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[Tizoc]

Play this game on Easy, don't do the same mistake I made and play it on Normal or higher.

Knack is a 3D action game and one of the launch titles for the PS4. It has a few platforming segments but overall it's a simple action game.

When I started this game I had positive impressions of it, nice simple concept and Normal felt like a fine difficulty.
Controls were simple:
Square is Attack
X is Jump, press twice for double jump
O is special attacks
Right stck is the dodge move

Knack is pretty brittle when he is in his mini for, dying from 1 or 2 hits.As you pick up health his lifebar and size increase making his defense and attack damage higher.

Knack has some really nice visuals and the idea of this cute little guy turning gigantic and then into Godzilla-size behemoth is a fun concept.

But sadly the fun parts of the game are few and far between, and that doesn't help when the game just never wanted to fucking finish.

I really regret playing this on Normal, don't do the same mistake I did just and just play it on Easy, then feel free to replay on Normal unless you got bored of it like I just did.

Seriously the game becomes monotonous and repetitive after the first few hours and it keeps this up throughout the entirety of the game. I had reached the final boss and was so fed up with hi BS that I just quit the game then and there.

Would my opinion of the game be better if I played it on Easy? Doubtful, from looking at what I played of the game so far, this is a game that you really won't miss out on anything by not playing it, even the growing concept of Knack's size couldn't save it. Which is a shame.

If anything the game could appeal to younger players assuming thy don't get bored from its repetitiveness, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend this game, personally speaking.

 

[braves01]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

 

[Jazz573]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

/dead

 

[Piston Hyundai]

I really wanted to like it, but it's just so fucking boring!

 

[Stike]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

Wow.

The game is dragging a bit too long, but it is surely a well crafted piece and it's fun, imo.

 

[JordanN]

The difficulty reminds me of old NES games. It's hard but it feels rewarding once you figure out certain patterns to enemies and manage to beat them.

So it never bothered me.

 

[nkarafo]

I never played the game but i find the the character design pretty bad. The main character looks annoying to me for some reason. For me, to play games like this, they need to have a certain "charm" that Knack completely lacks.

 

[NullPointer]

Play it on hard.

Its devilishly simple conceptually, but can be exquisitely difficult in execution.

 

[mobilesworking]

It's a party alright, just one of those awkward parties where nobody knows anyone else and the music is too low and the punch is spiked with ginger ale.

 

[antitrop]

Game was worth it just to be able to hear HipHopGamer give a synopsis of the plot.

 

[Jpope]

I didn't enjoy it, but I stopped playing after the boss that cuts the framerate to single digits. The one that launches the three rocket spam.

 

[Rapscallion]

The problem with the game is how little it diverges from its 3d action foundation. It reminds me a lot of an older launch title, Kameo: Elements of Power. The big difference between the two games is that Kameo switches it up with multiple forms of battle, where as Knack rarely changes it up.

Starts with some promise, but you quickly realize that the game is pretty much the same bland battles throughout.

 

[ScriptedReality]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

Im at work in tears. Thank you.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Knack sucked. Tried to plat it but just couldn't take the grind.

 

[panda-zebra]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

He isn't. It doesn't.

Play this game on Easy, don't do the same mistake I made and play it on Normal or higher.

My 4yo boy completed the game on normal with me doing the boss battles and a few of the chained stages. There shouldn't be any GAFers who need to play this game on easy ffs.

 

[NullPointer]

It's a party alright, just one of those awkward parties where nobody knows anyone else and the music is too low and the punch is spiked with ginger ale.

More like a casual party among friends when dozens of strangers people bust in after midnight and start drunkenly complaining about the lack of hookers and blow ;p

The game is what it is. Its not what some people wanted, but its not like there wasn't a bunch of footage out there to showcase exactly how it plays. Its fine, but its used as a punching bag for some reason.

 

[thebloo]

Game was worth it just to be able to hear HipHopGamer give a synopsis of the plot.

Well, he's really passionate about his shit.

 

[Dereck]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

I'm howling.

 

[Mr-Joker]

Knack is a good example of a game having good character design, a developer who worked on the Naughty Dog Crash games and yet squander it with poor mediocre game play.

 

[Lumination]

Play it on hard.

Its devilishly simple conceptually, but can be exquisitely difficult in execution.

