Shady Knight Review (PC) – Knight of The Living Shroud

Shady Knight is one of those games that epitomises what it is to enter a flow state. Launching myself from a chain point, I dash into a floating sword, dropkick a mid-air knight and land with the explosive power of a volcano; right before sliding off a ramp to reach the end goal, severing it with my newly acquired sword. The score screen appears, I laud my S rank with glee, and I feel great. Similar in style to Ghostrunner 2, Shady Knight is all about the first-person fast movement and punchy combat.

When I was in those moments of fluid violence, lurching from one assaulting fiend to the next, I was ideally encapsulated in my tunnel-visioned bubble. This makes it all the more frustrating that Shady Knight seems to be intent on disrupting that intoxicating flow. Whether through slight mechanical mishaps, confusing level design or mob-mentality enemy encounters, Shady Knight often pierces its own armour to burst its own bubble.

50 Shades of Knights

The setup for Shady Knight is straight to the point story-wise, with this game being as non-invasive as it gets. You’re a shady knight, working your way through an ethereal world called the Nexus. You’ve been overcome by a larger, even shadier knight than yourself. Despite taking his arm, you’re felled, and you must work your way through 4-5 circles of redemptive purgatory to best your shrouded foe. No cutscenes for the most part, just all-action and the occasional snippet of written text.

For a game solely focused on the gameplay experience, this works. You can get straight into the action and work on slicing that enigmatic figure immediately. To that end, you must best (or like me, endure) a series of increasingly difficult levels. They’re all short-and-sweet, usually a couple of minutes in length. Whilst the time spent might be sweet, the enemies standing in your way are most definitely more of the sour variety.

Shady Knight can and will be killed within two hits (in quick succession), so constant movement and utilisation of your environment are paramount to survival. Of course, meagerly getting by won’t be good enough, you need to look slick-as-hell doing it too. Combos, movements and defeating opponents increases your style meter, and so begins the sins of gluttony and lust for those illustrious SSS ranks. Careful of the depression that comes with seeing C rank at the menu screen – what is this, disappointing GCSE results day all over again?

Throwing Shade

Let’s start with what’s great about Shady Knight. Movement is fast-paced, fluid and feels great once you get to grips with the options. You have a grapple chain that will mantle you to objects, a slide jump for crazy distance and a whole array of ropes, chains and objects to mantle and manoeuvre using. I loved chaining onto an enemy to hurl them off of platforms or cruising in for a dropkick.

Levels are designed with a lot of verticality – you’re almost always moving in an upward trajectory and if you’re so inclined, you can even speedrun past enemies in most missions straight to the end. Combat is equally gratifying when combined with your rapid move set. There’s a handful of weapons you can pick up and swing around (or fire, in the bow’s case) which are solid enough. However, it’s the environmental weapons that are the most satisfying to make use of.

Hurling a barrel at an encroaching knight is always funny. Kick-juggling a poor, helpless sod into a wall of spikes is ever so gratifying. I never ceased to delight in stunning an enemy and then positioning myself to chain grab them Scorpion style, mentally yelling, “Get over here!” As they sailed over the platform to plummet to their doom. Meanwhile, your combo meter ticks up the more you do without getting hit or falling off yourself. When it works, Shady Knight is supremely fun and enjoyable.

A Knight’s Flail

So, where do things go wrong for Shady Knight? The level design’s focus on verticality is wonderful in some ways, as is the fluid and quick-blending movement with combat. My issues with the game stemmed from one of three main issues. The first is that while the architecture is a fantastic spectacle to climb, it can lead to frequent moments of, “Where am I supposed to be going now?” One level in the third main hub literally had me stumped to the point I thought it was glitched.

Trial-and-error when it comes to platforming is painful enough, but when the fast-flowing pace is brought to a halt because you have no idea where to go, it becomes frustrating. This isn’t helped by how sometimes, the mechanics don’t always work as intended. The range or aim to chain onto a grapple can be inconsistent at times (which may be due to the first-person camera) while swinging on ropes can be fiddly and annoying when you don’t have full vision of platforms.

Lastly, combat encounters can often descend into just staving off heaps of mobs instead of focusing on using your sandbox to reap the maximum amount of fun. At times, there are half a dozen enemies all vying for your head, leaving you next-to-no breathing space to actually plan your moves. It adds to the adrenaline rush at times, but in others I found myself struggling to get the most out of the game, as it felt like too much.

Yes, I know the point is to “git good”, but it’s a steep and often unforgiving learning curve that can be demoralising. I love games with a fast pace and intense action, but Shady Knight often leans a little too much into the “more is good” approach. I even skipped through one level altogether because the enemy encounters were just too aggravating to motivate me to do it “properly”.

Will The Real Knight Shady Please Stand Up

With all that said, there’s still a lot to like about Shady Knight. It feels like you’re playing a gem before it’s been totally refined. It’s raw in places, full of pumped-up zeal, but also prone to roughness. Enemy variety is very good, continually upping the ante and requiring more from the player. Whether it be shields that can only be downed by specific attacks, or Lancers who can jump off of walls and assault you like a spectre of Neo from the Matrix, Shady Knight always has a new threat to throw at you.

Visually it follows a similar pattern too. The relatively minimalist environments evoke a sense of purgatory and a land suspended in repentance. In terms of raw fidelity, there’s not a whole lot to sink your eyes into, but the shades of this knight are artistically pretty good. Animations imitate the sense of movement fluidity well and the dropdown sword slam looks and feels awesome.

As mentioned before, some improvements to creating more distinct visual cues for demonstrating progression through a level would have been welcome. However, while it’s not quite ready to blow the shadiness away, Shady Knight has enough of an arresting shadow to make an impression.

Shades of What Could Be

While I did enjoy my time with Shady Knight overall, I didn’t feel compelled to go back through. That desire to keep doing another run or to master a level I previously struggled with just wasn’t apparent to me. I do think for others this is the kind of game that will sink its grapple into you and you’ll struggle to escape it, thanks to its breakneck pace and stylish sandbox of options.

Unfortunately, I can imagine just as many others will find the obstructive level design, loose platforming and frustrating difficulty spikes arduous to persevere through. Bit of a Marmite-type experience – some will love the fact you can juggle kick knights off a tower, others will hate missing that grapple swing for the ninth time. I’m not certain about all of its execution, but I maintain that the concept brought to life (in death?) here is very cool indeed.

Perhaps with a bit more tuning and tweaking, Shady Knight will find its light to wash away the shadows once and for all.

Shady Knight is available October 9th on PC via Steam (review platform).

Developer: Alexey “cptnsigh”
Publisher: Alexey “cptnsigh”

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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