Silent Hill 2 Remake is perhaps the biggest horror game of this year. Meanwhile, distant rumblings of Resident Evil 9 or maybe a new version of Code Veronica continue – Dying Light The Beast and Alien Isolation 2 are also in the works. But while we wait for the next generation of nightmare fuel, one of 2024’s best but most underplayed horrors just got a transformative free update, and is worth playing now more than ever. A mix of old-school Resident Evil, Silent Hill-style psychological subtext, and aesthetics from Cyberpunk 2077, if you haven’t tried Hollowbody yet, it suddenly feels like an entirely new game.
Set in a retro-futuristic world inspired by Alien and Night City (think CRT monitors, chunky guns, the tracking bars on a VHS), Hollowbody follows Mica, a young smuggler whose partner has gone missing somewhere within the UK exclusion zone. See, the entire country has been overrun by a mystery contagion, transforming human, animal, and plant life into grotesque, screeching abominations. Stranded in the ruins of a former suburb, the horror game takes place over a single night, as Mica tries to track down her missing pal.
The original version of Hollowbody uses a fixed-camera perspective, akin to the Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and survival horror games of old. After a huge rebalancing update earlier this year, solo developer Nathan Hamley has just reinvented Hollowbody with a totally new third-person perspective.
Now, you can play the entire game from an over-the-shoulder viewpoint a la Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space. It’s completely optional, and the free update also includes some movement and behavior improvements for Hollowbody’s enemies, making them more dangerous than ever.
With more than 1,000 reviews from players, Hollowbody still boasts a coveted ‘very positive’ rating – 88% of responses are favorable. I previously wrote how the game uses space and silence to create terror, and it’s definitely worth a shot if you miss the late ‘90s and early ‘00s heyday of survival horror. You can try it here.
Otherwise, you might want to try some of the best survival games, or maybe the best old games that still run on PC.
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