People waiting for Silksong should try the demo for Worldless, which launches next month

OK, so there's plenty in Worldless that won't remind you of Silksong or its predecessor, Hollow Knight. Rather than a medieval bug exploring a labyrinth of bioluminescent rot and lore, you're a vaguely humanoid cloud of shards and points, roaming an abstract landscape of soft curves and shafts of light. You're Rayman but fancy, basically, and the world is no world but an uncreated expanse of elemental forces, though you'll find you can run and jump on it much as you can the ledges of Hallownest. The combat is a different beast, too. Rather than Souls-inflected 2D hack-and-slash, it's turn-based battling with a twist - each turn gives you a countdown in which to perform real-time combos, mixing melee and magical attacks.

So why does Worldless make me think of Team Cherry's work? Partly it's the underlying touch of metroidvania, a word the press materials seem oddly hesitant to use. The map extends in all directions and you'll need to acquire new abilities to reach certain areas. Partly, it's the shared enchanted grotto atmosphere, with all sorts of tiny animate details festering for attention as you explore. And partly, it's the dash move you unlock early on, and the process of chaining it with a platform-conjuring ability to unlock routes while traversing them, which puts me strongly in mind of those horizontal gauntlet runs from the Silksong trailer. All told, if you're beginning to crisp up for lack of Hollow Knight news, you might want to give the demo a whirl ahead of Worldless's release on (drum roll) 21st November 2023.

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