The Knightling review

It starts with a tragedy. Beloved knight Sir Lionstone doesn’t return home from a quest, and all he leaves behind is his glove, his shield, and his scrawny assistant, the Knightling. All is not lost, however: his Knightling believes Sir Lionstone is simply lost rather than dead, and wants to set out on a mission to find him. Except: what does a mere Knightling know about adventure and bravery? Well, it turns out quite a lot — especially when you’re equipped with your master’s shield.

And so begins The Knightling, an adventure that sees the underdog become the hero as you head out to find your lost master. It turns out Sir Lionstone’s shield, with a bit of modification, makes an excellent accessory, and soon after starting, you’ll be able to wield it like a weapon, throw it like a boomerang and slide down hills on it like a sledge. It’s quite the piece of kit, then, and with meaningful upgrades doled out to you throughout your time with The Knightling, it remains your most valuable asset. Perhaps your only asset, in fact.

It’s a good job, then, that wielding the shield feels seriously satisfying, which is a surprise given how big it is in comparison to your scrawny Knightling. He can swing it with ease, it’s responsive to your button presses, and using it like a sledge might be one of the biggest joys in video games of recent years. So much so that The Knightling’s open world presents you with multiple opportunities to engage in time trial races utilising your shield in this way. They’re entirely optional, of course, but you’re not getting the most out of your time with this game if you’re ignoring most of the side activities.

You see, The Knightling is an open world adventure, and while there is a main questline to follow, there’s plenty of other stuff to be done if you choose to. You’ll certainly want to explore this world, as traversal here is a great deal of fun, and not just because of that afore-mentioned sledging. Your Knightling is a nimble little thing and he can run, jump and more. There’s a lot of verticality here and you’ll find yourself jumping on oversized toadstools in order to reach rooftops and clifftops. When you’re not scaling buildings, you’re sledding down aqueducts, which is seriously entertaining indeed.

What sets The Knightling apart from a typical open world action adventure game is its reliance on deep puzzles. You’ll regularly find yourself in dungeon-like areas that require a serious amount of brain power to get through. You’ll need to activate switches, make use of your shield’s abilities and utilise your Knightling’s traversal skills to succeed. For the most part, the puzzles are well designed and solving them leaves you with a nice feeling of satisfaction, but I have found that one or two outstay their welcome a little. They can go on a bit too long, and sometimes you’ll simply want to get back to the action.

Speaking of action, I have mixed feelings about it. As I’ve already mentioned, using your shield as a weapon is enjoyable enough, and you have a range of moves from the off, with more unlocking as you play. But when it comes to combat, the fight style here is heavily geared towards blocking and parrying, dodging and timing your attacks just right. It isn’t as demanding as the likes of Dark Souls, of course, but it still feels a bit too much given The Knightling’s otherwise lighthearted style. Find yourself pursued by multiple enemies and it can get pretty messy: the camera and controls just aren’t quite tight enough for combat to feel flawless. I’m very grateful for the easy difficulty option, let’s put it that way.

Still, as a full package, I’ve had a great time with The Knightling, and there’s a lot to enjoy, even if the combat isn’t perfect. Exploring the world around you is a joy, traversal is excellent, and the writing here is surprisingly sharp. A more accessible combat style might have suited the game better, but it’s hard to mind too much when the rest of this whimsical adventure is so entertaining.