Hollow Island

Will scratch your Terraria itch. Has decent depth making the experience somewhat similar to terraria but gameplay is top-down like Necesse or The Survivalists. There are a couple of really annoying and unnecessary elements in the game. The combat could have been better and the game tries to increase difficulty by putting spikes everywhere on the floors you walk on which is extremely annoying and imho unnecessary because the biome specific enemy units are well designed and are smart enough to pose a challenge on their own. If you like the ranger class, this game will disappoint you because the bows and guns suck. Even melee has limited agility. With spikes everywhere, the enemy will bumrush you in tight corners with their high spawn rates. I have no issue with the spawn rate but I feel the the spiky floors or inescapable lava or ice pits were not needed. There is even dusty fog that covers everything in front of you after breaking a wall and enemy units (hidden inside the walls strangely) just rush out at you and take you by surprise. The fog is completely unnecessary too. These things make the game less enjoyable.

By no means Hollow Island is a perfect game. But given the price, and the very generous demo, I think it's safe to say that it's a good purchase. Give the demo a go, you can easily decide for yourself, no strings attached. Some features are refreshingly casual, you can repaint tiles for free with a shovel, later unlock the same option with carpets, for no resources and only for cosmetic effect. My little pixel artist heart really cherished all the decorating options there. At the same time it's painstakingly slow, you can't just use it as a paintbrush, you need to oh so very slooowly pull it through your screen, otherwise it will miss a lot of tiles. This duality is everywhere in the game: nice, refreshing (yet familiar) features, however some aspects of them falls short or unbalanced. No need to water crops, however after cooking some meals and stocking up on them, the crops are not really good for anything, but unlocking NPCs, which would be a fun reason to keep farming, but even then you just buy a few animals because each is worth dozens of crops in food value, so crops after early game are not worth bothering with, except for aesthetics. Each NPC you recruit needs a food value in your town, but there is a lack of villagers so you'll unlock all measly 6 very fast, and their wares are not really worth it anyways. They also hang around the village pillar thing, instead of their houses, so ALL of your maps/houses will be empty and lifeless, while all 4 merchants will stand on the same spot. But all of them buy all your stuff, so if you could put them all around in your settlements, it could be amazing. Not enough furniture and no need to decorate NPC homes is a thing. It's a missed opportunity. The exploration, the 3 "classes" (aka clothing types) and the bosses in the game are something I can't complain about. There are again not too many of them, but damn some are really hard to beat, it was fun. I just wish there were more like the late game mechanical boss, with a proper dungeon and door opening/dungeon mechanics. The drops from the bosses will be used for a long time, so they feel rewarding, something even AAA titles forget is important these days. Creating outposts so you can respawn next to a boss lair, or your mine, so you can keep gathering that next ore is also fun, but again I wish it wasn't just a tent in a cave, or an empty single house with a few plants and animals, but some furntiure, decor and NPCs as well. But after you decorated your 2nd house there is not much will to decorate your 3rd and 7th, you just drop a bed in there to respawn, maybe a chest, done. And eventually a teleport. Sometimes I was a bit annoyed by the lack of features or unbalanced things. But overall I really had a lot of fun (I'm at 17 hours and 100% achievements) for the price of a movie ticket basically.

The animations are incredibly badly done. Why the attack cancels if you stop holding the button in the middle of the attack bugs me. Simple things like talking to NPCs and opening doors are just weird and clunky. Not for me.

