Mighty Knight is a fighting game build around the mob-like concept for massive amounts of enemies at once. There's not platforming or linear levels, just a big field and a whole lot of enemies. You slowly unlock extra heroes, each of whom you can upgrade to assist you in your fighting. While the fighting is moderately enjoyable, the amount of grinding necessary and the repetitive levels result in a very boring gameplay experience.
As I said, the fighting in the game has its merits. You're able to hit multiple enemies at once, which helps develop fighting strategies by corralling enemies in front of you to maximize your damage every time you swing your weapon. The skills are fairly rewarding and it's nice having allies fight alongside you. The controls are fairly easy to use and the upgrade screen is easy to navigate.
What are you doing Marcus? Get it together man...
There are also different levels and modes as you progress through the game. You have an overworld map to select your level and there is a description of the rewards and what allies are allowed to be controlled/present in the battle. This is a very pleasant feature; I love having that information available. However, the different modes hardly feel like new experiences. It's still the same basic horde mentality and gameplay.
The game unfortunately required far too much grinding. The upgrades were expensive and did not seem to have particularly noticeable effects in game. With the exception of unlocking the limited number of new skills, each upgrade incrementally increases your attributes, and they take several rounds to afford once the game gets rolling. It's very frustrating.
Now play the first few levels again so you can beat that level you're stuck on...
But the grinding would be more palatable if the game had more variety in the levels. But each level just felt like the previous one with no real defining changes. If the grinding helped unlock rewarding and interesting new gameplay, at least it would be satisfying in the end. But that's not the case.
Is it worth playing? If you're a fighting fan, you may enjoy playing it, but I just don't think it has staying power. And I see no redeeming reasons to play through to the end. I'm willing to admit that maybe I'm just terrible at the game and for most people it might not take as much grinding. But I really don't think the repetitive level design motivates me to improve my skills.
Scorecard:
Category
|
Score
|
Time Value
|
3
|
Money Value
|
10
|
Originality
|
7
|
Ryplayability
|
8
|
Fulfillment
|
4
|
Final Score
|
6.4
|
Let me know what you think of Mighty Knight (if you decide to play it)!
Until next time,
Ryan
Pictures courtesy of Swartag
Yeah, I played this one recently on Kongregate, and I pretty much agree with everything you said. One other problem you didn't mention is that the AI for your allies is just awful. They make it really difficult to complete some of the alternate quests on each level. Also, what's the point in having quests that use ONLY your allies? Where's the fun in watching them fight bad guys without havin any direct control at all?
ReplyDeleteI didn't have to do too much grinding until I hit like the 7th or 8th level, but it's still a lot more grinding than I want to have to do in a game.