• Time played: 40 hours and counting
  
• Progress so far: 10 areas, 7 bosses, 2 mini, several gauntlets.
  
• Achievements unlocked: 10 / 52

• Enjoyable as can be.
  
• The controls are responsive, smooth and exact.
  
  
• The open-world design is top notch. Exploring is fun, especially when every here and there you discover a hidden room with goodies or a sign that reveals some of the lore (in cryptic fashion as is tradition!)
  It's vast but still very well connected and self contained.
  
  
• There's a lot of new abilities/tools to unlock and use. They've proven useful for me in my playthrough and not added just for padding.
  Worthy to mention, there's a mini crafting system now and it's smooth and hassle-free.
  
  
• There's now side quests to pick up from the village bulletin board, Witcher 3 style. They're quick and reward you relatively well.
  
  
• The intuitiveness or shall I say managed expectations of Silksong is a pleasure to behold. As I was playing, I sometimes think to myself, 'Hmm I wish they would've done this or that.' For example, adding legend to the map, then as soon as I unlock/purchase something, it's there.
  
  
• I saw some players complaining about the difficulty. I mean, that's part of what makes Silksong great. That you beat it even with how difficult it is. Also, I'm no gaming god and I still manage to keep on going. The beauty about HK and now Silksong is that if one path isn't working for you, you explore a bit and find another. The game is non-linear like that.
  
  
• Silksong is standlone. You don't need to have played Hollow Knight to follow what's going on here.
  
• The characters are adorable as expected from a TeamCherry title.
  
  
• Little trivia I personally noticed and made me chuckle: The opening sequence of Silksong pays homage to a certain cult classic and massive hit. Here's a hint: "I used to be a warrior but then I took an arrow to the knee!"

• I mean, it's gorgeous. Very beautiful and visually pleasing.
  
• There's a rich variety in the different areas. Each has its own character and the game's graphics showcase this effortlessly.
  
  
• The sound effects and audio design are some of the best you'll ever encounter in gaming. Every little sound is a tell, especially in boss fights. For example here in this first one, the deep Haaaa sound tells you the next attack will be a jumping one across the room, so you prepare yourself.
  https://steamhost.cc/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3562356775
  
• If you've played Hollow Knight, you're already familiar with the adorable way characters talk. Same here with voice being added to the protagonist this time.

• Smooth, enjoyable gameplay
  Even if you're not into metroidvanias and platformers, there's no better way to dip your toes into the genre than SIlksong or Hollow Knight.
  
  
• Well optimized
  So much so it runs flawlessly on older systems as well as modern rigs. I say this from personal experience.
  In case you're curious, here's a snippet of the recommended specifications:
  Win10, Intel Core i5-3470, 8 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 1050 (2GB), Radeon R9 380 (2GB), 8 GB available space, DirectX: 10
  
  
• Very challenging
  Every mob is a fight for your life. The smallest mob is smarter and vicious.
  
  
• Deeply immersive
  The game genuinely takes you away from whatever is on your mind and gently includes you in its world.
  
  
• Updated mechanics from Hollow Knight
  Two major updates and very welcome changes (not that I'm complaining about HK!):
  1. You can heal anytime/anywhere and you start your game with it. https://steamhost.cc/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3562270920
  2. Remember when you died in HK, then on your way to your fallen shade, you made one mindless mistake and lost all your precious geo? This isn't the case anymore. From very early on in Silksong, you have the ability to freeze your rosaries (the new currency) for a smallish fee. https://steamhost.cc/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3562375252
  
  
• Affordable
  The devs have made a conscious choice to sell their game (which they've toiled to make and perfect for years without unnecessary fanfare or marketing gimmicks) as affordable as possibly can be. I hope publishers and other developers take notice.
  
  
• Bug-free so far
  The game does require some fine-tuning though. See below.

• The enemy mob names aren't made clear to the player, so when you get a quest (called 'wish' ingame) to kill abc for materal xyz, you need to kill all enemies in that area until the required material drops. I'm sure there's a better way of identifying enemy mobs than making them 100% obscure.
  
  
• When your Mask Shards are full, your silk shouldn't be consumed if you hit B by accident.
  
  
• The description of some tools seem fine but on closer inspection after equipping and playing with them, it's clear that these descriptions are generic and don't adequately describe the function. They need to be precisely descriptive. e.g. the Warding Bell.

• The custom markers we can place on the map are always a little too big for comfort imho. If they can be scaled down to two-thirds or even half their size, they'd still fulfil their function with the added bonus of making the map way more cleaner so to speak and also not obscure any details.
  
  
• I wish the Hunter's Journal included two facts about each mob: How many hits it takes to die + how many rosaries/shards it drops on death. It would be much more useful.
  
  
• Upgrading a crest should be universal, not only for that specific crest.
  
  
• How to use the second equipped offensive tool should be made clear in the Options>Controller menu (i.e. down+RB)

• Total: 54
  
• So far, so good. I have only skimmed the list of achievements so far in order to avoid any spoilers. They seem pretty straightforward.
  
• +1 Perfect Game? Yes

If you think this review was good, please click on follow here Volcanic Reviews for more. I'm getting back into reviewing and every bit of support helps, thank you!

Disclaimer: I don't get compensated for any reviews I write. This is my honest opinion of the game.