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Knack new gameplay

I really want to love this game, but I just can't. You can't imagine how psyched I was when I heard the dude who did fucking Spyro was doing a next gen platformer. I just went and watched an old walkthrough of Spyro, and I want to go play it now... Knack, not so much. Too slow and bulky, with secret treasures just one punch away.

Looks like I still need to find a PS4 game to put under the tree for the kids so I can justify Santa bringing the PS4.
 

brandnew

Member
I am super into the aesthetic and fully behind supporting *mascot* style games, they remind me of a lot of good times. Knack though, form all the footage I've seen, there looks to be no platforming, just straight brawling. I keep seeing Cerny cite Spyro and Crash, but those games were platformers to me. So I'm not sure about this.

I agree with this. It looks like Ratchet and Clank without the platforming. But I wonder if they wanted to focus on the brawler aspect since it's more "exciting" to show that at a venue like E3.

Game will be super solid/polished, but not sure if that will make it great. Ni No Kuni is another game that nailed presentation and its mechanics but didn't hold my interest. Knack looks like it could be similar.
 

Yuterald

Member
Eh, this doesn't look too hot, actually. I'm a huge fan of Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot titles too and if this game is supposed to capture the essence of a PSone first party Sony/mascot game, it sure doesn't look like it is. Gotta echo the sentiments with those saying the levels look boring and bland. I actually don't like the fact that the secret rooms/treasures have randomly generated items either. If every side area/room is going to have a random element, then where's the fun in discovering the location? I never cared for randomized items/chests and the friend trading shit doesn't do anything for me either.

The great thing about Crash Bandicoot was the tightness and cleverness of its level design. Starting with Crash Bandicoot 2, the levels were designed around speed runs and it really brought out the fast paced gameplay and showcased how competent of a platformer the series became. I had SO much fun getting the Platinum Ankhs in the Time Trials. There was a very satisfying and challenging side of Crash Bandicoot 2 & 3 which made me respect the series much more than I did initially.

I should be excited for this game because I've enjoyed all of the games Cerny has worked on, but I can't get excited for this. There's just something about this game that isn't doing it for me. Please, just get Japan Studio to do fucking Ape Escape already!
 
Arg! Anyone else hate how Sony vids always make you sign in to see them? Even Knack of all things. Don't have time to screw around with signing in. :/
 

Toparaman

Banned
I can't believe this is going to be demo'd nationwide on Jimmy Fallon, people are going to be so turned off.

Come on, it's not that bad. At least it's nice-looking, and has some interesting concepts, unlike KZ Shadow Fall, which already got demoed on Fallon's show. Because people are totally going to buy a new console for yet another sensory-overkill shooter.
 
Come on, it's not that bad. At least it's nice-looking, and has some interesting concepts, unlike KZ Shadow Fall, which already got demoed on Fallon's show. Because people are totally going to buy a new console for yet another sensory-overkill shooter.
Sensory-overload makes a lot more sense for a TV demo. Shooters are still the dominant genre too. KZ:SF is going to sell a lot more PS3s than Knack will (not saying I like this fact).

There is no WOW factor looking at Knack. Visually bland. Gameplay may end up being better if timing is as important as I'm hoping (going by Cerny's comments during the demo) but it is certainly not a game you sell with gameplay videos. I hope a demo comes out for this with the PS4 launch.
 
I'll probably pick this up since I'll need some exclusives to play on my PS4, but it just looks very meh.

Graphics aren't really impressive. Everything just looks too flat and too lifeless. Not even his footprints in the snow last longer than like 3 seconds before they fade out. I do like how the character looks and the physics of it look pretty neat, but this seems like something that could've been done on the PS3.

Nothing really wow'ed me in terms of the gameplay either. I'll keep an eye on it though.
 

