Knight Squad: Chivalry is Dead
The Knight Squad station within the XBox One pavilion on the PAX Prime 2014 expo floor was unassuming. Nestled between the fluorescent Sunset Overdrive wall and the irresistible Dragon Age: Inquisition multiplayer demos, I might have missed it if it wasn’t for the people screaming while jamming buttons on their controllers. Knight Squad for the PC by Chainsawesome Games was the clear champion of PAX when it came to frantic competitive couch multiplayer.
Orange Knight with the Drill in the Soccer Match
Yet another early access title that surprisingly polished, Knight Squad is an arcade party game for up to eight (eight!) players, either local or online. The game doesn’t require its players to make the usual compromises one has to make with proto-products; Knight Squad is ready to provide you and up to seven of your frenemies a great time right now.
With the presentation of Smash TV or Bomberman, you take the role of what Hannah called a “tiny awkward knight” in insane game modes. The game has precisely calibrated controls lending you just enough control to get your knight into trouble but not enough to get out of it. Knights can only turn so quickly and the stabbing animation of your one sword attack is as fickle as it is deadly. Two knights will often engage in a hilariously ineffective do-si-do, spinning in perfectly timed circles so their swords miss at every pass just so a third knight can motor in and run both through with a single thrust. Respawning takes about five seconds so the game is never frustrating, despite the fact that it demands that you play it on its terms with its delightfully wonky controls.
The game comes packaged with eight game modes that are bound to change in number and particularities as the game is developed. The ones I’ve experienced haven’t lasted more than five minutes, keeping the competition brisk and varied. You’ll find classic modes like team capture the flag, the skillful last man standing mode, the indiscernible boulder-rolling soccer mode, and the blood splattered king of the hill mode. There are also a variety power ups that give a simple game like Knight Squad a much needed unpredictability, giving knights speed boosts, laser guns, drills to break down walls, and even an army of minions so effective they’d make Aragorn’s Army of the Dead feel insecure. These power ups take about fifteen seconds to respawn after being collected, so buckle up for perpetually zany antics.
Am I getting this across clearly enough? This game is crazy and it is fun.
The Best Kind of Multiplayer
When we were in elementary school and basements were where you kept personal computers, my best friend and I used to download DOS multiplayer games through my blazingly fast 56k modem. Simple, crude games like Scorched Earth or Marshmallow Duel. Their ability to provide giggle-ridden clusterfucks provided hours of effortless multiplayer fun. The kind of effortless where you keep playing until you realize that you’re starving, and you look at the clock to discover that not only did you miss lunch but it’s somehow dinner time.
Playing Knight Squad at PAX was exactly that caliber time warping multiplayer experience. During the five short matches I played the chaos of the expo floor dissolved. The glittering signs and the blasting speakers disappeared for five minutes at a time while I was piloted my clumsy knight through one deathmatch after another. The game was just so entertaining and so consumable, even with complete strangers, that deciding to play just one more round was always the correct choice. In fact, after playing, I gathered up my friends and brought them all to play later the same day.
Knight Squad: The Verdict
Even in early access Knight Squad is a steal at $9.99 on Steam if you have a group of three to eight friends to play with, either on a couch with a big screen or over Steam. If you want to yell at your friends and punch some shoulders, this game is not something that you can afford to pass up. The AI is pretty darn good, bots won more than a few matches when I was playing on the expo floor, but even functional AI can’t replace the screams and drama that happen when playing with your friends. Knight Squad has perfected the fast pace of chaotic multiplayer matches, you and your friends won’t be able to put it down. Recommended!
