• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

So the Knack 2 Demo is... pretty damn good.

First Knack didn't float my boat and the second one seems ever worse.

Sometimes I refer to Knack as the worst launch game I've ever bought and this statement still holds. I had to force myself to play more then 15 minutes or so to try and justify the 60 bucks I payed for it. I ended up quitting after a couple of hours .

Gave the demo a shot and somehow it seems worse. Worse art direction, same boring combat, crappy characters .

Sorry, I just can't do it.
 
I played the demo and thought it was just OK. But it was just the combat tutorial. I'm not going to write it because it was a poor choice for demo section, because the full game might actually be pretty good.

Terrible choice for a demo slice, though.
 
Drewfonse said:
I played the demo and thought it was just OK. But it was just the combat tutorial. I'm not going to write it because it was a poor choice for demo section, because the full game might actually be pretty good.

Terrible choice for a demo slice, though.
Click to expand...

If it was the combat tutorial, and that is level 3-1 like it said at the beginning of the demo, I wonder if that mean the first couple hours has little combat, or just has room after room of simple punching before they introduce the demo special moves?
 
What I played was ok at best. Same boring combat and ugly aesthetics. I still regret buying the first at launch.
 
Stopped playing after the fourth or fifth arena. Or was it the sixth? I'm just done playing it and I already don't remember because everything seemed the same (arenas/corridors/rocks rolling down). It was honestly awful.
 
thekiddfran said:
My 6 year old nephew was OBSESSED with Knack 1 so I will get knack 2 so we can play together
Click to expand...
Whats interesting on that is the difficulty options
Well, this time youÂ’ll be able to choose between four different difficulty levels, which should provide a more diverse experience. WhatÂ’s more, littered throughout the various levels are options to take either an easy or more challenging path. ItÂ’s an interesting addition that should add a level of replayability to the game, as well as make it easier when playing with a less-experienced cohort.
Click to expand...
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/knack-2-ps4-pro-gameplay-news-release-date-trailers-2952088
 
Mega Man's Electric Sheep said:
If it was the combat tutorial, and that is level 3-1 like it said at the beginning of the demo, I wonder if that mean the first couple hours has little combat, or just has room after room of simple punching before they introduce the demo special moves?
Click to expand...


Good question, I didn't see the 3-1. Either way, a fairly bizarre choice for a demo, but I'm still hopeful.
 
impression time. at the demo section now (took me way more than 1 hour, but i was looking for secrets and taking my time).

graphics: there is no doubt that the game looks much better than the first. oh, and solid 60 fps on the pro are fantastic. however, there are some problems with the image quality. the game looks very grainy sometimes. could be the anti aliasing method or just a simple grain filter. the clean animated-cg-movie look of knack 1 is lost, which is a shame. bottom line: game looks and runs great, some iq issues.

combat: just arrived at the demo area, so i havent gotten any new moves. but the shield and ability to throw back arrows/projectiles is really helpful and makes combat more fun. here is a huge skill-tree, so there should be much more variety in terms of moves.

secrets: much much better. they are well hidden (no longer just behind breakable walls) and the game no longer requires people in your friendslist (that play knack) to select from multiple parts when finding a treasure piece.

music: fantastic soundtrack so far.

story: unlike knack 1, i dont feel physical pain when watching the cutscenes. its ok but still not good or great.

levels: they seem more open and there are much more plattforming segments. the game also no longer follows the strict, repetetive pattern that knack 1 had (start small, gain back your parts until you becoem giant knack again).
 
This masterpiece is available in some countries like Iran. Beware spoilers! :D
Destiny 2 too.

9v0u_cvcas.jpg
 
The only thing about the demo I didn't like is that Knack doesn't seem to have his dash punch anymore, or at least it's not unlocked from the start. Other than that it was great, but I doubt it'll change the minds of people who didn't like the first game.
 
Tried it again. Got to the second arena thingy. After that, I went to my home screen and uninstalled it. I had more fun uninstalling the game than playing.
 
