PlaySide Studios’s Kill Knight begins with its titular warrior, clad in medieval armor and wielding a pair of pistols, standing on a cliff’s edge that overlooks a chasm of swirling red mist. A monkish figure approaches, clicks a sword onto the champion’s back, and then steps away as the knight dives into the maw below. Woe to those who don’t breathe deeply during the plunge, for what follows this moment of calm is a chaotic ride through the abyss.
Kill Knight, a charmingly lo-fi twin stick shooter, features five replayable levels set in a transforming arena riddled with fiends and traps. The game’s infernal atmosphere, propulsive score and sound design, and mechanical texture evoke a handful of modern classics that riff on arcade sensibilities. There are shades of Capcom’s Devil May Cry series, from your avatar’s preferred armaments, to the bloody orbs dropped by enemies, to the scoring system that rewards you for the efficiency and panache of your butchery.
Meanwhile, the influence of id’s Doom reboots and Housemarque’s Returnal comes through in the strategic combo of relentless gunfire and calculated melee blows (finishers with your blade net you ammo for your heavy artillery) as well as Kill Knight’s breathless, brutal kineticism. The dangers of the abyss afford no second of stillness: You must rip, tear, rinse, and repeat.
Whether you obliterate or fall to the demonic hordes, completing optional objectives during runs unlocks new weapons, armor, and accessories, allowing a satisfying degree of customization for each jaunt into hell. Beyond the variety of equipment on hand, Kill Knight encourages versatility through a number of clever mechanics, including its active reload system (a la Epic Games’s Gears of War). Here, executing a well-timed refresh grants a bonus boon based on the button you press to trigger it—with the choice to buff ranged damage, unleash a special sword attack, or immediately collect items littered across the floor—creating countless opportunities to make subtle but impactful tactical decisions.
Despite Kill Knight’s ceaseless torrent of monsters, projectiles, and environmental hazards, there’s an impressive lucidity to the game’s blistering, hypnotic mayhem. While occasional screen shakes and flashing lights prove an exception, your dogged hero largely remains unmissable, a black hole that both absorbs your focus and devours your foes.
More than once, as I repeatedly threw myself against Kill Knight’s considerable challenges, I suddenly felt a tear running down my face and realized that I hadn’t blinked in what felt like an eternity. It was as though I had returned to my body from some unknowable elsewhere.
This game was reviewed with code provided by Vicarious PR.
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