Kill Knight Review | The sixth axis

Sometimes video games are intricate works of art. They have multiple layers of intertwined mechanics, themes, and inspirations that are hard to summarize unless you start with “Okay, that's a lot, but basically…” and pray that the person you're talking to is a really good listener. However, sometimes video games aren't like that at all. They are like Kill knights. You are a knight. You kill. Completed. I didn't realize how long it had been since I last had a simple, fluid, endless action game to sink my teeth into, but Kill knights I quickly reminded myself. Combines the addictive “one more run” mentality of Downwell And Devil daggers with Hades style Lightning-fast combat and a sleek yet violent aesthetic have resulted in one of the most electrifying games of the year.

There's an obscure RPG-inspired artbook series that I'm in love with Vermis. Sold as a lost player's guide to a forgotten role-playing game, it's full of haunting medieval fantasy art where there's always just something a little strange about it. out of. Until I started playing, I hadn't seen this uncomfortable yet seductive aesthetic anywhere else Kill knights. The menus and interface are sharp, but the graphics and visuals that accompany them convey a violent, zine-style environment where you have no idea where you are or what you're doing, but still can't help but do love. It's a game full of barely understandable monster designs, equipment covered in spikes and blades, and menu backgrounds lifted straight from screen-printed sludge metal band shirts. I see a lot of new games coming out that have well-defined mechanics or are uniquely imaginative, but lack any visual identity to match that creativity. Kill knights delivers both.

Your goal is simple: survive wave-based battles in a constantly evolving arena. If you can do this, you will unlock another arena with new graphics, enemies and dangers to overcome. To achieve this, you'll need to use a fairly simple set of skills, but they all mesh together in a circular loop that gets your brain in overdrive as you play. You have a standard rifle attack, and when you need to reload, you can tap three different buttons to activate three different overdrive abilities.

Tap the fire button to override your primary weapon and activate a bonus ability, tap the melee button to activate a boosted melee attack, or tap the absorb button to instantly absorb every dropped gem on the field. You can also fight in melee at any time and melee kills will give you ammo for your heavy weapon. Absorbing can be slower at any time, and when you've absorbed enough, you can unleash a special heavy attack that drops health points from whatever it hits. Add in a quick dash and a melee parry, and you have a combat system that's simple on paper but complicated in execution.

My first few runs were hard. I would become too focused on one type of attack, or so focused on observing the enemies' behavior that I didn't even realize they had overwhelmed me until it was too late. When you're on your toes and racking up kills, the combo meter isn't just for flair – it feeds into a system that boosts all of your abilities as your collected combos get higher. Systems like this, where your score and combos are directly tied into advantageous gameplay systems and not just for fame and bragging rights, are some of my favorite things to see in games. I don't care how high my score is or how bad my combo gets, but if this stuff directly helps me survive more waves, I'll definitely pay attention.

If you fail a run, you'll still get some points and a spot on the leaderboard. Points can be hoarded to be spent on unlocking new gear, but you can unlock all of these tools even faster by successfully completing the required missions during a run. It's a really solid combination of parallel goals that always gave me something to focus on each run. By the time I became familiar with a gear combination and a stage, I was already ready to tackle another stage, try out new gear, or both. I was kept on a consistent and consistently exciting pattern of unlocks throughout all five phases of the game, and I couldn't get enough of it.

Kill knights is simply a blast. The runs are fast, hectic and satisfying even in defeat. There's a lot to learn in the beginning, but once I got over that learning curve, I couldn't put the game down until I finished it.