Knack Review (PlayStation 4)

As I get round the corner, all while sliding on a blue ice like substance, I see that four enemies are already fighting somewhere ahead of me: a robot, an orc who is throwing bombs, an archer and a big beast armed with a spiked club.

I choose to tackle the archer first, after I manage to avoid his incoming arrow using the right stick of my controller and, from the jump, I curl into a ball and take him out before I jump again to avoid a grenade and then slam into the robot.

He’s tougher, so he does not die immediately and delivers a blow to my backside which takes out about a third of my health, so I decide to end things quickly and I use some of my stored power to become a tornado of parts that defeats the enemies still standing in less than five seconds.

Another challenge that Knack, my character, has managed to overcome and I storm ahead, navigating the narrow paths that will lead me to the next arena, where another group of enemies will wait for me and where I will deploy a similar set of skills to take them out.

Knack was created by the Sony studios in Japan led by Mark Cerny, the same man that led the development of the PlayStation 4, and is ambitious in its attempt to be one of only a few original titles available as the next generation of consoles is out and to reinvigorate the rather forgotten genre of action adventure platformers.

Unfortunately, both the story and the mechanics of the title fail short and the game never manages to reach the status of classic or show some of the unique features of the new Sony home console.

Story

Knack is not designed to impress with its narrative, which centers around a creature created from relics by an eccentric inventor that will prove to be the key in finding out exactly why a group of orcs equipped with high-powered weaponry are attacking the human race.

The characters are all simple and unidimensional and the presentation of the story makes it clear that it’s mostly a pretext to have gamers move through various environments and arenas meeting objectives.

As Knack progresses, more information is offered on what the relics mean and some rather predictable surprises are revealed, but I never came to a point where I cared about the writing or the characters.

Even the main character is mostly devoid of personality and I can’t see even young children coming to invest their emotions into Knack, especially considering that his demeanor is mostly threatening in a very alien way.

His voice is also weirdly at odds with his appearance and the one lines he constantly delivers have never even made me smile.

Gameplay

Knack is more of a brawler and less of a platformer, but never manages to introduce interesting cool innovations in either of these departments.

Combat is simple but can be maddeningly difficult depending on the mix of enemies that the game throws at the main characters.

There’s one punch, a jump button and the ability to evade some strikes using the right stick, which can be combined to battle everything from bugs to goblins to robots in a set of arenas that tend to feel the same even if the development time has created some varied environments.

Ice power

Special attack

When the game ramps up the challenge, gamers can also use one of three abilities that are powered by a special type of crystal spread through the level: a tornado, a ranged energy bolt that can take out separate enemies and a shockwave designed to stun and destroy enemy armor.

The combat could be fun and appealing but, unfortunately, Knack is too vulnerable, often getting killed in two or three strikes by the various enemies.

This, coupled with checkpoint placements that never click into place, means that the game often becomes tedious as players need to constantly replay areas they have already cleared once.

Knack also includes plenty of secret areas that hide collectables but also gadgets that can be assembled in order to allow the creature you are controlling to have more abilities.

The more frustrating element of the game is that players rarely get to enjoy a fully grown Knack, who feels powerful and capable in a brawl because the game often finds reasons to strip him of relics and cut him down to his original size.

The platforming elements of Knack are also mediocre and they never pose a true challenge to a player that is at least familiar with the mechanics of the genre.

The overall game experience would have benefited from a smaller number of combat arenas, a bigger variety of enemies and moves and more areas where the gamer needs to fight while also traversing the environment.

Graphics and audio

Knack is launched on the PlayStation 4, but there are only a limited number of moments when the game seems determined to work as an advertisement for the new console from Sony.

Most of its environments do look good and the character model of the creature itself is well modelled, with lots of small relics swirling around to create his actual body, but the scale of the world disappoints and the team manages to make the world interesting only during the engine-powered cutscenes.

Slimming down

Big fight

The sound design is also uninspired, with some pretty flat delivery from all the included characters and with combat sequences that constantly rely on the same moves and the same effects.

Multiplayer

There’s no competitive multiplayer in Knack, but a second player can join the single-player campaign in order to control a robot version of the Relic-powered creature, which makes the entire experience somewhat easier because of the healing ability he comes complete with.

The third-person view of the game makes this kind of experience a little weird because the camera tends to focus on the character controlled by the first player, which means that both players need to stick close to each other.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion