued by a mysterious disease called the Infection, which drives its inhabitants mad and kills them. The story is almost never told directly - it's assembled from fragments of dialogue, inscriptions and environment, so the player largely pieces it together themselves.

Exploring the intertwined caves, catacombs and forgotten cities follows the traditional metroidvania style - new abilities like a double jump, wall jump or the ability to swim in acid gradually open up previously inaccessible areas of a huge, interconnected map, which the player records by hand using purchasable maps from the cartographer. This very delay in mapping is essential: in an unknown area, the player moves blindly for a while, which intensifies the feeling of genuine discovery. The combat system is surprisingly demanding and precise, with dozens of unique bosses, some of which rank among the hardest in the entire genre, and the Charms system allows customizing the main character's passive abilities according to preferred playstyle. After death, a shadow remains at the spot, which must be revisited to recover lost money and full mana capacity.

The visual style with hand-drawn art design and melancholic, orchestral music by Christopher Larkin creates a unique, almost gothic atmosphere of a crumbling kingdom, in which muted colors and quiet passages without music work just as powerfully as the big battles. The game also offers an enormous amount of optional content and secrets, as well as several free expansions, which led to it becoming synonymous with depth and generosity in independent production. Hollow Knight is still considered one of the best metroidvanias ever, and its long-delayed sequel Silksong ranks among the most anticipated indie games in history.