Yeah this. It's not GotY material, but the fundamentals for a good action game are there.

 

[Pyramid head]

Probably the dullest game I've ever played. A souless, joyless, monotonous pile of nothing. One note gameplay with zero depth, utterly sterile and lifeless environments and a main character which looks like it was produced by a 3ds Max plug-in from 1999 which arranges random 3d primitives into a humanoid shape.

A tip for if you're having issues with the difficulty: Don't bother using the dodge or jump attacks. They're useless garbage coded by people who don't understand the basic functions of stuff like i-frames in action games. Just use jump to approach an enemy and avoid their attacks, land infront of them then just spam punch. Once I stopped trying to dodge using the dodge move, the frustrations of hard mode subsided.

 

[Rival]

The only good thing about my experience with knack was that I got it on clearance for really cheap about a month after it came out. The game could be hard in parts but not in a way that is fun and rewarding to learn.

 

[Moon_frogger]

whoever said this was basically god of war without the annoying edgelord plot was spot on. I played this game with my six year old and we had a blast. I suppose that doesn't really make it a good game but we certainly weren't bored. Maybe this game just came out in the wrong decade. I thought it was pretty neat.

 

[Tizoc]

whoever said this was basically god of war without the annoying edgelord plot was spot on. I played this game with my six year old and we had a blast. I suppose that doesn't really make it a good game but we certainly weren't bored. Maybe this game just came out in the wrong decade. I thought it was pretty neat.

Comparing it to God of War is...funny.
God of War reminds of me beat'em-ups. You can say that about Knack but it rarely changes tings up and is the most boring beat'em-up I've played and I've played dozens of beat'em-ups since my youth.

The difficulty reminds me of old NES games. It's hard but it feels rewarding once you figure out certain patterns to enemies and manage to beat them.

So it never bothered me.

NES games were short compared to Knack; Knack is needlessly long which compounded on that aspect you mentioned.

He isn't. It doesn't.

My 4yo boy completed the game on normal with me doing the boss battles and a few of the chained stages. There shouldn't be any GAFers who need to play this game on easy ffs.

With how frustrating and bored I got from playing through it on Normal, that's one reason to play it on Easy.
Just to get it over and done with faster.

Play it on hard.

Its devilishly simple conceptually, but can be exquisitely difficult in execution.

Yeah this. It's not GotY material, but the fundamentals for a good action game are there.

Stop recommending to play it on Hard.
If normal had me dying from 1 or 2 hits, how is Hard going to make such a thing any better.

The fundamentals are wasted because they don't improve from what you learn in the first few minutes of the game.

 

[funkystudent]

In a perfect world Knack would have been a PS3 game that got sent to die and The Puppeteer would have been the family friendly PS4 launch game.

 

[NullPointer]

Stop recommending to play it on Hard.

No.

My personal fun came from being relaxed by the pace and art style but directly engaged because of the danger involved in making a mistake. If you want to play on easy I'd recommend playing a Lego game instead. You'll get more out of it.

 

[Coffee Dog]

Mediocre launch title that fails to execute its bog standard premise, only notable for its release window. Truly the Kameo or GUN of this generation.

 

[LyleLanley]

This is one of the most boring games I've played in a long time. It had nothing going for it except for the graphics. I'm surprised at how many people on gaf seem to really like it.

 

[dan2026]

People still want this on PS Plus.

I hope we get it so everyone can see how bad this game actually was.

 

[Nosgotham]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

Yes. This

 

[Sky Saw]

People still want this on PS Plus.

I hope we get it so everyone can see how bad this game actually was.

Some people like bad things though.

Look at The Order!

 

[kabel]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

haha

 

[BRocknRolla]

People are entitled to their opinions, but I did think it was extremely boring.

I just can't separate out the people who jokingly say it's good from people who are serious any time a PS+ conversation comes up.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

I liked that stage early on where you go under ground. The environments looked really nice and it had a good atmosphere.

 

[PantsuJo]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

/thread

 

[Lord Error]

Game really was boring. It's like a kids version of God of War but without everything that makes GoW interesting. I think a massive design mistake in this game was Knack's ability to change his size. It was not bad controlling him when he's small, but the larger he got, the worse the controls and the overall gameplay becomes.

