The story of Mark Cerny and Sony Japan Studio’s PlayStation 4 launch title Knack revolves around a little creature named… Knack.
Goblins and humans have lived together on Earth in separate societies since the goblins invaded Earth a few years prior to the game’s events. But when the goblins invade a human settlement, it’s up to Knack to find their hideout and discover how they got access to advanced tanks and airships.
Knack will be aided by a number of characters on his journey:
- The Doctor - The inventor that brought Knack to life thanks to the mysterious power of the ancient relics.
- Lucas - The Doctor’s teenage assistant.
- Ryder - Lucas’ uncle, who is also a world-famous explorer.
- Viktor - A billionaire industrialist who made his fortune mining the ancient relics that provide power for electricity, machinery, vehicles, and more. He has bigger ambitions, however, placing him at odds with Knack and crew. This means you’ll be facing not only the goblin soldiers, with their tanks, mechs, and airships, but Viktor’s own army of soldiers and robots as well.
Throughout the story, you’ll play through a variety of stages and environments, including caves, forests, cities, and airships, within which challenging boss battles await.
Knack is a creature made of relics. He can absorb more relics as you progress through the game, growing from his original three-foot tall stature to six, 15, and even 30 feet tall. Just like relics, Knack can also absorb other materials, like ice, metal, and wood.
Ice Knack is first acquired in a cave of ice. When you exit the cave, you’ll still have your ice equipped, giving you a power advantage, but you only have until the ice melts to defeat tough enemies. Metal Knack is an “extremely powerful” form, but the magnetism could lead to “some interesting problems.” Wood Knack, one of Knack’s biggest forms, burns easily, which you could use to access “some interesting areas.”
I'll hype it as AA
Reviews
IGN
5.9 /10
Playing Knack is like watching a dull movie on a plane – it's tolerable if all you want is a way to pass the time, but it's not something you'd seek out for its own sake. I finished in about 11 hours and, challenges, co-op, and secrets aside, there's just not much here worth recommending. Sure, some individual elements show potential, particularly when the scale of the encounters changes as Knack grows, but it never moves beyond playing it safe with the concepts or the characters.
Joystiq
1.5/5
Knack fails to capitalize on its own ideas and structure, and is successful only in acting as a reminder of the shallow, punishing platformers of a time when we really cared about how many bits there were on your console.
Eurogamer
4/10
Perhaps time was a factor, or perhaps Mark Cerny - the PlayStation 4 visionary who also led development of this game - is a better programmer and system architect than he is a writer and creative director. Whatever the answer, Knack isn't the kind of game you'll want to take home with your PlayStation 4. I'm all in favour of games that transport us back to the good old days of vibrant originality, but Knack simply doesn't.
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