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Knack (2013, Playstation 4) Review


THE CYBERBULLIES WEREN'T WRONG


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In a summer of swift backlog-clearing, this has to be the most mediocre game of them all. Knack was a release title for the Playstation 4 all the way back in the fall of 2013. Much to the dismay of Sony and the game's designers, SCE Japan, it was met with an unenthused reception from players and lukewarm critic reviews. What a bummer.

Since then, the game, and its lead designer Mark Cerny, has become like a running joke on the "influencer" side of the industry. Not that I ever understood why. No-one's ever bothered to explain what's so bad about it. "Just see for yourself, look how bad it is", they all said. But at a glance it always looked like a solid, charming little 3D-platformer.

I effin' hate bullies - especially when they only bully to be hip and garner views - so I booted the game up, hoping the Internet would be wrong about this one. Sadly, I can't say that they are. After an entertaining first couple of hours, Knack quickly degrades into a chore, repeating the same brawler combat mechanics mercilessly for hour upon hour.


Or how do you like the sound of alternating between triple-square attack combos and X-and-square jumping attacks? Oh, and for defensive play, try X-X double jumps to avoid ground attacks, and the right analogue stick for dodging. Did I forget anything? Oh yeah, the special attacks: Circle-square, circle-triangle and circle-circle. You can unleash them after smashing enough of the yellow crystals you find throughout an extremely humdrum level design.

Knack keeps circle-jerking these moves, repeated to absurdity, with hardly any finesse required. The only sort of challenge is finding one of the wide gaps in the enemy's attack pattern. If the enemy doesn't die in one hit, it'll most likely die in the second, or at least the third. Knack is not a super-easy game in spite of that, because you can only take a couple of hits before going down yourself, and the checkpoints can be far apart.

The boss battles are tough, but not in a fun, engaging way. They instead tend to infuriate me with their tedious, unforgiving trial-and-error design. Some of them remind me more of the old, interactive cartoon Dragon's Lair (which I despised) than a proper bossfight.



Knack is no 3D platformer, although it looks like one and has a few jumping and climbing segments. Instead, it's a typical brawler - and a very linear one at that. Because of their repetitiveness, I've never liked brawlers much. The only one I can remember finishing was Golden Axe on the Amiga. At least that one had the decency to be short - it can be beaten in half an hour.

Knack has the gameplay to support five hours, at the most, but goes on for at least twice that long. Ten hours doesn't sound too bad, but it feels more like twenty. Sure, it includes a bit of storytelling, but it's such a generic storyline, with such predictable twists, that not even its own characters seem too invested in the outcome.


It's about a fantasy realm with sci-fi elements, where goblins and humans find themselves in an ongoing feud because of events in the past. Ancient relics play a vital part in society, powering everything up with their magics to form a sort of futuristic human society. But the hostile goblin civilization also want their share and fights mankind for the valuable resource.

Enter a few heroes and scientists to stop the encroaching goblin threat. One scientist presents a solution in the shape of Knack - the player character - who is a being made of small relics held together by a central core. Knack acts as a lone soldier, taking order from his creator, and has the power to rebuild himself upon "death". Although his personality is so bland he doesn't even seem to have one, the idea behind his visual design is great.


He consists of up to hundreds of tiny, geometric shapes, such as spheres, boxes and cones (referencing, I assume, the Dualshock's face buttons), and consequently grows and shrinks in size throughout the game to suit the situation at hand. And his size holds more than just aesthetic significance. His maximum health, as well as his strength, grows with his stature. At the end of the game, as he reaches his full potential, he is the size of King Kong, and most enemies are the relative size of small insects, powerless to stop him.

Too bad the designers don't accomplish very much with such a great concept. Knack can absorb a few different element types - like ice, wood, and, eh... stealth? - that alters the combat conditions in a few, minor ways. For instance, if you catch fire while in the wooden state, your health begins to dwindle, so you need to hurry and find more wood. These offshoots never last long, and don't add enough to shake up the formulaic gameplay.


A game of such limited mechanics cannot sustain a full-feature-length story. It needs to be shorter, or contain more gameplay elements or skill trees to spice it up. The only way to infuse some variation is by looking for secrets. Ever so often you can stumble upon one hidden behind a destructible wall. When combined, these relics or inventions slowly builds toward some sort of character progression.

Too bad, then, that one playthrough isn't nearly enough to unlock more than a couple. To get a full assortment you either need to suffer multiple playthroughs, or connect with your PSN-friends and exchange them.

On my own I only managed to unlock two of these: the relic finder and an increase in maximum "special attack"-juice. And according to game director Mark Cerny, that's about as much as a single playthrough can generate. But I fail to see how making the game easier would warrant subsequent playthroughs. Imagine playing the same game again, only with even less challenge, investment and excitement.


Since Knack was one of the first exclusive games of the generation, I was curious to see what about it that the reviewers considered to be "next gen". Well, to no-one's surprise, Knack had impressive visuals for the time. I found one critic that expressed some awe in being able to see so much of the level ahead of time, something I find surprising. Hadn't Dark Souls, and basically every open world game since the PS2-era, already accomplished the same thing?

But the presentation is good. The clacking sound of sucking up and assembling relics around Knack's core comes with the satisfaction of knowing that you're growing. (Let's try to ignore the fact that the enemies tend to grow at the same rate.) I shouldn't be surprised to see that Knack was "Sony-good" for the time. The presentation holds up well, thanks to its Pixar-esque cinematics and an overall clean, polished visual 3D design. The controls are also smooth and responsive, and the experience feels competent throughout.



I cannot blame the execution, nor the fun concept of the dynamic character design of Knack himself. The art department at SCE Japan gave it their best. I can only lament the fact that it's wrapped up in such a blasé game. I'd love to see Sony try to revive Knack and do better, because there's potential in the heart of the creative idea. It likely won't happen, because Knack never really took off - to no-one's surprise.

They gave it another shot with Knack II, but they reportedly only tried to fool us again with the first game on repeat. If so - shame on you, Sony. I personally won't bend over backwards to find out if the bullies were right again. I'm not particularly eager to re-join such a choir of smirking bastards. At least I won't pay money to do it - they should pay me...

[All screenshots are taken from www.mobygames.com]

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