Kill Knight Review (Switch eShop)

Ah yes, the seemingly endless embrace of death, interspersed with feverish ability management and hordes of enemies shattering your fragile health bar. This is our relaxation time.

Kill Knight is a ferocious bullet hell with a heavy metal aesthetic and thumping score that recalls the modern Doom cycle. It’s an isometric twin-stick chaos simulator that’s painfully challenging from the start, but deeply satisfying to master.

There’s no real story to speak of, save for some beautifully rendered sequences depicting a cursed knight venturing into the abyss to defeat legions of demons and their masters. Like the best shooters, this game is content to let you make your own plot, written in blood and bullet casings.

At the centre of its mechanical loop are precisely timed ability triggers that can buff damage and unleash devastating attacks. The rhythm of shoot-counter-dodge is close in spirit to the glory kill system in id Software’s aforementioned Doom reboot and its sequel. PlaySide Studios' twitchy shooter manages to carve its own bloody identity though, thanks to a diverse moveset made available for experimentation from the outset.

Our titular deliverer of hell-bound vengeance has a set of pistols, heavy weapon, and melee at their disposal. Pistols are your primary fire, boasting infinite ammo and an active reload system that temporarily boosts damage and movement speed. Kill Knight’s heavy weapon offers power and spread, but has finite ammo that can be replenished by melee kills. Speaking of melee, precisely timed use of the knight's sword can slow down time or break through armoured enemies. The sword also charges up a screen-filling AOE attack, useful for when you’re overwhelmed (which is almost constantly).

Demons drop blood gems when destroyed, increasing the knight’s speed and pistol damage when hoovered up. This resource also fills the wrath gauge, which can be used to fire massive energy bursts that turn enemies into health-spewing piñatas.

Battles play out on shifting arenas, a constant influx of enemies swarming our armour-clad hero. With each defeated wave, the kill box shifts and you have more/less room to manoeuvre around the armies of hell. A dash ability will help to navigate incoming damage. Adding to the ratcheting levels of stress, the dash is slower than the usual rapid blink we see in other games of this ilk.

Enemy variety increases as you progress through layers, with larger creatures joining armoured and projectile flavours. Environmental obstacles, like deadly spikes and lasers, also add to the fun. These force you to manage space much more stringently in later stages.

This is not a game that eases you into its meat grinder, it's an instantly punishing experience that may put some off. Feeling like you have a grasp on the abilities, only to get pancaked in the first layer of the opening level is a harsh welcome to the abyss. Revisiting the tutorials and getting used to the full suite of counter triggers (and when to use them effectively) will make things much more forgiving.

Thankfully, there are plenty of reasons to persevere. Beating your own scores is compulsive enough, but there's also an online leaderboard to slowly crawl up. There are five levels to churn through, each with multiple layers to clear before you progress. Four difficulties add further variation, with even the lowest (aptly named ‘regret’) still being a significant challenge.

Each new layer has you check off a list of goals, which unlock equipment and weaponry. These can make Kill Knight's journey significantly easier, or in some cases, much harder (the things we do for a high score). Carnelian memories are debuffs that add to the score multiplier but sacrifice the effectiveness of your skills.

As you improve and unlock more flashy instruments of death, the just-one-more-go compulsion of Kill Knight becomes overwhelming. Each explosion of fire and blood will rain down damage multipliers and health to keep you in the fight. Death will come, but there's never a time when it feels unfair, only serving to strengthen your resolve.

Responsiveness is key in navigating the abyssal armies, a requirement met by a brilliantly optimised Switch experience. The constant movement and busy screen clutter never elicit a performance hit. The mayhem is just as smooth undocked, with the murky art style looking clear and bright on the smaller screen. The control scheme is fully customisable, which is a great feature for those of us that struggle with the console's grip in games that require constant input.

It’s often hard to recommend games that punish as much as they entertain. Titles like Hades (of which Kill Knight shares a lot of DNA) offer a smooth difficulty curve and accommodating options for casual players. PlaySide wants you to work for your enjoyment.