KnackOld-School platformer for the Next-generation
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4/10
James Davie |
DEV: SCE Japan Studio
PUB: Sony Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: 29/11/2013
FORMAT: PS4
Much like the fragmented protagonist you control, Knack is composed of components torn from classic Platformers, using familiar elements from the Jak and Daxter franchise and the strict and taut gameplay of the Sly Cooper series to influence its attempts at being something bold and original. Knack stands out as the premier platformer on the PS4, with its titular hero made of relics, and where one false move can scatter your remnants asunder like a collapsed stack of marbles. As one of the notable launch games for the PS4, Knack has a clear landing zone for success, but squanders its potential with humdrum characters, an annoying protagonist and a ceaselessly dull trek through repurposed gameplay fare, Knack never truly embodies the potential of its transfigured protagonist.
Knack is the brains behind a googly eyed professor and his teenaged psychic, and tasked with fighting back against an enveloping goblin armada. When his strength and durability is put through their paces, Knack grabs the eye of a cunning business operator and his wench. Surprise surprise, he wants to use knack for his own plans, therein lies the antagonist of the adventure. The story is weak beyond apprehension, due to its predictability and the general strip-mining of greater insight. Knack reveals himself as to be nothing more than a destructo-bot, constantly annihilating the environment around him without much thought or purpose, he serves under the doctor and his cohorts like a pandering amalgamation of remnants. The other characters are just as weak, with no bonding relationship between the professor and the boy or his father, failing to bring levity and substance to the story. Likewise, the hostile characters are hopelessly wooden and dumb, as is the entire foundation to which Knack disassembles itself in.
Part platformer, part fist-throwing actioner, Knack is comprised of linear missions, broken up into chapters that are split up into sections. These sections often play host to a new environment to deal damage in, acting as set dressings to the monotonous and procedural combat. Lethargic cutscenes serve as signposts for checkpoints, usually consisting of Knack jumping off a surface onto the ground below or waving to the professor after he has accomplished one of the handful of tedious switch pulling puzzle segments. These slight breaks from the action make Knack feel patched together, sewn with little consideration for the player, who could simply perform these tasks without the controls being snatched away after every section, if Knack gave you more dominion over your gameplay experience, you’d feel like the giant crusher, rather than a contributing factor in the many action based sequences. Checkpoints aren’t forgiving either, as dying will occur frequently, with a life bar that depletes very quickly, forcing you to plough your way through enemies until you reach the next inevitable lull in the action.
PUB: Sony Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: 29/11/2013
FORMAT: PS4
Much like the fragmented protagonist you control, Knack is composed of components torn from classic Platformers, using familiar elements from the Jak and Daxter franchise and the strict and taut gameplay of the Sly Cooper series to influence its attempts at being something bold and original. Knack stands out as the premier platformer on the PS4, with its titular hero made of relics, and where one false move can scatter your remnants asunder like a collapsed stack of marbles. As one of the notable launch games for the PS4, Knack has a clear landing zone for success, but squanders its potential with humdrum characters, an annoying protagonist and a ceaselessly dull trek through repurposed gameplay fare, Knack never truly embodies the potential of its transfigured protagonist.
Knack is the brains behind a googly eyed professor and his teenaged psychic, and tasked with fighting back against an enveloping goblin armada. When his strength and durability is put through their paces, Knack grabs the eye of a cunning business operator and his wench. Surprise surprise, he wants to use knack for his own plans, therein lies the antagonist of the adventure. The story is weak beyond apprehension, due to its predictability and the general strip-mining of greater insight. Knack reveals himself as to be nothing more than a destructo-bot, constantly annihilating the environment around him without much thought or purpose, he serves under the doctor and his cohorts like a pandering amalgamation of remnants. The other characters are just as weak, with no bonding relationship between the professor and the boy or his father, failing to bring levity and substance to the story. Likewise, the hostile characters are hopelessly wooden and dumb, as is the entire foundation to which Knack disassembles itself in.
