Hollow Knight: Lifeblood expansion is free and out now
Finally a functioning map
Hollow Knight incites a bit of debate around the site. As John brought up in his review last year: what do you do with a game that is genuinely good but rather unoriginal? It's a Metroidvania game that a lot of us picked up because it was simply the most recent Metroidvania game, and that's not the best excuse for buying a game. In the year since launch, Australian studio Team Cherry has met this criticism by consistently adding new, free DLC to the title, with each pack helping to define and improve on the base game. Today, Hollow Knight: Lifeblood is available, and if you already own the game the update is probably installed.
Hollow Knight: Lifeblood represents many months of under-the-hood improvements, especially balances and bug fixes, along with new sound effects, voices, and a brand new boss. Custom map markers are finally introduced, which seems like the sort of feature that a Metroidvania game should've had since the start, but for newcomers that's a fantastic add-on.
For Steam and GOG Galaxy users, your game will automatically update to include the new Lifeblood content. Humble and GOG DRM free users can download an updated version in the next 24 hours.
Gods & Glory, a much more substantial add-on pack, is coming on the heels of this release. Hopefully, when all is said and done, revisiting the finalized version of Hollow Knight will be a more rewarding and defined experience than the original release. Every little bit helps, and it's hard to argue with the whole, you know, "free" part.
