Share This Article
Kill Knight is an outstanding arcade shooter that should be on your mid if you are a fan of the genre. This type of game was never my cup of tea, but I enjoyed it thoroughly, although there was a small issue that dragged down my initial enjoyment.
Kill Knight took me through five levels of frantic and sometimes frustrating action, complete with gun shots, explosions, and sword slashes. Having survived, I’m now here to tell you all about it in this Kill Knight Review.
But before we start, a quick disclaimer. I was given a review code, but as usual, I will give you my honest opinion.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Kill Knight is straightforward. You enter a level and have to kill every enemy that appears in your way using your Knight’s arsenal.
Your equipment will consist of the following:
- Primary Weapon: A type of pistol and your main damage dealer. It can be overdriven when reloading to activate a secondary effect, such as increasing your fire rate or penetrating armor.
- Secondary Weapon: Requires special ammo that can only be picked up by slashing with the Sword. Filling the Wraith Burst meter will allow you to use a powerful attack capable of nuking dozens of enemies.
- Sword: This is your short-weapon, and you’ll be using it mostly to get your secondary weapon ammo. However, use it enough times, and you’ll fill a meter to launch an attack stronger than the Wraith Burst.
- Armor: Usually controls your ability to dash while also giving you a secondary trait to your dash, such as dealing damage to your enemies.
- Extra Accessory: I couldn’t find the official name for this, but it’s basically an accessory which you can equip to gain different types of buffs and effects.
The gameplay may vary depending on the equipment, since some guns have more firepower than others or pack more damage in exchange for a slower projectile.
Moreover, each primary weapon comes with its own charged shot, powerful enough to clear a line of enemies. Since it’s an intricate part of the gameplay, I always made my equipment choices around it.
There’s enough variety in the options you have to make two runs feel completely different, but there is something about this system that I didn’t enjoy.
But how do you get different equipment?
You get it by simply playing the game and completing different achievements. However, I’m not a big fan of this approach.
It would be better to leave these optional and allow me to use the currency I get at the end of each run to buy the equipment I want. This way, I wouldn’t feel forced to change the way I play just to get an achievement. But that’s just my opinion!
The difficulty
Kill Knight is not for everyone. Even while playing on the lowest difficulty, you’ll face a good challenge. You’ll see monsters charging at you in every direction, and you need to be constantly moving to not get hit, but occasionally, it feels almost impossible.
And if you find yourself in that position, it’s usually due to poor decision-making or lack of understanding of the game mechanics.
You can’t blame the player, since the controls of Kill Knight are not beginner-friendly. There is a tutorial to ease you into its mechanics, but it’ll take you a couple of hours of gameplay to adjust, learn, and execute every move in the intended way.
However, while the entry level is a bit steep there is some reward in mastering the full arsenal. At first, it felt impossible, so I decided that I would introduce a new mechanic at a time.
First I started with just shooting my gun and the charge shots, then I started slashing coupled with the heavy weapon, and so on. But even after improving considerably, I still find it challenging to beat the first level without being in easy mode.
Still, knowing that I can get better is a great incentive to come back to this game. And, since there’s an online leaderboard, it adds to the replayability because I’m constantly aiming to improve my rank with each run.
Aesthetic and Performance
The aesthetic and art direction of Kill Knight is astonishing, from the stylish horror/lo-fi graphics to the upbeat soundtrack that plays while shooting monsters. The monsters designs are also solid and fit the overall theme; however, it would be great to see more variety in design across the different levels.
As for the performance, it always ran perfectly on my Steam Deck without a hiccup. Although I had to change the controls a bit since the recommended options didn’t felt natural to me.
The End of the Run
Kill Knight is worth more than your time and money. It holds its promise of offering a frenetic and engaging action shooter in which you can constantly challenge yourself and improve every time you pick it up.
However, the difficulty and complex movement may be a turn-off for some players who are expecting mindless shooting. And to those, I say, give it a try and don’t give up, since behind the mastery of this game’s mechanics lies one of the best action-shooters I’ve played in 2024.
To close, I hope this Kill Knight Review has helped make a conscious decision, and if you have any questions about the game, please let me know!