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The reviews were unfair with Knack

Echoenigma said:
I don't understand how an adult gamer could play through so much of knack's simplistic, repetitive combat without getting bored. The Lego games have a thousand characters to make up for their limited scope, but knack has nothing like that.

Like, if that satisfies you, power to you, but don't be surprised when others criticize it for lacking subtsance.
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On Hard mode, it's actually pretty challenging. There are also time attacks that you unlock once you beat the main game.
 
I thought the reviews were spot on. Everything about the game was so generic IMO and one of the most boring and predictable stories in a game. The actual game play was not horrible but it wasn't great as it got repetitive for me fast. Coupled with the fact the game has framerate issues when it's clearly not a graphical powerhouse and was made by the system architect for PS4 (mark cerny), I had much higher hopes for that game.
 
godelsmetric said:
yes, strangely enough, they have been unfair with every single PS4 exclusive...a """coincidence"""...I'll leave it to you to decide......

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Nah, not true. If anything reviewers were too kind to KillZone and Resogun. Knack deserved better.
 
JazzmanZ said:
Dude if you liked the game who cares about review scores?
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I do, if I like a game I might want the developer to make a sequel. However, if the game is poorly received, then countless people who use reviews as a factor in their purchasing decisions will avoid the game. The game sells poorly, and it gets no sequel. I really want Rage 2.
 
Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
On Hard mode, it's actually pretty challenging. There are also time attacks that you unlock once you beat the main game.
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Challenge doesn't necessarily make up for baby-game simplicity in my book.

If the game ends up on Plus, I'll happily give it a shot, but judging from all the footage I've seen and the arguments people resort to in its defense, it doesn't sound like it's worth the time when there are so many other games to play.
 
Well, my five year old loves it so I guess it was a good purchase. I enjoyed the cut scenes that i watched and it was cool watching him find some of the secret areas
 
PelekotansDream said:
I do, if I like a game I might want the developer to make a sequel. However, if the game is poorly received, then countless people who use reviews as a factor in their purchasing decisions will avoid the game. The game sells poorly, and it gets no sequel. I really want Rage 2.
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But Rage has a pretty good metacritic score. If you're not getting another Rage, it's because it didn't pay off financially, or because IdTech 5 is a dead-end, or because the devs want to return to an established franchise. Or because scores don't always translate into sales.
 
I'm usually all for acknowledging the subjectivity of different people's likes/desires when it comes to games... but Knack fucking sucks.
 
hey_it's_that_dog said:
But Rage has a pretty good metacritic score. If you're not getting another Rage, it's because it didn't pay off financially, or because IdTech 5 is a dead-end, or because the devs want to return to an established franchise. Or because scores don't always translate into sales.
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Ah, well I chose a bad example, but I'm just trying to say, that reviews can potentially affect game sales which has an impact on developer support and that can be worrisome if you love a franchise.
 
hey_it's_that_dog said:
Challenge doesn't necessarily make up for baby-game simplicity in my book..
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Challenge causes you to use moves other than just mashing square square square.

It's the same as God of War. Play on easy difficulty, you can just get through the game mashing one combo. Harder difficulty leads you to use more of the game's mechanics.

For Knack, that means the different combos with square and triangle, the shockwaves, the ground based and air based dodges/dashes, and implementing them correctly against an enemy.

The reviews do seem unfair to me based on my experience with the game, it doesn't deserve such a low score. Should be at least 10 points higher. (while still personally scoring it higher than that) But honestly, maybe I would agree with the score for this game the way it is right now if I had played through it on normal.

Despite liking the game though, there is definite room for improvements like:

Level layout, open-ness, actual story, character motivations, and the game dragged on for a few hours too long at the end. And if reviewers played on normal difficulty and were able to get through it by mashing square, then that needs to be adjusted, still offer an easy mode where this is an option, sure, but the normal difficulty mode should have you try out most of the skills available to you.

If a sequel is made, those are some things I would like addressed. More combat options, like counters, are always welcome as well.
 