S1kkZ said:
impression time. at the demo section now (took me way more than 1 hour, but i was looking for secrets and taking my time).

graphics: there is no doubt that the game looks much better than the first. oh, and solid 60 fps on the pro are fantastic. however, there are some problems with the image quality. the game looks very grainy sometimes. could be the anti aliasing method or just a simple grain filter. the clean animated-cg-movie look of knack 1 is lost, which is a shame. bottom line: game looks and runs great, some iq issues.

combat: just arrived at the demo area, so i havent gotten any new moves. but the shield and ability to throw back arrows/projectiles is really helpful and makes combat more fun. here is a huge skill-tree, so there should be much more variety in terms of moves.

secrets: much much better. they are well hidden (no longer just behind breakable walls) and the game no longer requires people in your friendslist (that play knack) to select from multiple parts when finding a treasure piece.

music: fantastic soundtrack so far.

story: unlike knack 1, i dont feel physical pain when watching the cutscenes. its ok but still not good or great.

levels: they seem more open and there are much more plattforming segments. the game also no longer follows the strict, repetetive pattern that knack 1 had (start small, gain back your parts until you becoem giant knack again).
Click to expand...
Good stuff thanks for the early impressions.
 
I belive knack is a product of just sony making a game to actually learn how to use and create new tech.

They dont really care if its a great game. They just want to make some money off of internal testing, and learning.

This one was probably for pro stuff
 
Collingwood said:
It wasnt different enough from the first game, which already wasn't great.

It's like Cerny thought all the jokes were for real and just released a new version of the same game thinking people actually liked the first one.
Click to expand...

The demo doesn't seem very indicative of what the actual game is like, if you've watched any of the longer gameplay videos released thus far. I suspect it's just a shit demo.
 
Impressions from the other topic dont know why we have 2 demo topics lol

ArchAngel said:
Just finished Knack 2 after 11h. I was fast, died a couple of times but also looked for secrets (I have an eye for them :P). 2 times I thought I was at the end and it wasn't *lol*

I liked Knack 1, but after Knack 2 I can't go back. Everything is so much better, even the demo doesn't showcase the real Knack 2 very good - even though they make fun of 3 attacks only themselves..
It opens to the player after a couple of hours, but then gets better and better with each new move you learn, each new gadget you collect. Oh, and way more platforming. It seemed to me like they played a lot of God of War for this game for bossbattles, camera, QTE etc.

And the best for me is New Game+ with your progress and you can select a new difficulty. Now I can complete my skill tree.

I like it, don't know what others will think about it.

Oh and that Gumo Gumo no Kame-Hame-Ha move is awesome!
Click to expand...

S1kkZ said:
@Loudninja: didnt beat it yet. seems to be pretty long.

there is a lot more (and better) plattforming. it still relies more on combar but the balance is much better than in knack 1.

combat progression: every 2-3 chapters you get a new move, which really mixes things up. skill tree is a bit shallow but the xp/unlock system makes finding secrets (and replaying levels) more rewarding.

there is a world map now, so you can replay every chapter/level on any difficulty. every level ha 3 challenges that earn you medals (no idea what they do).
Click to expand...
 
It was pretty fun. But my hype is low. While they added a lot of platforming (according to Cerny), they showed a section here that was way more akin to the miniscule stuff in Knack 1. All this demo showed was a more robust combat system. Personally, though, I would have been fine with a simple combat system that just didn't spend much time with combat and where the focus was mainly on platforming.

Basically, it still felt like a combat-first game like the first. I thought after the Cerny interviews that the bigger platforming focus would permeate the game everywhere, but apparently you it's just in little sections.

Also, the game reminded me that I really dislike fixed camera systems, where the angle changes dramatically from scene to scene. This could have just had a fixed behind the character view like Crash Bandicoot and it would be fine, but instead I can be mid jump and the camera is suddenly dramatically different.

I'm not saying I hated it. It was better than Knack 1. It just didn't feel different enough beyond additional combat moves.
 
From the demo, I thought it was competent but it was also a bit boring. The combat did not feel satisfying, there was not much enemy variety and the level design was not very interesting.
 
I always like to think that people who genuienly think Knack is a good game never played 3D Mario or Devil May Cry/Bayonetta. It's average at best.
 
Collingwood said:
It wasnt different enough from the first game, which already wasn't great.

It's like Cerny thought all the jokes were for real and just released a new version of the same game thinking people actually liked the first one.
Click to expand...

Mark Cerny can't decipher sarcastic memes it seems.

Memes are our ruination.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The Backbone gen 2 controller for iOS/Android is actually pretty good
1
167
Spukc replied
PGA 2K25 is pretty frickin good
9
309
Trilobit replied
High on Life 2, good so far
2 3
105
2K
kevboard replied
How is Streets of Rage 4 so good GAF?
2
74
959
Hudo replied
Hironobu Sakaguch thinks AI is pretty awesome
2
56
395
FauxXeno replied
Top Bottom