I wanted to play a game for this week but the library that I work at is currently moving to the newly constructed side of the building and I lost track of time. Fortunately, Nextfest was this past week and I can ALWAYS talk more about some demos. This week is a game that I have been following for a long time because it is made by one person and because it is a spooky horror game that is very reminiscent of some damn good survival horror games. This week is Hollow Body.

Hollow Body is a survival/psychological horror game from Headware Games. The game is slated to be released on the PC at some point in the future.

You play as Mica, a woman who will stop at nothing to find her missing partner Sasha. It had been twelve days since she went missing and the only shred of evidence you have is a call from a greedy border security agent who can get you through a small window to look for her. Mica takes up the offer and ventures off into the exclusion zone. She finds herself going in circles and crashes into a mysterious, desolate area with nothing but wits and a gun to find her partner.

Hollow Body plays like any early 2000s spooky game. You have the over-the-shoulder camera angle that will be the cinematic camera angle when walking down certain corridors and rooms. There are lots of notes and stuff to find that shed light on the whole situation and at times there are some puzzles and gunfights. The demo takes place in a suburban area that turns into a high-rise apartment complex where Sasha might have gone and we find out that something has happened; people were killed without hesitation and there is a strange fungus thing sprouting about, clinging to walls and the dead alike.

Puzzles are fairly clever, I liked the way that the environment held the answer but it is up to the player to actually figure it out. In a world where AAA games tell you how to figure a puzzle out within a few seconds of introducing it, it is nice to have the time to solve the puzzle.

I decided to put in how much I like the pause/inventory screen right here. I think it is the most fascinating thing in the game. On the pause screen, you have the map, inventory, and an eye that just bats at you in the background. Probably the best menu screen in a video game.

The shooting fulfills whatever spot it needs to. The player is mostly worried about investigating the area, unlocking safes, and picking up items. Most of the time, at least in the demo, ammo is the most prolific item. You can do the “combining” thing where two random items make a better item but most of your items will be on the floor or a nightstand. When the combat gets introduced you feel as if you are loaded to the teeth with ammo but be warned the 45 shots I had depleted quickly. Enemies shamble at a staggering rate and the aim mechanic is lock-on so worrying about hitting shots really doesn’t crop up.

Though the shooting does not require much skill, the enemies do cause a lot of anxiety.

Hollow Body is dark, and gritty and doesn’t falter on telling you what has happened in this ruined city. Lots of rubble and dead bodies to look at with a flashlight that really acts as a flashlight. It illuminates so much but it doesn’t intrude on the defined atmosphere. The monsters that eventually begin to come out from underneath the theoretical floorboards are gross and terrifying.

I’ve grown to really like the Silent Hill aesthetic is going on.

Hollow Body is a spooky game and the sound design compliments the game perfectly. The rain resonates as it hits the ground outside as you approach the apartment building and when you walk in it is eerily quiet as the sounds of your footsteps and a low hum fills the air. It is only when spooky things happen that sound blars forth at increasingly high volumes and it is enough to startle anyone.

The sound design is on point for the whole demo and elevates the whole thing.

Hollow Body‘s demo is a fantastic bite-sized portion of what will be a fantastic video game. Quote me on it. It has the whole survival horror thing down pat and with the added tech noir tag, it rises above anything else I am interested in in the horror genre. The gameplay is fun, the plot is so far so good and the game looks spooky. I love it.