Review: Hollow

All of the above stamps and cliches in Hollow , in fact, are present. We play for some pilot named Mark, who is assigned to the station "Shakhtar-1" - it extracts resources from the atmosphere of Jupiter, and we take them to Earth. At the beginning of the game, the hero, of course, does not remember anything except the code for docking with one of the docks. And there begins the standard program of entertainment - the station is abandoned, there are no crew members, there is no electricity, only darkness around, corpses and some behemoth mutants with bare female breasts.

 

We find notes and periodically receive messages from an unknown person who tells us what to do, where to go and how to start all the generators in order to find an exit and leave the station. Sometimes he even flickers in the frame, runs past, but of course our hero can not catch up with him.

Mark has to do everything himself, follow the instructions, manually start the generators, passing a simple mini-game, look for cards for access to the elevator and select the correct numbers to the codes on some closed doors - sometimes a hint can be found in some note, sometimes you need to see the necessary figures on records from CCTV cameras. Somewhere, to pass on, you need to blow up the flammable cylinder and make a hole in the wall.

And the hero periodically - even without this - go to bad visions and memories. The light in the eyes fades, some ominous inscriptions and traces of blood are appearing on the walls.

However, with all the stamps and the predictability of many of the techniques that authors use, Hollow still clings something . First, in the story, a key role is played by either the wife, or simply the beloved woman of Mark. The hero periodically sees her, communicates, she scolds and accuses, and Marc excuses himself and promises that he will save them. And then he does not understand whether it was really, or the next vision, and his beloved is actually already dead. All this reminds something of Silent Hill 2 , forcing to ask the same question: is it not the hero himself who is to blame for what happened to him and his woman?

Secondly, in Hollowyou can and should use weapons. In most modern horror we just sneak past, hide and run away from monsters, and then nobody forbids to take in hands a laser or a blaster and to wet monsters in space lavatories and other compartments of the station. Moreover, ammunition, as well as syringes with a health injection, is always not enough (therefore, we are thoroughly searching all the corners and boxes for the whole game), enemies are killed quickly, but with a sight shot, you can literally take the head off to the bad guys - at such moments Hollow already reminds something Dead Space .

In addition, we must admit that the authors are able to create tension. They work great with sound, light and atmosphere. In the most stressful moments everything around turns dark, strange visions begin, the floor and walls go shaky, shake, frightening music sounds, and Mark starts to breathe heavily. We literally feel with our skin how terrible to the protagonist - and this fear is involuntarily transmitted to us.

It is clear that this is such a " Dead Space for the poor." It's still an indie project with all the consequences - the graphics are pretty, but the optimization is no good, there are bugs, the story is short, and the gameplay is not too diverse and sinning with empty round-robin back and forth through the half-station. And yet Hollow is able to intrigue, and most importantly, scare. So everyone who likes to tickle their nerves, just have to try this game. Perhaps even they will want to see the continuation - there are a lot of questions after the passage, but in the final the authors promise the second part with direct text, which should give all the answers. Reception, of course, is cheap, but, you know, it works.

rate: 8/10