PS4 Launch Party - I Don't Have A Clever Title, So Here's A Knack Review

Written By: Tyler Selig

               

Rating: 5.5/10

Verdict: Knack suffers from a lack of real innovation, but if you’re a fan of the genre, it’s also not a terrible game. It’s average in almost every way, but average does not mean bad. Still, there was a great premise here that should have been explored with more depth.

            Knack isn’t a game I would normally be keen on playing. It only looked like a decent platformer, mostly forgettable but not boring, yet I was a little eager to play it only because it is an exclusive PS4 launch title. My original prediction of what the game would offer ended up being correct, and I don’t think it’s an unpopular opinion. Knack is fun, and due to it being one of the only exclusives on a new console, it’s a “Should-Play.” Years down the road I can’t see anybody playing it. I don’t even think it’ll go down as an underrated game, or overlooked, but you never know I suppose.

                You play as Knack, a monster-thing created by a doctor by using relics. Because you are awesome, you can grow or shrink, depending on how many relics you have. It’s a cool idea, and at its core Knack is a neat concept done unimpressively. It’s a shame because there are some interesting things they could do with the character Knack that they refused to do. Instead of crafting a memorable game, they didn’t reach the potential of the idea, and instead gave us an average character platformer.

                The main problem is that the levels just aren’t that fun. They aren’t boring, but you just kind of go through the motions the entire time. The levels are linear, and the platforming – outside of a few sections – is wholly unimpressive and predictable. You run, stop, hit a couple enemies, move on, jump a little, beat up a few people, move on. That’s the entire game.

                That wouldn’t even be a bad thing if the mechanics were solid. While actually hitting enemies is satisfying enough (the slow-mo on final punches adds some oomph), it’s just very limited it what you can do. You can do a jumping attack, or punch. You just punch with the same combo over and over and over and over. There really isn’t much in the way of variety. There are power-ups that you can get, but it’s such a long, drawn out process that you may find yourself completing your first one (as each power-up has multiple things you have to find in order to get it) farther into the game than you would like.
            Even when they attempt to mix things up a bit, by giving you different Knacks like "Stealth Knack," it's just not enough. For example, Stealth Knack is only used to get past beams, and all you do is press a button to activate him. You can't actually sneak past the enemies, so what's the point? Splint Cell this section is not.

The developers wanted it to be simplistic and accessible, which I get, yet the game is actually pretty difficult. I hate to admit it but I died quite often while playing. Aside from the fact that making a challenging game sort-of shits in the face of making a game accessible, it’s not how hard the game is that makes it a tough slug sometimes. If you die, there just isn’t much incentive to play through the same mediocre parts again and again, since the checkpoints usually will put you back a fair amount (though the checkpoints are by no means in terrible positions). It’s for that reason that Knack sometimes feels like a tough slog.

So by now you may be wondering, why is this a 5.5 if most of it is average? Well that’s the thing… so many people view a 5 as a bad rating, but I literally view it as average. Mediocre. Decent. Okay. Whatever you want to say. I give it a .5 because even though the attempts at humour don’t really work, and the game adds nothing new to the action-platformer canon, the visual style is pretty.

It doesn’t show you the technical brilliance of the PS4, because the art-style chosen doesn’t really require that. It’s not photo-realistic, it’s not attempting to be. I liken the visuals to a Pixar movie. In fact I often wondered what it would be like if you just gave Knack to Pixar to begin with and made it a movie instead, because there is a charming story that you could tell here that they didn’t in the game. It’s cute, the visuals are fitting, it’s colourful and the environments aren’t fantastic by any means, but they’re done well.

This game doesn’t just remind me of Pixar. If you spend any time at all with it, you’ll see similarities with Ratchet & Clank and Crash Bandicoot. At first I felt it was a bit of a rip-off, but then after actually researching the developers, I was shown that the lead designer worked on those games, among others, and has a wonderful legacy, especially within this genre. Knowing that disappoints me a little.

I read a comment on either Gamespot or IGN (you’ll notice I often mention them because they are two of the four game sites I check out on a regular basis), where someone said that this game is unfairly crapped on. This person went on to say that if this was released during the Playstation 1 days, it would get an 8 or higher. Good point. I agree a little.

If we weren’t so familiar with this genre, Knack would seem more innovative and wonderful than it does now. I can’t really argue that because someone who has played games for twenty-plus years is harder to impress than someone who just started.

However, often nostalgia gets in the way of quality. There are way too many games that I go back and play and they just aren’t as fun as they used to be. Not because games have moved on, but because the game design just wasn’t all there. There’s a reason old Mario games are still fun today despite how far we’ve come. There’s a reason a game like Spyro or Crash Bandicoot remains fun… it’s because the mechanics are strong. It’s because the level design is interesting. Knack lacks any degree of importance when it comes to these things, and instead offers an all right experience.

So if you’re looking for a game for your PS4, by all means, go ahead and play this. It offers a 10 hour or so campaign, and though I never played the co-op, I’m sure that would be enjoyable as well. But this will not stand the test of time, and it will not go down as anything other than a decent launch title, the type of game you expect when a system first comes out.  That’s my opinion, at least. It’s also my blog!