Kill Knight

When I was a kid, I begged video game developers to make more dual-stick shooters like Smash T.V. And then, in the mid-2000s, they finally listened to me, thanks in large part to the success of Geometry Wars. Unfortunately, I did not heed the warning of the Monkey Paw, because suddenly there were far too many dual-stick shooters flooding the market, making me grow bored and sick of the very thing I thought I wanted. Now, all these years later, I’m back on board thanks to the excellent Kill Knight, a high-intensity, demon-filled shooter from a developer who started its life by making Bible games for mobile phones. I hope you like horror-themed action games, because I’m about to review Kill Knight by PlaySide Studios.

Rise from your grave! No, we’re not talking about Altered Beast, but rather the set-up to Kill Knight. When a loyal knight is betrayed and banished to the abyss, he is resurrected as a desecrated corpse inside reanimated armor. Back and ready to kick ass, the Kill Knight only has one mission to complete – kill the last angel.

Yeah, there’s a story, but that’s not why you’re here. All you’re here to do is shoot demons in the underworld and earn high scores. Through five increasingly difficult levels of the abyss, the Kill Knight will need to fight off wave after wave of enemies, all while staying alive and keeping the score multiplier going. You’re trapped in a small arena that is constantly changing shapes and adding new obstacles, all while a wide variety of extremely aggressive demons climb and warp into the stage. If you can somehow survive all that, then you’ll move onto the next stage, which is somehow even tougher.

The good news is that the Kill Knight lives up to his name. Right off the bat, he’s dual-wielding pistols that cut through the hordes of bad guys. He also has a powerful secondary weapon with limited ammo, like a shotgun. And what kind of knight would he be if he didn’t have a sword for close-quarters action? As you kill the crowds of bad guys, you’ll want to hold the trigger button to suck up the red orbs they leave behind when they die. Doing this will quickly charge up a special move that will take out dozens of demons at once. This move can be anything from a giant ball that rips through the group to homing missiles that go after targets to little orbs that bomb the level.

Beyond being an absolute life-saver by killed a large swath of enemies at once, this special move is also the only way to earn health pick-ups. This is where you start to see how all of these different attacks feed into each other. You’ll need to shoot demons to fill a gauge to pull off a special move to earn your health back. Want to refill your secondary shotgun? Then you’ll need to cut through the enemy horde with your sword. All this really helps to incentivize you to change up your attacks, switching from melee to shotguns to clearing everything out with a giant ball of energy.

And there’s actually more to the gameplay, if you can believe it. There’s a timing puzzle when you reload that can be played a couple of different ways. Depending on the button you press, you’ll either suck up dropped items or get a nice power boost to your guns. There’s also a fun timing game associated with sword that will take out a massive enemy in just one counter strike. And as you dash around the level sucking up red orbs and not getting hit, you’ll power up the Kill Knight, making your life so much easier. There are also points you’ll earn from each game that you can use to buy new weapons, swords, and equipment.

With so much going on (both with the gameplay and on screen), it took me a few games for Kill Knight to really click. I kept wanting to play it like Smash T.V. or Geometry Wars, but that won’t get you very far. You really do need to incorporate all of the different moves and techniques into the gameplay to survive, even on the easiest difficulty. Once it all clicks, though, there’s nothing better. This is one of those shooters that makes the player feel like the ultimate killing machine. You may eventually die, but when you’re dashing around the stage, playing with the enemies, you’ll feel unstoppable.

That really is the big difference between Kill Knight and games like Smash T.V. and Geometry Wars. In most dual-stick shooters, there’s always the feeling that you could die at any time. Kill Knight, on the other hand, gives you more than enough moves and attacks to take on any situation, so you really only have yourself to blame when you die. Death is not inevitable here, though don’t get too cocky, because this really is a tough little shooter.

Although not as flashy as many games in this genre, I really like the way the stages are constantly changing and adding new ideas. Every stage has its own batch of fresh obstacles to overcome, such as laser beams, spinning blades, proximity bombs and spike traps, and I like how you can use them to take out a bunch of enemies all at once. There are times when Kill Knight starts to feel a lot like a bullet hell shooter, while other times it’s more about holding the rushing enemies at bay. And since the levels are constantly changing around you with each new stage, you’ll always need to be on your toes, because you never know what will come next.

When it comes to pure action, Kill Knight is one of my favorite games of the year. This is almost everything that I want from a dual-stick shooter. It gives you just enough lore to make you care about the world, all while filling the screen with an impressive variety of demons to kill. It’s a dark and atmospheric shoot ‘em up that is every bit as tense as it is action-packed. It’s also the kind of shooter that only gets better the more you master the different techniques and the surprisingly deep gameplay. Kill Knight is a game that will spend a long time humbling you, but don’t worry, you’ll eventually be the one having the last laugh.