Part platformer, part fist-throwing actioner, Knack is comprised of linear missions, broken up into chapters that are split up into sections. These sections often play host to a new environment to deal damage in, acting as set dressings to the monotonous and procedural combat. Lethargic cutscenes serve as signposts for checkpoints, usually consisting of Knack jumping off a surface onto the ground below or waving to the professor after he has accomplished one of the handful of tedious switch pulling puzzle segments. These slight breaks from the action make Knack feel patched together, sewn with little consideration for the player, who could simply perform these tasks without the controls being snatched away after every section, if Knack gave you more dominion over your gameplay experience, you’d feel like the giant crusher, rather than a contributing factor in the many action based sequences. Checkpoints aren’t forgiving either, as dying will occur frequently, with a life bar that depletes very quickly, forcing you to plough your way through enemies until you reach the next inevitable lull in the action.
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Knack sheds its golden encrusted form to a fleetingly satisfying affect. Knack has the potential to germinate into a lumbering brute or shrink to a pint sized level. The former is where Knack caters for destruction, as you stamp about hurling context specific auto-motives at airships and dwarfing enemies, so they can be mashed up with your golden plated fists. This mindless thrashing of the environment provides a glimmer of what Knack probably should have been, an action platformer where you feel like the ultimate ass-kicking machine; instead, you feel like an errand bot, making sure your people are safe- after all, that is what you were manufactured for.
Regularly, you’ll engage in battles where you are trapped in small arenas, being gate-kept by temporarily impassable contraptions. You have no choice but to slug it out, sometimes boiling down to pot luck, as a few well timed hits will shatter your relics to pieces, forcing you to restart at the latest checkpoint. Enemies repeat the same moves slavishly, so timing is the key in almost every encounter. Your arsenal of attacks is few, including a slow dash manoeuvre, supposedly helping you to avoid incoming missile or arrow fire, but is too slow to feel useful. You can also tuck and roll into your enemies with a spiked move, stunning your opponents a smidge, so you can finish them off with ease, a great tactic to prevent getting cheap hits. Unfortunately your moves are limited and there is no upgrade system to improve the rapidity of your cache, you’ll just have to master every move the best way you can, but don’t fret- the game is a pushover in terms of difficulty despite the ease of deaths.
Super moves are available, to which there are only two and they last for a paltry few seconds. One move has you fluming around as a controlled tornado bashing enemies repeatedly until they fall, and another smashes everything in a blast radius. Both moves can be earned by breaking open golden crystals, giving you up to three super moves at any time if you collect enough crystals. Making the game even easier, once you perish, you restart with the same amount of crystals you left off with, giving you an improved chance of sweeping by an area with little to no thought. Once again, this shows how haphazard Knack is, rarely challenging the player by offering abundance rather than tempering its action with limitation. More supermoves and a limited chance of using them would make a far more engaging game, than Knack’s take everything and progress style of gameplay.
You’ll receive the chance to shrink down to a transparent facsimile of pint-sized knack, just to slip passed laser beams- there is literally nothing else you can perform whilst in cloak form. Enemies will still detect you, making the form a throwaway addition to your arsenal. Most lasers can be leaped over by the original form as well, and you are fragile whilst transparent, with a tiny health bar, so if you get hit, you are done for. Taking down enemies also takes longer, because your size leaves you more vulnerable to open attacks from enemies.
Regularly, you’ll engage in battles where you are trapped in small arenas, being gate-kept by temporarily impassable contraptions. You have no choice but to slug it out, sometimes boiling down to pot luck, as a few well timed hits will shatter your relics to pieces, forcing you to restart at the latest checkpoint. Enemies repeat the same moves slavishly, so timing is the key in almost every encounter. Your arsenal of attacks is few, including a slow dash manoeuvre, supposedly helping you to avoid incoming missile or arrow fire, but is too slow to feel useful. You can also tuck and roll into your enemies with a spiked move, stunning your opponents a smidge, so you can finish them off with ease, a great tactic to prevent getting cheap hits. Unfortunately your moves are limited and there is no upgrade system to improve the rapidity of your cache, you’ll just have to master every move the best way you can, but don’t fret- the game is a pushover in terms of difficulty despite the ease of deaths.
