In November, PlayStation 4 will have been around for five years. For now, let's talk Knack. It was one of the very first games for the system, releasing at launch. This was one of the few exclusives for Sony and while it had some cool ideas, it was bogged down by cheap difficulty.
At its core, it's a combination of a beat em up and a platformer. As the title character you go through 13 chapters, trying to restore peace and make sure the world isn't overtaken by goblins or who knows what else. He is easy to control with a jump and double jump, a dodge, and as expected, attack. Knack is made of relics and a key part of the game is watching him grow into various sizes. Being small means attacking with more hits needed to put on an enemy with the opposite when large.
This is a tech demo in graphics, but good. It just screams cleaner and better detailed visuals along with the use of various colors and lighting. A CGI cartoon for kids in video game form. The audio could have been better. Music is nice but not anything memorable. Voice acting was the best part, but overall, it's not bad, but not great.
It's a very linear game. Straight forward and to the point. There are quite a bit of secrets where you can find gadgets and crystal relics which help out a lot more as you get further or go through the game a second time. Not a lot of variety in enemies, but many ways to get rid of them. There are a few special moves that require use of sunstones, sort of in a way like X-Men and Sonic Blast Man. This does have two player and a few difficulty modes.
This is nice to see, but the difficulty. It is torture, even if you know enemy patterns. You take too much damage from one hit and the higher difficulties don't let up on that idea either. Add in an abysmal health system that depends on your size, a checkpoint system that is mediocre, and a few other issues, and this is something that could have been decent or good, but the fatal flaw is its way of handling difficulty.
A lot of replayability is in Knack, but it's not a game I would recommend. Maybe as a rental or very cheap to buy. It plays decent, looks great, and has some cool mechanics. If it just had a better difficulty curve, it would be looked at a lot more fondly.
Score: 5 out of 10
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