Knights Contract is a game I have a difficult time with. I found myself unable to like the game no matter how hard I tried. I found myself even unable to find a reason to want to see the game through to its conclusion. There is not an element of the gameplay that did not end up frustrating me to the point of wanting to pull out the disc and snap it in half. There is a boss fight early on that will test the limit of any gamer who decided to try out this game. To them, I say this: it is not worth it. This is my main problem with this game, that it does nothing to justify itself in a sea of similar titles. There is just no reason for it on the shelf next to any number of action adventure titles.
Story
The game follows the story of Heinrich who was cursed with immortality after he executed a group of witches. After walking the land for hundreds of years being unable to die, Heinrich finally finds Gretchen, the very witch who cursed him resurrected into a super model body. Turns out all the witches that Heinrich killed have decided to come back and kill all of humanity. Now it’s up to the two of them to stop the evils unleashed all while trying to rid Heinrich of his immortality.
Gameplay
Where the story has the interesting premise of playing as the hero who can’t die, it turns out to be the premise of a misguided attempt at reinventing the escort mission. I can strongly say that it fails in this attempt. If there was ever a reason to finally legally outlaw the escort mission in gaming, this game makes a strong case for it, especially when the person you’re escorting loves to run recklessly to her death. There are few things more frustrating than being forced to watch your companion die while you’re desperately mashing the X button and swearing at the TV.
The actual combat is pretty boring as it is. You have a basic set of combos that feel less like a mighty warrior ripping through his foes and more like a giant man just swinging a blade around with random abandon. There is never a sense of precision in any of the attacks. The only time it feels sharp is when you time a perfect spell and manage to pull off an over-the-top finisher move. This, however, leaves combat feeling more like you’re just waiting for Gretchen’s spells to recharge and that the attacks are more or less to keep the bad guys at bay.
The boss fights are where the crippling issues this game has really shine through. Suddenly, the game decides that immortality doesn’t work when dropped off a ledge, so the majority of arenas where you face one of the numerous boss encounters are littered with sudden death moments that sneak up on the gamer. To cap it off, every fight ends with the most frustrating quick time events that I can remember. Not only are they long but they also have the most random input choices. The best part is that when I failed any of the inputs, the boss was given back half of its health, and I had to completely repeat the drawn out cut-scene praying not to fail one more time. It is annoying, to the extent where I felt the need to rip the disc out of my system and snap it in half in frustration.
Visual
The graphics are hit or miss. Some of the bosses are truly sights to behold. The minions on the other hand leave a lot to be desired. Most of them are just different versions of the same model. One may have a white shine while the other holds two swords instead of one. There is never really any variation in bad guys with the exception of a color palette. Not that it really matters as the game never encourages any sort of variety in the dispatching of the enemies, meaning that you will only use a hand full of attack combos against every enemy in the game.
The environments do nothing to aid the game. They all have stale backdrops that never add any imagination to an era of fantasy that has been done over and over again and much better. There is never anything creative to see as Heinrich slowly trudges through his surroundings. It doesn’t help that the maps offered no elements to help me from getting lost later in the game.
Overall
Knights Contract ends up being a game that simply isn’t fun. Every element in the game seems to feel unpolished and with almost no care put into the design choices to entertain anyone who would play. It all comes down to a game that I can not recommend to a single gamer. It amounts to an exercise in frustration that lacks any semblance of fun. I can not stress enough that this is a game to avoid. All I wanted to do was hug a game I loved close to me and try to forget the pain of Knights Contract.
"Knights Contract" is on sale February 22, 2011 and is rated M. Action, Adventure. Developed by Game Republic. Published by Namco Bandai Games.