Hollow Island is an open-ended sandbox adventure developed and published by Edym Pixels that combines elements of exploration, crafting, farming, combat, and light settlement management into a single cohesive experience. Rather than guiding players through a tightly scripted storyline, the game drops them into a mysterious island environment and allows them to carve their own path forward. This design philosophy places player agency at the forefront, encouraging experimentation and self-directed goals instead of rigid quest structures. From the beginning, Hollow Island emphasizes freedom. The island is divided into numerous distinct regions, each featuring its own resources, environmental hazards, and enemy types. Exploration is central to the experience, with caves, mines, and dungeons scattered across the landscape. Many of these underground areas incorporate procedural elements, ensuring that repeated ventures feel fresh rather than predictable. As players venture further from their starting point, they encounter stronger enemies and more valuable materials, naturally creating a sense of progression without relying on explicit narrative direction. Combat plays a steady but balanced role in the gameplay loop. Players face a wide range of enemies, from minor creatures roaming the surface to powerful bosses guarding deeper territories. While the combat mechanics remain straightforward and accessible, positioning and preparation matter. Equipment upgrades, crafted gear, and consumable items like food and potions can significantly influence encounters. Rather than offering complex skill trees or intricate ability systems, the game keeps its combat approachable, making it an extension of exploration and resource management rather than the sole focus. One of Hollow Island’s strongest features is the sheer variety of activities available. Farming allows players to cultivate crops and manage agricultural resources, providing food for survival or goods for trade. Animal husbandry introduces additional layers of resource production, while fishing offers a more tranquil way to gather supplies. Mining and resource collection feed directly into crafting systems, enabling players to create tools, weapons, and structures. These interconnected systems reinforce each other, creating a satisfying cycle of gather, craft, expand, and explore. Settlement building further enhances the sandbox appeal. Players can construct buildings, establish camps, and expand their property, gradually transforming a simple starting area into a functioning homestead. While not as intricate as dedicated city-building simulators, the construction system adds a sense of permanence and ownership to the island. It encourages long-term planning, as resource management and infrastructure development directly affect how efficiently players can continue exploring and adventuring. Visually, Hollow Island adopts a classic pixel-art aesthetic reminiscent of traditional 2D RPGs and sandbox titles. The environments are colorful and readable, making it easy to identify resources, enemies, and interactive objects. While the graphics do not aim for cutting-edge detail, the style complements the game’s focus on gameplay systems and exploration. The soundtrack reinforces the adventurous atmosphere, providing a calm yet engaging backdrop that suits both peaceful farming sessions and tense dungeon crawls. However, the game’s open-ended structure can feel overwhelming for players who prefer guided experiences. Without strong narrative direction or explicit objectives, newcomers may initially struggle to determine optimal progression paths. Additionally, certain interface elements and quality-of-life aspects may feel minimalistic, requiring players to learn mechanics through experimentation rather than detailed tutorials. For some, this enhances immersion; for others, it can create early friction. Ultimately, Hollow Island stands as a versatile sandbox adventure that rewards curiosity and self-motivated play. Its blend of farming, crafting, combat, and exploration offers a wide range of activities that can be approached in any order. While it may lack the narrative depth or polish of larger-scale RPGs, it succeeds in delivering a flexible and content-rich environment where players can shape their own experience. For those who enjoy open-ended progression and the satisfaction of building something from scratch, Hollow Island provides a layered and engaging island adventure. Rating: 7/10

Pretty dull game. My 1.5 hours were just wandering around looking for something to do and occasionally killing a goblin. Tutorial - wasd <-- that's the whole tutorial. Very Linear game. You only find what you're supposed to find. It's too restrictive on where you can go. I found a dungeon, mined everything I could, great, now what? Can't upgrade my tools, axe too weak. Can't chop any trees down that actually give wood. Not for lack of trying. You can't build your on workstations so they're all in one place, but have to use the ones scatter around. All the villagers are scattered around, but always in the exact same spot. It's too much running around to get from place to place, map to map. Then you have to run all the way back. Like many games, ranged combat is it. You start with only a sword. That's all I ever had. Not really sure how you make money, goblins just drop a very tiny amount. Combat is a pain. You can only face in 4 directions, but enemies can come at you from any direction. Often you have to move into the right spot to hit. No moving and attacking, but the enemy gets knocked back always. So move, stop, attack, hopefully not die from this combat stupidity. Well at least you have auto swing when you stop and are holding down the button. Clicking the button in combat does nothing and will get you killed. I should point out that on the main map, ranged goblins will spawn in locations that you can't get to. Without a ranged weapon, all you can do is run to avoid getting hit. Plants take too long to grow, 4-6 days is an eternity in this game. I was offset by the fact that your action bar and inventory are in the upper left corner and you can't move it. It needs to be bottom center in plain sight. Instead it's out of sight. You constantly have to look up there to see what's equipped. The bigger your monitor, the worse it will be for you. Oh and you can't rebind your keys. I never died, get low on hp, just run away. At least my hp bar is in a place that's easy to see. I don't know how anyone can play this for more then 2 hours without getting totally bored to death.

Don't let the low price fool you- this game has 5-10 hours of "content", and it seems it was abandoned for the last year+. Shame.

Chill little game but wouldn't pay more than $5 or so for it. It's been pretty fun as I can only play as something as casual as this right now. The lack of durability on items is a huge plus for quality of life imo. I also enjoy that there's not really any content online for this game as you have to purely figure it out for yourself. Kind of like a more dungeon orientated Stardew but not as much depth / content. The one thing that is annoying beyond all ♥♥♥♥ though is the crashing and the auto saves and the two are deeply linked to each other.

I have no idea how I got here, but I am so glad I did! A true gem of a game! Really well made, relaxing and fun to play. I wholeheartedly recommend!!

Definitely a good game, art style is not so fancy but rich game contents make that up (tho its understandable, not many people would hold on a game with crude and rusty art style long enough to see the gold within) Game worth every penny, tho there are still drawbacks can be polished. Only a few Npc available in the town, and most of them dont have a real home, nor do they have an schedule along with day/night circle (weird and creepy to see an old man greeting you at midnight). And of course i could use some quests :P. i always enjoy a lively game town, hopefully future update can fix this. Its sad to see a good game not well acknowledged, i have many games in my library, this one beat 90% of them :D

Very tame, very safe, very chaste. Can't say anything better than that.