ChamplooJones

Formerly Momotaro
The great thing about Crash Bandicoot was the tightness and cleverness of its level design. Starting with Crash Bandicoot 2, the levels were designed around speed runs and it really brought out the fast paced gameplay and showcased how competent of a platformer the series became. I had SO much fun getting the Platinum Ankhs in the Time Trials. There was a very satisfying and challenging side of Crash Bandicoot 2 & 3 which made me respect the series much more than I did initially.

bro-fist-o.gif


Always nice to meet a fellow classic Crash lover.

I don't think anyone would argue that Puppeteer looks much more interesting (and fun) than Knack does atm.
 

ReaperXL7

Member
Come on, it's not that bad. At least it's nice-looking, and has some interesting concepts, unlike KZ Shadow Fall, which already got demoed on Fallon's show. Because people are totally going to buy a new console for yet another sensory-overkill shooter.

I dont know, I was interested in Knack but the more I see of it the more I agree that its probably not the best game to showcase the PS4 on national television. This demo looked somewhat boring overall, and unless they have something completely different to show on fallon I could see people not being impressed.

I personally would have chosen something like Infamous, The Witness, or made a Deal with Activision to show Destiny for the PS4 showing. Knack just does not look like something that is going show off what the PS4 can do very well.
 

zeopower6

Member
I dont know, I was interested in Knack but the more I see of it the more I agree that its probably not the best game to showcase the PS4 on national television. This demo looked somewhat boring overall, and unless they have something completely different to show on fallon I could see people not being impressed.

I personally would have chosen something like Infamous, The Witness, or made a Deal with Activision to show Destiny for the PS4 showing. Knack just does not look like something that is going show off what the PS4 can do very well.

The Witness would have been a unique choice, but I don't think that game would translate well at all for Late Night. x_x
 

ReaperXL7

Member
The Witness would have been a unique choice, but I don't think that game would translate well at all for Late Night. x_x

Maybe not, but its hard to tell I guess. Its easily a very pretty game, and would likely earn Sony even more Indie cred for putting Blow on TV. Your right in that the gameplay might not translate well, but it seems to be getting allot of praise from E3, and was one of my early favorites for PS4s lineup.

Sony could be going a smart route with Knack by trying to show that they have some family friendly titles as gamers will already know about the rest, but something about Knacks showings so far seem to be missing something.
 

hamchan

Member
I think graphically it looks quite nice. Gameplay wise I'd have preferred a pure platformer instead of a beat em up. I'll still play it and probably enjoy it but target audience definitely seems to be a younger crowd.
 

Zep

Banned
This game needs some actual destruction. The only thing monster knack can do is pick up cars? How about tear up the whole town, put enemies through the buildings...Make the whole game destructible. Looks very empty without it.
 
Reminds me a lot of Crash and the original Jak & Daxter which is awesome. But again people point out things like instantly disappearing enemies and cars not reacting when you jump on them and whatnot. It brings me back to the way Cerny answers questions in interviews about what is Knack doing that it needs to be on PS4. His answer is simply that it makes development easier and faster. Really? That's all you have to say? Darn, why not take advantage of the new hardware opposed to using it as an easy button?
 

LeBoef

Member
Wow. This cerny guy talking pr bs is enough to make that game look any good?
We re used to MM game presentations on ps3, and knack + cerny (yes i said that) look like a step into the past.

Edit
Minute 13:00 is just... Wow. Whats that talk?
 

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
I like the look of this game, it also seems like something I would enjoy playing through. Don't get the hate.
 

Bedlam

Member
I want to like it but I'm not feeling the level design of this game tbh. It looks rather bland and very unimaginative.
 

Splint

Member
These ps4 launch games are all looking terribly boring . I really hope knack, driveclub, and killzone are not the only games they got. I think KZ looks good though with their open environment approach. But Knack is like a linear cartoon version of a military shooters campaign.
 
This game has me very excited. It makes me think of the platforming days of the PS1. It was day one when I first saw it. The more that is shown of this game and the more convinced that it'll get a lot of playtime out of me. I like how different it is from what is typically released on consoles these days.

not including Nintendo consoles
 
Everything about this game just sort of bores me. It reminds me of the Lego games which I personally am not a fan of except without the charm. The art style is pretty generic, the combat looks pretty one note, the logic puzzles look more tedious than fun, etc.