Super moves are available, to which there are only two and they last for a paltry few seconds. One move has you fluming around as a controlled tornado bashing enemies repeatedly until they fall, and another smashes everything in a blast radius. Both moves can be earned by breaking open golden crystals, giving you up to three super moves at any time if you collect enough crystals. Making the game even easier, once you perish, you restart with the same amount of crystals you left off with, giving you an improved chance of sweeping by an area with little to no thought. Once again, this shows how haphazard Knack is, rarely challenging the player by offering abundance rather than tempering its action with limitation. More supermoves and a limited chance of using them would make a far more engaging game, than Knack’s take everything and progress style of gameplay.
You’ll receive the chance to shrink down to a transparent facsimile of pint-sized knack, just to slip passed laser beams- there is literally nothing else you can perform whilst in cloak form. Enemies will still detect you, making the form a throwaway addition to your arsenal. Most lasers can be leaped over by the original form as well, and you are fragile whilst transparent, with a tiny health bar, so if you get hit, you are done for. Taking down enemies also takes longer, because your size leaves you more vulnerable to open attacks from enemies.
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Knack can absorb elements such as wood and ice, but these, much like all of the game’s super abilities- are shallow and inept. For example, you break ice shards, so knack has a dozen ice crystals lodged in his back, but they serve no purpose in gameplay or platforming, making them an artificial and nondescript feature to Knack’s abilities. There are chests you can pillage to excavate more of these special relic enhancements, but seeing as there are so many, and you’d have likely completed the game long before you uncover one special enhancement, they aren’t worth grovelling for.
There are very few moments where Knack departs from its repetition, but breaking away isn’t too promising either. Switch puzzles often goad you into a room where you have to find a few switches and open a door. On a couple of occasions, having you navigate through a maze in order to access the door on the other side. There are moments where you’ll be cautiously floating and weaving around electrical hazards too. None of these diversions last long enough to feel integral, and the few boss encounters rely on the same tactics found fighting regular fodder that it all seems like Knack ran out of ideas once the first level was completed.
To be fair, Knack looks like a good showcase for the PS4. Environments are diverse, the art style is commendable and the technological oomph isn’t too bad. But the framerate tends to drag when a lot is happening on screen, the sound design is forgettable, especially the horrid voice acting and script. The one-liners are so mind squelching and incomprehensively bad, that it makes every cutscene awful, but the not so bad its brilliant kind. Generally Knack has the pieces to make a relic to be proud of, but misses the personality and fervour that would welcome you to explore it.
Much like the title, Knack has a penchant for wasted potential. There’s a game in here that could have been a PS4 launch spectacular the likes of its forebears had accomplished before. Yet to recommend Knack is to rally all of its transgressions home. With few creatively wrought ideas, a cast of insipidly boring and immensely clichéd entourage of characters and a disinteresting story where nothing climactic occurs- Knack’s a dishevelled launch game, a relic in more ways than one, and in spite of some flourishing aspects- a failure as a scrap-em-up with no personality or heart. More often having you glare and shout expletives at the tv than satisfying you, Knack commits three of the deadliest platforming sins- it’s neither charming, memorable nor fun.
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+ Environments are varied and it looks suitably impressive
+ Shows signs of being a competent platformer + Being giant Knack can be fun for a spell - Repetition sours every sweet note Knack attempts to bring to the fore - Characters and story are both laughably bad and undeveloped - Fails to straddle the line between challenge and ease, often becoming too easy despite easy deaths. |
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