Kill Knight review – the Dark Souls of dual-stick shooters

A new indie shooter combines the weapons systems of Doom with the action of Smash H.Q. and the difficultly of Elden Ring.

The video games industry is suffering from a worrying array of deep-seated issues right now, and not all of them are related. The problem of soaring budgets and development times is by now well known, leading to increasingly few triple-A titles being released every year. But that does not mean the overall number of tiles is decreasing, in fact, the opposite is happening.

A total of 14,387 new games were released on Steam last year, marking a 14% increase on 2022. We’re only in October and this year’s total is already at 14,669. By comparison, only 1,376 games were ever released for the NES in its entire lifetime, increasing only to 2,154 for the Xbox 360, and 3,414 for the PlayStation 4.

It’s no coincidence that the console with the most games is also the one that’s most friendly towards indie games, with the Nintendo Switch having a current total of 11,555. That is far too many to cover in detail and so it is that discoverability has become near impossible for indie games, with hidden gems buried ever deeper by a mountain of chaff. So thank goodness we found out about Kill Knight in time.

We did get a press release from the publisher about Kill Knight, but we get dozens of those a day from indie companies and it’s almost impossible to guess from them which titles might be worth covering. However, we received enough recommendations from readers that we wanted to make sure we reviewed Kill Knight, especially as it’s a twin-stick shooter with bullet hell elements – which we can never say no to.

There’s very little story to speak off (you play a betrayed knight fighting to kill the last angel, or something) but that’s perfectly fine because the game is solely focused on its action. It’s a twin-stick shooter – our favourite kind of golden age arcade game – as exemplified by the glorious, and shamefully ignored, Nex Machina.

Surprisingly though, one of the most obvious inspirations for the game is the two most recent Doom games, in terms of the tempo and relentlessness of the combat. Rather than fearing being overrun by hordes of hellspawn you welcome it, as you use the rewards from dispatching them to make yourself even more powerful. Also, it’s really, really, hard. Especially when you’re learning the game’s systems.

At first, your armoury seems woefully insufficient for the task ahead, since you only have dual pistols (there’s also an air of Devil May Cry about the game, made more obvious by the orbs dropped by enemies); a limited ammo secondary weapon; and a multi-use sword that can destroy armour, slow down time, and set off a powerful area of effect attack if you wield it effectively.

Your dash-dodge is also a vital part of your repartee, especially at the beginning of a fight, before you’ve been able to build yourself up.

Just like Doom, different weapons reward you with different items, when you use them to slaughter the enemy. The basic blood gems increase your strength and speed but can also be saved to zap enemies with a beam that sees them disgorging health power-ups when you destroy them.

Paradoxically, sword kills reward you with secondary weapon ammo, while a Gears Of War style active reload grants you a variety of different bonuses, depending on how you set it off, from more gems or ammo to a more powerful sword attack.

Kill Knight screenshot — Kill Knight – the more enemies the merrier (PlaySide)

There are only five levels, that shift their design after each wave, but the game’s difficulty is such that that will keep you busy for a very long time. Although you can unlock new weapons and equipment by earning coins and completing objectives. Some items actually make the game harder though, while increasing your score (there’s an online leaderboard that some fans clearly take very seriously).

Kill Knight isn’t reinventing the wheel and its variety in terms of visuals and enemies is not all that it could be, but the combat is perfectly orchestrated, with silky smooth controls and great pacing. From looking at a video you’d think the whole thing was an incomprehensible mess of movement and colour but when you’re in the zone and playing it, it all comes together beautifully as you orchestrate your own ballet of hellish violence.

It’s exactly the sort of game that could only exist as an indie title and we’re glad we had time to give it its due, but who knows how many other great games are out there, all but ignored by critics and the public at large. There’s no obvious solution to this problem, since you can’t tell people to stop making new games. But we can advise you to start playing Kill Knight.

Kill Knight review summary

In Short: An excellent twin-stick shooter that borrows liberally from the likes of Doom and Devil May Cry, to create a punishingly difficult but extremely rewarding arcade game.

Pros: Perfectly balanced combat system, with a wide range of interconnected weapons and abilities. Solid controls and lots of unlockable extras.

Cons: Monochromatic colour scheme eventually becomes tiresome, and it could do with more enemies and levels. No real new ideas of its own.

Score: 8/10

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £11.59
Publisher: PlaySide
Developer: PlaySide
Release Date: 2nd October 2024
Age Rating: 12