Sometimes, video games are complicated pieces of art. They have multiple layers of intertwining mechanics and themes and inspirations that are almost impossible to summarize unless you open with “okay so, this is a lot but basically…” and pray the person you’re talking to is a really good listener. Other times, though, video games aren’t like that at all. They’re like Kill Knight. You’re a knight. You kill. Done. I didn’t realise how long it’s been since I’ve had a simple, smooth, endless action game to sink my teeth into, but Kill Knight quickly reminded me. Combining the addictive “one more run” mentality of Downwell and Devil Daggers with Hades-style lightning-reflex combat and a sleek yet violent aesthetic has resulted in one of the most electrifying games of the year.
There’s an obscure RPG-inspired artbook series I’m in love with called Vermis. Sold as a lost player guide to a forgotten roleplaying game, it’s full of haunting medieval-fantasy art where something is just always kind of… off. I’ve never seen that uncomfortable yet alluring aesthetic replicated anywhere else until I started playing Kill Knight. Menus and UI are sharp, yet the art and visual accompanying them give off a violent, zine-style setting where you have no idea where you are or what you’re doing but you still can’t help but love it. It’s a game full of barely comprehensible monster designs, equipment covered in spikes and blades, and menu backgrounds lifted straight from screen-printed sludge metal band shirts. I see a lot of new games come out where the mechanics are sharply defined or uniquely inventive, but they lack any sort of visual identity that matches that creativity. Kill Knight delivers on both.
Your goal is simple – survive wave-based combat in a constantly evolving arena, and if you do, you’ll unlock another arena with new visuals, enemies, and hazards to tackle. You’ve got a pretty simple set of abilities to use in order to achieve that, but they all feed into each other in a circular loop that keeps your brain firing on all cylinders as you play. You’ve got a standard gun attack, and when you need to reload you can tap three different buttons to activate three different Overdrive abilities.
Tap the fire button to Overdrive your primary weapon and activate a bonus ability, tap the melee button to activate a buffed melee attack, or tap the Absorb button to instantly suck up every dropped gem on the field. You can melee whenever you want, too, and melee kills earn you ammo for your heavy weapon. Absorbing can be done at any time at a slower rate, and when you absorb enough, you can unleash a special Heavy attack that will drop health pickups from anything it hits. Add on a quick-dash and a melee parry, and you’ve got a combat system that’s simple on paper, but complicated in execution.
My first few runs were rough. I’d focus too much on one attack type, or get so caught up watching enemy behaviour I wouldn’t even realize they had me overwhelmed until it was too late. When you’re on your toes and racking up kills, the combo meter isn’t just for flair – it feeds into a system that buffs all of your abilities the higher your racked-up combo gets. Systems like that where your score and combo are directly tied into beneficial gameplay systems, rather than just being for glory and bragging rights, are one of my favourite things to see in games. I rarely care how high my score is or how sick my combo gets, but when that stuff directly helps me survive more waves, you bet I’m paying attention.
If you fail a run, you’ll still earn some points and a spot on the leaderboard. Points can be hoarded to spend on unlocking new equipment, but you’ll be able to unlock all those tools even quicker if you successfully achieve their per-requisite missions during any run. It’s a really solid combination of parallel goals that always gave me something to focus on in each run. By the time I got comfortable with one combination of equipment and one stage, I was already ready to tackle another stage, or try out some new equipment, or both. I was kept on a consistent and constantly engaging pattern of unlocks through all five stages of the game, and I couldn’t get enough of it.
Kill Knight is just a blast. Runs are quick, hectic, and satisfying even in defeat. It’s a lot to learn at first, but the second I overcame that learning curve I couldn’t put the game down until I saw it through to the end.