Nintendo Switch Critic Reviews

Hollow is a good horror game inspired by great games like Alien: Isolation and Resident Evil Revelations. However, the game sins by executing mechanics like melee combat, for example. Although the graphics are excellent and it has an excellent atmosphere, the weird movement of the enemies makes the game look odd at times. The game is frightening at times when you walk alone on the ship listening to voices succumbing to the dark, you do get some scares, but it is not frequent. The gameplay is within the standards of the current horror games. Despite its problems, Hollow is a highly recommended game for horror fans and games like Resident Evil Revelations and Alien: Isolation.

A horror game with good ideas that comes up short in many aspects: while its history is addictive and progressively improves, its short duration brings us back to reality, and while its setting and sound put us in a tense mood with some jump scares mixed in, its technical side takes us out of that mood with a significant range of defects to be cleaned up.

It’s hard to deny the ambition that Hollow brings to the table, and it’s certainly carving out its own niche on the Switch too. Despite this, Hollow feels like an exercise in tedium. Some players may be able to suffer through the slow moving yet brief story, but ultimately it’s an average experience that even genre fans will struggle to enjoy.

Hollow could have gone further and cemented itself as a good proposal in the growing horror genre within the Nintendo Switch and it gets the ambiance right, including the good use of sound effects. It does not succeed at all it could, unfortunately, as its heavy and cumbersome gameplay, losses of fluidity and several technical issues end up plaguing the experience, whose plot is also too generic and unremarkable to make this a memorable horror game.

Hollow is an incredibly ugly game with the kind of plentiful technical issues that make it actively difficult to play. Those with a masochistic streak might derive some pleasure from its abrasiveness and its downbeat tone, but most Switch-owning horror fans would be much better served playing through Resident Evil Revelations and its sequel for the umpteenth time.

Hollow, as a game, is an effective horror experience plagued by some poor goal communication with the player. It has clear issues but at its core, Hollow is a technically impressive game built on generally good gameplay. As a port to Switch, this game is unfortunately an abysmal mess.

As far as space-set survival horror games go, Hollow sets the standard for a new low.

I have to say, a game like Hollow has so much potential and it could have been one the best horror games on the Nintendo Switch had some basic aspects had been right, such as the movement and combat. But what it ends up being is a game that doesn’t have many redeeming features or qualities. It’s too slow and lethargic, the display is a little off-putting after a while and it doesn’t run well playing in Handheld mode, which is a major feature of the Switch.

Hollow could have the most terrifying monsters ever chasing you through its dimly-lit hallways, and it would still suck on account of the fact that said chase would take place at the slowest speed imaginable, and give you ample opportunity to be reminded of what an eyesore it is. As I said up top, credit to the game for having such a clear vision of what it wanted to be, but the gulf between idea and execution couldn’t be any wider than it is here.

It's a B-grade Dead Space clone that follows the "rules" of horror without actually understanding any of them. Sure, it's a good thing that developers want to continue that "horror in space" tradition of Dead Space, but this team simply wasn't up to the task. On any level.