On the other hand, I do think it's pretty weird seeing how people in media or even here on GAF praise the Lego games, when they're pretty much the same crap, only with likable licensed properties, which seems to give them a free pass.

Some people like bad things though.

Look at The Order!

I thought the Order was significantly better and more fun than Knack for what it's worth.

 

[Muffdraul]

I played it months after it came out, it was nowhere near as bad as I had been led to believe.

But it weren't great.

 

[Arkam]

The more i played Knack the more I enjoyed it. At its core I think it it is a really fun game. However the character and world leave a bit to be desired. Would not mind another game based around a better character.... like maybe a Bandicoot?

 

[CollectedDust]

I played it months after it came out, it was nowhere near as bad as I had been led to believe.

But it weren't great.

I played it at launch and didn't think it was that bad. I did play that silly app to grind upgrade stuff (gems? It's been a while). I agree it was hard, but I thought it was fair. I don't really mind hard if it is fair. Just my two-cents.

 

[farisr]

2 player couch co-op on Hard was one of my favorite gaming experiences over the last 5 years,

I can definitely see the game being boring or frustrating playing solo for some people though.

I wish there was a 2nd game being made that addresses some of the more common complaints with the game, but I know it's not going to happen.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

Played some of it. I appreciated it.

It's just an easy target.

 

[Lumination]

Stop recommending to play it on Hard.
If normal had me dying from 1 or 2 hits, how is Hard going to make such a thing any better.

The fundamentals are wasted because they don't improve from what you learn in the first few minutes of the game.

It's been over 2 years, so bear with me.

If you're dying that often, you're doing it wrong. The game is about learning each enemy's num hits to kill along with their attack patterns. It seems simplistic (and it is), but utilizing the dodge cancel, dodge attacks, and jump attacks are vital to weaving through attacks and hitting back.

Sure, it's not nearly in the same realm of complexity as Bayonetta or Bloodborne, but the building blocks are there. Baby's first Bloodborne if you will.

The mechanics don't need to be improved upon to not be "wasted". Mario is just running and jumping, but the scenarios in which you do each is what's novel. Knack's combat scenarios are the same. 2 archers + 2 melee is a very different fight from 3 archers + 1 melee or 2 melee + 1 mech.

Again, the fundamentals of a good (not great, not fantastic, good) action game are there, hidden underneath a kid-friendly, simplistic skin.

Edit: I guess to answer your question about hard specifically, hard makes it so you can't really mash through every level. You need to start utilizing the special attacks and cancels to succeed.

 

[Stranya]

Play it on hard.

Its devilishly simple conceptually, but can be exquisitely difficult in execution.

This. Really enjoyed it on hard, a deceptively good challenge.

 

[CrisKre]

Shitty, shitty game.

 

[Tizoc]

This. Really enjoyed it on hard, a deceptively good challenge.

Well it did manage to deceive people into thinking it is a good game :V

 

[Camjo-Z]

If you played Knack on Easy then you totally missed the point. It doesn't have the spectacle of games like GoW and Bayonetta, so the game is only really fun on the harder difficulties where you have to actually play well to win.

The game is definitely repetitive, the characters are a bit generic, and it could stand to have more mechanics, but it's a solid foundation that really ought to be expanded upon with a sequel.

 

[BrianRoyale]

Bought it for my nephew and he played it on normal and beat it. He really liked it (he's 10), I played a bit with him and it wasn't really my kind of game. I figure though he's probably the target age for Knack (or at least made for kids and adults to play together, a family game).
The game did seem overly long, perhaps that's it's biggest failing.

 

[User 479360]

Knack the character is literally made of pieces of garbage, which tells you everything you need to know about the game.

This. Definitely this.

Such a repetitive and dull game. Frustratingly cheap, too.

 

[Synth]

Yeah this. It's not GotY material, but the fundamentals for a good action game are there.

The fundamentals for a good action game are there... but they certainly didn't build a good action game with them. Game is awful.

If you want to play on easy I'd recommend playing a Lego game instead. You'll get more out of it.

I'd recommend playing a Lego game instead regardless.

 

[paragonpro]

Eh it was fine..i guess. I played it on normal and there were definitely parts that felt like an endurance test. Also I think you may have activated the Knack defense force, also known as kdf.