Let's get knackered!
From the second Mark Cerny revealed Knack I knew exactly what to expect from it; an old school Playstation game that seemed to recreate a certain type of feel that belonged to specific PS1 platform games like Ape Escape and the original Crash Bandicoot to name a few. But just to be clear: Knack isn’t really a platform game. Knack is actually a somewhat challenging beat ‘em up that might look like a friendly kids game on the outside but don’t let the look deceive you. Knack is tough but fair and that is super refreshing. Is not that Knack is crushingly hard it just that it demands the player to actually pay attention during the gameplay or else you will die cause most enemies can kill in one hit.
The combat controls are actually super simple: you punch with square and dodge with the right stick. You can also use the jump button to avoid certain projectiles and then you have three super moves which can be activated once you have collected enough sunstones. The real challenge of the combat comes from the timing of the combat. Knack is a little slow in combat and that will most likely be your downfall 90% of the time you lose. If you hit and miss it will leave you exposed for a good half to a whole second and that can very easily be fatal. So a lot of the fun in Knack comes in learning the different enemies attack patterns and knowing when to attack. Once you get the timing down and know how to approach combat situations the game actually becomes pretty fun and satisfying.
Another cool feature of Knack is the concept of growing bigger. The bigger Knack gets the more damage he can take and more importantly he can also deal more damage. So you will constantly encounter enemies that caused you a lot of trouble when Knack was small and now he can beat them with a single punch. It’s an extremely satisfying feeling to beat enemies with ease that previously meant trouble.
But the game is far from perfect though. The story, just like its characters, is super forgettable. I honestly couldn’t care less about any of the characters and the tone of the game also seems weirdly serious. It’s a story about orcs going to war against humans and to find out how the orcs got the advanced weaponry to mount such an enormous attack a small group of humans is sent out to scout the orcs’ camp. They bring Knack with them in case they should bump into trouble. And lo and behold they bump into trouble. The story obviously has its fair share of twist and turns but it’s all delivered in such a predictable way that you know pretty much everything before it happens. The story definitely hasn’t been the main point of interest during the development of the game but let’s not forget that it’s also a launch game. Not that being a launch game should automatically excuse its shortcomings but they obviously weighed gameplay over story which is the right choice. Even though it also means the game lacks personality. Another small criticism is the checkpointing which seems old school in a bad way. In fact it feels archaic. If you die in combat you often have to start a couple of minutes back and that gets a little annoying when you have to traverse the same platform section the third time and beating the same enemies again just to get to the point where you died. It seems unnecessary to have the checkpoints being that far apart. Also now that I’m mentioning the small nitpicky stuff anyway; I don’t like Knack’s voice at all.
But when all is said and done I still liked Knack. Part of that might be because there simply aren’t that many games out for PS4 right now but more importantly I found the actual part of playing the game super fun and satisfying. It gets fun once you get the timing of the combat down and once you learn the attack patterns of the enemies. And it never stops to be satisfying every time Knack gets big and can kick the crap out of enemies that used to kick the crap out of you. Knack is a fun little challenging title that survives only because the combat is so much fun but that’s also enough for me. I never expected Knack to reinvent the wheel and luckily the gameplay and some fun boss battles is enough to carry me through the game. Knack might not be for everyone but it did what it needed to do for me. Knack is alright.
