This game just doesn't get the Knack of things
Firstly let's run over the story. Dr. Vargas has been studying ancient relics for most of career and has recently made progress in finding a mysterious power which manages to bring these relics together to make a sentient being resulting in our protagonist, Knack. The Human race is at war with the Goblins led by Gundahar who believe they deserve the land which is inhabited by man. Vargas and his protegé Lucas, who is also apparently Knack's closest friend, believe that Knack can be a much needed weapon in the war with the Goblins and could be more useful than the robots currently being used, supplied by suspicious benefactor Viktor. Soon enough you realise that there is more going on than seems as you traverse Deserts, Jungles and Mountains founding how to defeat the Gundahar and learn more about Knack's abilities.
The Story is really not hard to follow and when it does try to entice you with a few twists and turns it really is nothing you didn't see coming and if you didn't see it coming, you must be lacking in game plot. Usually when I play a game I really feel an interesting plot can keep my fighting through a game but everything in this feels rushed and lacking, as well as this it has many plot holes that could easily be avoided. For instance when you manage to defeat Gundahar, the Goblins simply vanish, no word is brought up about them for the rest of the game, do they simply give up and disappear? because it's not as if they couldn't come up again, you don't exactly go on a mass genocide of the Goblin species. As the game drew on I would often see myself skipping cutscenes and laughing at the terrible attempts to create emotions like sadness or fear.
The Gameplay isn't actually that bad to be honest, I have read up on some other reviews on the gameplay and controls and it is definitely missing out on some of its potential. Knack can vacuum up relics from boxes scattered around the level, when he does add more relics it can either allow Knack to grow in size and increase his health bar or regain health if he has been damaged. When Knack grows bigger it is definitely decided by the area of the level due to strategically placed relics and as he grows he becomes more powerful. This undoubtedly interested me in the first few levels, which were in no way a hint in how unforgiving this game would become, but as I got more opportunities to use this Goliath Knack I realised how clunky and slow he was which became an absolute pain in my back side especially seeing how the enemies of similar stature seemed to move around like a nimble ballerina on speed whilst I would be maneuvering like an 18 wheeler truck. This therefore would make you believe that the speed of Knack's smaller forms would allow your combat to be much more enjoyable... Wrong! Due to the big Knack having more relics, this mean his health bar is more forgiving, normal Knack has barely enough health to take a hit from even the simplest of enemies meaning if you make one simple mistake during an early fight in the stage, you are walking on eggshells to the next checkpoint.
By the time you have reached another checkpoint however you will have been brought to the edge of insanity in the latter stages of the levels and the game as you will no doubt have died a stupid death at least 20 times exactly the same way, and these checkpoints are so sparsely located that even if you do decide to be the bigger man and take a break from the game for a while, you most likely will be reverted back to the start of the level when you do come back to play. Knack can also collect Light shards which allow him to fill up a light meter under his health bar, once full he can use a choice of three attacks, by pressing square he releases a whirlwind of relics releasing damage on nearby opponents, X allows you to place a static bomb and Square gives you a long range triple shot. I only recommend the shot, it will kill whatever is hit instantly. You can fill a potential of 4 light meters but you will most likely resort to using them after a frustrating attempt 10 minute period on one fight against 3 enemies where you think "Oh Screw it, I won't need it anyways" and blow them all away with the triple shot. Then face palm as you come up against a mini boss halfway through the level with no light energy left.
Whilst yes, combat is unforgiving it is also rewarding once you manage to get a combo together and complete a section without a single death... or realistically only 1 or 2. The game does have a nice feel to it though if you look past all the frustrating failures of it. The design of the game, whilst it isn't going to win any awards for best looking game, it definitely pays homage to the style of Megaman's characters especially with Dr. Vargas looking awfully similar to Dr. Light, or thinking about it more now, even Dr. Ochanomizu from Astro Boy (The Show and Manga, not the film, let's forget the film) it definitely has the Japanese cartoon feel to it and it is quite nice to admire.
Finally in terms of Lifespan for the game, it doesn't actually go that far. Whilst the game is fairly (Painstakingly) long with a total of 13 levels and each level having about 5 sub chapters, it does manage to add in the ability to find hidden parts for an item within each sub chapter. Once all the parts are found, you gain a new item which makes the next playthrough much more interesting, supposedly. By the time I had found one of the items by going back into select levels, I honestly felt I had enough of Knack, I managed to locate all the pieces for the secret detector, which then basically ruined the fun of going back to find the pieces I had lost. There was a sister app for the game which was a puzzle game in itself which, if used alongside the main game, would allow Knack to receive items to help him. I didn't bother as it seemed like a waste of time.
So to conclude on my first review for this blog, Knack is a fairly interesting game which had many opportunities to really showcase the new abilities of the PS4 and it's controller but in the end felt like a pretty boring, normal beat 'em up with a side of querky designs and stupid plot twists. I would only recommend if it was on sale or the price had dropped down to £10.00
6/10
Found myself pressing Pause way to often.
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