Review: Portal Knights
In today’s video game environment, we’re not exactly experiencing a lack of RPG’s, crafting games or even combinations of the two. As that is our reality, a trip into the voxel-filled world of “Portal Knights” isn’t necessarily something we haven’t seen before. That being said, it appears as though Keen Games has injected their newest title with a healthy dose of N64 nostalgia—if this game came out back when I was in middle school, I would have lost my shit.
“Portal Knights” starts off in true RPG fashion—the player gets a choice of generic character classes (fighter, ranger and wizard), along with a better-than-expected character customization tool. The character designs are very similar to those of the Nintendo Mii, which is where the nostalgia factor begins germinating in the nerd forebrain. Creating this adorable little warrior immediately evokes memories of that first digital avatar for the Wii. After the game’s quick tutorial, the player is thrust into a perfectly adorable world filled with Zelda-esque monsters and zillions of crafting options.
Perhaps the most innovative thing about “Portal Knights” is that it plays like a sandbox game that comes included with different levels. Every monster that falls under the player’s blade, bow or staff coughs up shards of Portal Stones that can be used to activate a gateway to another biome. Each biome has a unique set of enemies, resources and secrets that make exploration engaging and rewarding. Certain biomes can also be barren of particular resources, forcing the player to get creative. For example, I found myself needing to build a workbench in the middle of a desert. Since there were no trees for me to chop down, I had to horde logs by killing orc-like creatures until I had my quota. Also, the crafting element of the game fed nicely into the RPG elements, since new weapons and armor could only be equipped once the player found the necessary components and crafted them.
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Score: 7/10
