Knack is an exclusive PlayStation title that launched alongside the PS4 back in 2013, and it is getting a sequel featuring a new story and co-op mode. Knack 2 releases September 5, and as a preview, the PlayStation store is offering a free demo for players like myself to defeat enemies with Knack and get accustomed to the game’s controls for the very first time.
Knack released at a time where my primary console was the PS3, which is part of the reason that I am only slightly familiar with the game and have never played it. By the time I purchased my own PS4 two years later in 2015, I had my eyes on other titles and may have over looked Knack at the time.
With the sequel to Knack being announced a year later in 2016 and even more information on the game being provided this summer around E3, this game began to pique my interest mainly due to many people questioning why this game would even be getting a sequel in the first place.
Mark Cerny, Lead System Architect of the PS4, describes just one reason why Knack went into development again to create this sequel and makes its comeback to the PlayStation 4 years later.
The reason we are making a sequel to Knack is just that the team had a whole lot of ideas that they just didn’t manage to get into the first game. So, in a very real sense, what you’re seeing with Knack 2 are the items that ended up on the cutting room floor.
Apparently the “cutting room floor” Cerny was referring to included some exciting in-game features that just couldn’t be squeezed into the original title. With that said, it seems as though the team behind Knack really had some great ideas intended for their audience and the fact that they were able to revisit and show them off in Knack 2 means it must have truly been worth it!
The Demo
The Knack 2 demo is fairly short and will not take you more than 20 minutes to complete. It’s just enough to give you an idea of what Knack is capable of in terms of combat and his special shape shifting abilities. I did not get to try the demo out with a friend, but do keep in mind that this demo does allow the option for two players to play co-op style. As far as difficulty, there were four different settings: easy, normal, hard, and very hard.
I’m no rookie when it comes to platformers, so naturally I chose “normal” the first time around. However, when I chose “very hard” for my next play through, I realized that the game became much tougher and enemies weren’t able to be taken down as easily as I thought. The button mashing only got me so far and I had to carefully time dodges and attacks with Knack.
The camera angles in which you controlled Knack were also fun. There were times that Knack would go in literally every direction, which reminded me a bit of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and included jumping up on to roof tops and jumping down from high buildings.
Overall, this demo of Knack 2 was pretty fun and the ongoing montage on the demo screen gave me an idea of some of the adventures I could expect to see in the game. It ended at a point that left me wanting to continue on to the next stage and has me leaning towards making that purchase so that I can play this story without interruption.
At just $39.99, I believe that Knack 2 would be worth adding to the collection especially for those that are fans of platformers and beat-em-ups.
If you have not played the original Knack or are not sure if you want to pick up a copy when this game releases September 5, I would definitely suggest downloading and at least trying out the short demo.