The last time I remember truly raging out over an "unfair" review was Hilary Goldstein's IGN review for the 2002 futuristic racer, Quantum Redshift (Xbox). Damn I loved that game so much. I'll never forgive that bastard for giving it a 6.2. :p

At the time, I specifically remember feeling that it would hurt sales and I was appropriately indignant. I've since come to realize that opinions are just opinions, and it's okay to voice the full spectrum of good to bad, provided there's at least some logical reasoning behind it in most cases. But man did it burn my briefs back in the day. In this sense, I can totally feel where the OP is coming from. It's tough to feel like forces outside of your control are steering the direction of experiences you want more of, like many an ex-girlfriend, lol.

These days, scores that don't align with my own generally don't bother me. I get an occasional twinge from high-profile outlets I don't agree with (Hey PC Gamer, that 4/10 you gave Farming Simulator 15? Yeah, you're wrong and you suck.) But it's pretty freeing to just let people think and say what they want, come hell or high water. To not be burdened with indignation every time my tastes don't match up with a professional (or non-pro) critique. Life's to short for that crap. Future games I enjoy will either be green-lit or not. No sense in hand-wringing over it.

Now if you'll excuse my I've got some virtual-crops that need tending.
 
It's playable, competent, and looks really nice. Those are the best things I can say about the game.

It wasn't a disaster at all, and made an adequate launch title, which presumably was it's only purpose anyway. It's not unfair to say it was a bad game, or even a shit game because that's how opinions work.
 
nuttyevans said:
Reviews were quite generous in my opinion.
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Indeed. I've never seen such an unambitious, mediocre title get such positive reviews.

Still can barely believe the game was made at all, actually, and a console launch exclusive title at that.
 
It's a fun game yet not a very good one. It's way too long, too repetitive, the character designs are horrible, the music forgettable, the surroundings bland and so on. But since it's the only game close to a (pseudo) 3D JnR (with checkpoints and all that, JnR were you basically can't die can rot in hell) ever since the PS2 gen(not counting Nintendo consoles) I had a blast with it.

So even though it's my favorite game this gen so far the mediocre reviews were completely justified.

A game can be bad and still a lot of fun, like Onechenbara on the 360.
 
farisr said:
Challenge causes you to use moves other than just mashing square square square.

It's the same as God of War. Play on easy difficulty, you can just get through the game mashing one combo. Harder difficulty leads you to use more of the game's mechanics.

For Knack, that means the different combos with square and triangle, the shockwaves, the ground based and air based dodges/dashes, and implementing them correctly against an enemy.

The reviews do seem unfair to me based on my experience with the game, it doesn't deserve such a low score. Should be at least 10 points higher. (while still personally scoring it higher than that) But honestly, maybe I would agree with the score for this game the way it is right now if I had played through it on normal.

Despite liking the game though, there is definite room for improvements like:

Level layout, open-ness, actual story, character motivations, and the game dragged on for a few hours too long at the end. And if reviewers played on normal difficulty and were able to get through it by mashing square, then that needs to be adjusted, still offer an easy mode where this is an option, sure, but the normal difficulty mode should have you try out most of the skills available to you.

If a sequel is made, those are some things I would like addressed. More combat options, like counters, are always welcome as well.
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But God of War has more complex systems than Knack, more interesting level design, decent puzzles and platforming, and it was immensely ambitious at the time and remains known for its spectacle - all of this irrespective of difficulty. No matter how hard you crank up Knack's difficulty, the complexity remains low, even if it demands more from the player in terms of reflexes and doing the right thing at the right time. I mean, many, many video games, at a minimum, demand player decisions and reactions on the level that Knack does. That doesn't make them all good.

Also, a single person cannot be the arbiter of what is "fair" or "deserved" when it comes to subjective game reviews. Just accept that you diverged from the consensus. It's okay. There's no "unfairness" to speak of here. Unless you think every single person who didn't like it as much as you is being insincere in their opinion. You don't think that, I'm sure.
 