It just looks so sparse for a next gen game. Why don't the cars get damaged when he jumps on them? Why doesn't he leave a big crater after he jumps off the building? Where are all the people in the city they could have running around? Where is all of the destructible debris and why does the little that is present disappear after two seconds on the ground? It all just destroys the sense of scale they're trying to create in those moments.
 
But isn't that when the Sonic franchise was in a reaaaalllly dark place? (also rushed to get it out for the anniversary) Like, it took the shitty games releasing and completely flopping on Metacritic/etc. for them to erase those releases from history.

Oh yeah, but that didn't stop a lot of us fans from telling ourselves that the finished product will be good.

Cerny mentions something about 5,000 objects with physics simulation making up Knack and I can't help but ask.

Who cares?

They aren't doing anything with that technology that makes the game look for play any better. 5,000 traditionally animated non-physics objects would have worked just as well and probably wouldn't be pulling the damn framerate down so much. Knack isn't even made up of the objects he breaks. Sure he is made of ice in the ice level but it isn't the exact ice particles he just created by breaking objects. Similarly objects in the environment react with physics but then disappear 3 seconds later. Why bother?

My biggest hope for the game did come in this video when they talked about gameplay and, for example, there being about 100 types of enemies and some having smaller windows to be attacked especially on higher difficulties.

That gives me big P.N.03 or Maximo vibes so I have more hope now. Those games probably aren't the most exciting looking in videos but the gameplay is pretty high in tension with careful enemy/timing management.

All the physics we've seen seen in this demo don't seem important to the gameplay which is why it seems like such a tech demo at times but I have a bit more hope for the gameplay now even if I'm not entirely sold.

Man it hurts you comapared those two games to this. I love some PN03. lol

I think it'd be better if they considered things like a scoring/ranking system, a combo system and things that instill getting replay value for the sake of getting better at the game. Things that would add more value to the title. If they have history with R&C they might, but even still the current design they have (gameplay-wise) is lacking.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
I can't believe this is going to be demo'd nationwide on Jimmy Fallon, people are going to be so turned off.
In short bursts, it probably won't be that bad. If they focus on some of the sharing elements with friends, that might be enough to get them through a segment without it looking too dull.

So far it seems like they've really only shown some very short segments of the game, so hopefully the full game fleshes out better.
 

spliced

Member
Disappointing. I was hoping when I saw more of this game it would look better than this. Everything just looks so bland and generic, it has no personality to it, even the gameplay looks slow and dull. This looks like a tech demo.

Some of the levels remind me of the PS1/n64 era where games were very enclosed without much openness since the consoles couldn't power much draw distance.
 

Z3M0G

Member
Cerny mentions something about 5,000 objects with physics simulation making up Knack and I can't help but ask.

Who cares?

They aren't doing anything with that technology that makes the game look for play any better. 5,000 traditionally animated non-physics objects would have worked just as well and probably wouldn't be pulling the damn framerate down so much. Knack isn't even made up of the objects he breaks. Sure he is made of ice in the ice level but it isn't the exact ice particles he just created by breaking objects. Similarly objects in the environment react with physics but then disappear 3 seconds later. Why bother?

My biggest hope for the game did come in this video when they talked about gameplay and, for example, there being about 100 types of enemies and some having smaller windows to be attacked especially on higher difficulties.

That gives me big P.N.03 or Maximo vibes so I have more hope now. Those games probably aren't the most exciting looking in videos but the gameplay is pretty high in tension with careful enemy/timing management.

All the physics we've seen seen in this demo don't seem important to the gameplay which is why it seems like such a tech demo at times but I have a bit more hope for the gameplay now even if I'm not entirely sold.

I wonder if PS4 games will actively support 3D... these particle effects would make this a visual marvel in 3D... I'm not expecting it though. :(
 
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