Knack....Time to Cancel That Pre/order

Some thoughts and impressions regarding the upcoming Playstation 4 game that our good friend mrnelster intends on picking up come November 29th......

Thought if he read this he may change his mind............Not that this game in the slightest had me interested Kids or no kids i would not be buying this


Knack
If you tolerate this, then your children will probably kick you in the shins
We�ve gotten over it now, the shock of this being the game that introduced next-gen to the world. We even warmed to the little multipartite critter, thinking Knack could be PS4�s answer to Ratchet & Clank. But, on this evidence, it isn�t. In fact, it isn�t even shaping up to be the pre-school version of Insomniac�s colourful platformer, with overly simplistic mechanics that never challenge and only frustrate.

The trouble mainly stems from the combat system, which is not so much a system as a �press one button to do all the things� mechanic. Up against a large number of small enemies? Try Square. What about some irritating opponents who are throwing things at you from distance? Square is your friend here. Oh no, here comes a big bruiser of a bad guy! May I interest sir in a few quick presses of Square? It�s basic like jumping out of a plane holding a carrier bag above your head and calling it skydiving.

Even kids� games don�t need to be anywhere near this remedial, unless Sony really is targeting a very young age group indeed. The most advanced thing we�re able to do when in charge of Knack is change him from his blocky DIY form into a smaller, glass-like chap in order to slip through laser traps undetected. Cutscenes and the narrative may help inject a little more personality, and there is time for the game to be made more complex. But currently its limitations � including achingly linear level design and an irritating inability to manipulate the camera � are making this very much the black sheep of the launch lineup. We forgave you once, Knack, but twice may just be pushing it.

[Whatever you think of it there's a Knack PS4 / camera bundle on the way.]

Edited by time2die (Fri 30-Aug-13 15:05:45)

Assassins creed with all it's convoluted controls is the disease, Knack is the cure.

And that's written in the IGN style of game review....conceited nonsense.

Cobra

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Assassins creed with all it's convoluted controls is the disease, Knack is the cure.

And that's written in the IGN style of game review....conceited nonsense.

We not talking about Assassins Creed though are we,just trying to save me matey a little bit of his hard earned cash .

Wha? Is that some kind of sick joke Nelster? Assassins Creed is one of the best game franchises out there, it's incredibly easy to pickup and put down and the controls are so simple.

Nope. I hated it with a passion and couldn't make myself see past the control scheme and want to get into the game. By the time I had even started to get the hang of them I couldn't be bothered to play it anymore. If you have hours and hours to game, I'm sure you can learn to love them. Convoluted is the perfect description.

Google it. It's not a unique viewpoint.

Convoluted... What a pointless word

In reply to a post by Lt_Swan:

Convoluted... What a pointless word

I see what you did there.

Fair enough but I really disagree and I know a few friends who play it no issue. You just hold RT to run up pretty much everything, press X to do pretty much every kind of move and use other buttons to assign to different things. There are a ruck of much harder games to grasp. Perhaps you're making it harder for yourself by overthinking it.

I remember one review described it as "creaking under the weight of it's mechanics" which isn't a bad analogy, although I must admit I didn't attempt to re-map any buttons.

I'm a firm believer in less is more with control schemes, and can lead to a more synergistic experience. Why do you think COD is still so popular?