As I saw someone bringing up Lego games. Those games are on-par or even worse than Knack in just about any metric I can think of, and their relatively high reviews were always puzzling to me. The only way I can explain it is that the license makes people look the other way.
 
Lord Error said:
As I saw someone bringing up Lego games. Those games are on-par or even worse than Knack in just about any metric I can think of, and their relatively high reviews were always puzzling to me. The only way I can explain it is that the license makes people look the other way.
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Many of them, unlike Knack, are good. That's the major difference.
 
I got it for $5 in a recent sale and it's okay but im very happy I didn't pay more for it and if it were my bundled game at launch I'd have been pretty disappointed
 
It's probably, by far, the actual game of generation
 
It was a mediocre game that would have been slammed score-wise even more if it came out outside of the launch window.
 
TM94 said:
Why do people act like a game is their friend or something?

It got bad reviews, who cares?

You like it, great. Don't whine just because they didn't like it as much as you.
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well, I pay good money for my friends
 
Derpyduck said:
Many of them, unlike Knack, are good. That's the major difference.
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I played a few (not to completion, mind), including the last one that got something like 80% average scores - and they're all same simplistic, repetitive drivel that requires absolutely nothing out of player. Which is eerily the same thing you get out of playing Knack on easy difficulty. The only major plus for lego games I can think of is that they always rely on a combination of two lovable licenses, or maybe because it's assumed that only children would ever play them, so they're scored accordingly.
 
Knack was fun but should have been 8 hours shorter and I would have liked some sections where you could decide to grow bigger or not instead of it being dictated by the story.
 
farisr said:
Challenge causes you to use moves other than just mashing square square square.

It's the same as God of War. Play on easy difficulty, you can just get through the game mashing one combo. Harder difficulty leads you to use more of the game's mechanics.

For Knack, that means the different combos with square and triangle, the shockwaves, the ground based and air based dodges/dashes, and implementing them correctly against an enemy.

The reviews do seem unfair to me based on my experience with the game, it doesn't deserve such a low score. Should be at least 10 points higher. (while still personally scoring it higher than that) But honestly, maybe I would agree with the score for this game the way it is right now if I had played through it on normal.

Despite liking the game though, there is definite room for improvements like:

Level layout, open-ness, actual story, character motivations, and the game dragged on for a few hours too long at the end. And if reviewers played on normal difficulty and were able to get through it by mashing square, then that needs to be adjusted, still offer an easy mode where this is an option, sure, but the normal difficulty mode should have you try out most of the skills available to you.

If a sequel is made, those are some things I would like addressed. More combat options, like counters, are always welcome as well.
Click to expand...
You're really overselling the gameplay in Knack.
I finished the game on hard and got through the game by mashing one combo. In fact, I found that the bad, under cooked gameplay design favoured that,rather than utilizing the other moves in Knack's already anemic arsenal due to them being next to useless.

Knack's dodge has shitty range and horrible recovery. Using the move in the sort of tight spots youd normally find yourself wanting to dodge out of results in you getting hit by a follow upattack more often than not. It's always better to jump out of the way.

Same with the air attack too. It's much more effective to jump in without attacking (like a safe jump in Streetfighter) then start punching when you land next to an enemy. That's all you need to do. The whole game. Over and over.
 
Lord Error said:
I played a few (not to completion, mind), including the last one that got something like 80% average scores - and they're all same simplistic, repetitive drivel that requires absolutely nothing out of player. Which is eerily the same thing you get out of playing Knack on easy difficulty. The only major plus for lego games I can think of is that they always rely on a combination of two lovable licenses, or maybe because it's assumed that only children would ever play them, so they're scored accordingly.
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I think the consistently positive reactions from so many different people, in addition to sales popularity, shows you may not understand what people get out of those games. Leveraging them specifically for a comparison in favor of Knack (which didn't manage similar popularity/reviews) won't help others see your point of view. Kids are more discerning than people give them credit, once a game is in front of them.
 
Played the game on hard mode with my other half and we both enjoyed it very much, was much more fun and exciting then I expected.
 
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