Kill Knight Review

Descending into the depths has been the core of many myths, stories, and games. It makes sense, as the deep, dark caverns of the Earth are bloody frightening at the best of times, making imagining all the horrors they may contain ever so easy. However, even though the trip is seldom a walk in the park, I was not ready for the absolutely Kratos-blanchingly brutal trip PlaySide’s roguelite title, Kill Knight, had in store.

In terms of story, we’re very much low on the ground, though it is no surprise from a game portraying itself as an arcade action shooter. We take on the mantle of the Kill Knight, betrayed and forced to descend the Abyss with only one mission, kill the Angel found at its bottom. This is all told in a pretty quick opening cutscene, after which we’re let loose to get our posterior repositioned by weird spider creatures.

At its core, Kill Knight is a twin-stick shooter. You are equipped with two pistols with which you can keep on firing, preventing the encroaching hordes of the Abyss’ denizens from making you their lunch, though you do have other goodies to keep you safe! You have a heavy weapon with limited ammunition to clear the field more efficiently, a limited number of dodges that recharge with time, a melee weapon that can be used to clear some space, and a Wrath  Burst, which can be slowly charged by defeating enemies and packs a hefty punch.

With these weapons (and more, but we’ll get to that) you are tasked with clambering down the five layers of the Abyss. Each layer can be considered a “stage” with the next unlocking after you survive the last to the end. The layers themselves are often a single arena that is crawling with continuously spawning enemies and dangers to consider, with the landscape itself constantly shifting and changing as you go lower. Naturally, the further down you go, the more challenging and numerous the enemies will be.

Though the core twin-stick mechanics can sound simple, Kill Knight is anything but. Beyond the first level of pointy-shooty, the game offers some strategic resource planning and quick reflexes. Your heavy weapon, for example, is very effective at mowing down foes, but its limited ammo means you can’t really be as gun-happy as you may like. To mitigate this, you will be given a small amount of heavy weapon whenever you kill an enemy using your melee weapon, leading to an interesting dance of dashing in and out of combat whenever needed.

To add to the complexity, your main weapon, the pistols, also needs to be reloaded even if they never run out. When you reload, you have the chance to time your next move — either shooting your guns, swinging your swords, or charging up your Wrath Burst — in order to perform a special move dependent on the weapon. Your guns will be overcharged, giving benefits depending on which guns you have, your sword will send out an arc of power much further than normal, and recharging your Wrath Burst will suck up power from much further afield.

You’d think juggling these resources while also fighting a seemingly never-ending horde would be enough, but oh no! To add even more complexity, Kill Knight also has enemies with certain weaknesses for you to exploit and consider. For example, some enemies cover themselves in a protective carapace that can make taking them out a pain, however, shooting them with a Wrath Burst will not only clear the carapace in one shot, but it will also cause it to detonate, dealing massive damage to enemies around.

Additionally, some enemies will flash red as they are attacking, allowing you to perform a counter with your sword, which can then be extended into a short span of slowed-down time, allowing you to get some slashes and shots in while having room to breathe. Individually, these factors are very manageable, but once it's all muddled together into the frenzy of battle, it does take some time to acclimatise.

If you’ve ever played Devil Dagger or its pseudo-sequel, Hyper Demon, the gameplay of Kill Knight is very similar in spirit. Though you do not instantly lose on being hit, keeping out of the enemies’ claws is a big part of the experience. As you defeat enemies, they will drop Blood Gems that can be either used to recharge your Wrath Burst or collected to raise your Kill Power, which translates into more movement speed and damage done. However, if you get hit, you lose Kill Power.

Now, descending down horrifically difficult levels is fun enough on its own, but it does help to have some alternate objectives to aim toward and these come in the form of equipment challenges. As eagle-eyed readers may have noticed, I have referenced having different weapons in use. You start the game with only one pistol, sword, heavy weapon, set of armour, and two powers to pick from, but each category of gear has multiple items to unlock by completing challenges.

Each challenge can be attempted whenever you enter a layer of the Abyss and you can clear multiple at once, but often they do require you to use the “latest” bit of equipment to unlock the next. These are not easy by any means, but the unlocks are often worth the hassle as they can change your playstyle noticeably, be it by allowing you to do damage by dashing or doing AoE damage.

If, however, you find a certain challenge to be too much, you can also unlock the next level of an equipment category by using the meta-currency you earn after each run, though don’t expect to be unlocking something every time you return to the main menu. The first unlock costs about 3000 coins and a good run can net you about 100.

Luckily, fighting through the waves of the Abyss with guns blazing and sword swinging is an absolute blast, making it less disheartening when a run is cut short. The tactical thinking and resource management is weirdly complementary with the fast-paced action and reaction-heavy combat, making your brain feel like it’s running at peak performance when you clear an especially nasty level. Sometimes I did feel like the hitbox was a bit unclear or unfair, but for the clear majority of the time, the game’s touted “ultra-responsive” controls were just that.

In terms of audio and visual design, the game is somewhat hit-and-miss in my opinion. The look of our deadly protagonist is distinct and I approve of how the different gear you use is visible in the model. The various types of enemies are also very clearly identifiable with either colours or pulsing lights, though you may struggle to keep up with everything once the waves start getting larger. The sound design is also pretty in-point, as each of your shots and slashes has the appropriate impact, with the Wraith Shot especially being given the respect an “ultimate” attack deserves. In terms of music and sound effects, the game is suitably low and menacing, reminding me heavily of the constantly eerie drone of Devil Dagger.

My only gripe with the design is probably the menu interface itself. Using a stylised style with sharp contrasts and a “retro PC” theming, it is most certainly distinct, but my eyes had some trouble making out some of the smaller texts. The game does warn you about eye strain on smaller screens, however, so fair enough. Though not related to design as such, I also want to note that Kill Knight’s default control scheme was also a bit weird for me: alternating between the left button and trigger to dodge and fire the heavy weapon respectively felt a bit unintuitive, especially as the face buttons weren’t all in use. But this is a minor issue quickly resolved via configuration.

To summarise, Kill Knight is a challenging title with some great visuals and excellent gameplay. Some of the challenges were a bit too much for me, personally, but I did very much enjoy seeing how much I progressed and learned in the span of only a few sessions! It’s definitely worth a look if you like a good twin-stick shooter or are looking for a challenge to bite into. With a price tag of just under £13, I’d say it's worth the price of entry!