Spiral Knights
Spiral Knights is a cooperative adventure in a persistent world with a focus on instant, fast-paced action. Arm yourself and join the ranks of the Spiral Knights; stranded on an alien world, they must explore the ever-changing Clockworks beneath its surface in hopes of reaching its mysterious Core. The Spiral Knights have awoken on an alien world. Their equipment stores have been raided and their starship, The Skylark, will not recover from the crash. Now they must work together to survive on a journey that will take them to the very core of the world. Cradle is a hostile planet teeming with all manner of alien creatures. Any hope of survival you may have rests on your ability to amass an arsenal of weapons and gear that will provide you with the right options for any environment. As a Spiral Knight you have total freedom to customize and use your arsenal however you choose! Once some kind of mining outpost, Haven serves as the makeshift base camp for Spiral HQ. From within the safety of its walls, knights can find an array of goods and services offered by the locals. Everything from purchasing new weapons and gear to alchemizing powerful items from strange materials is right at your fingertips!
Spiral Knights Review
When I first heard about Spiral Knights, I knew I had to give it a go. It looked like an enjoyable top-down, action-adventure game with which to while away the hours, and the fact that the art style is so appealing didn’t hurt either. I naturally assumed that, as the game has thrown out a character-based levelling system and relies on heavy instancing, it would be a bit of a system shock for my poor themepark-attuned sensitivities and force me out of my comfort zone. I was right, but not necessarily in a good way. Three Ring Designs have clearly put a lot of effort into the game but whilst playing it I found myself constantly asking the same question: where the hell is my energy?
One of the game’s stand-out features is its lack of an arbitrary advancement structure based around stats; rather every knight enters the game ready to hit the clockworks. Advancement is instead done through gear, with every item having a star rating from 1 to 5 indicating how strong it is. Gear is obtained either through trading in tokens from bosses or, far more commonly, through buying a recipe then using materials obtained in the clockworks to craft it. On top of this is the item’s “heat level” which may be increased by killing enemies, making it slightly stronger.
As a result of this system, once you’re out of the tutorial area, you’re at endgame. From here on out, you can choose between the two different types of PvP on offer, or instead focus on the clockworks, a series of descending levels each one harder than the last.
Unfortunately the structure of the game makes it feel very grindy, very fast. The fact that once you’re out of the tutorial area you’re right at the endgame only makes things worse. Energy restrictions are just too harsh and turn what could have been a fun distraction into a thankless, stop/start grind. After hitting Tier 2 I got stuck in a rut, running for crowns to buy energy to run for crowns to buy energy ad infinitum. No matter how addictive it starts off being, the fun dissipates fast. Whilst I’d class myself as a chronic completionist, I felt no incentive whatsoever to try and collect all the weapons or costumes on offer as it just meant I’d have fewer resources with which to actually play. Whilst it probably comes down to personal taste, I struggle to imagine how anyone could find this a satisfying use of their game-time.
If the energy system gets a revamp in the future, I’d be more than happy to look at the game again. But as it stands currently, sticking with the world of Spiral Knights requires saint-like patience and dedication…or perhaps just a willingness to use a credit card.
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Summary
Ultimately, I’d encourage you to give Spiral Knights a go as you’ll know before you’ve expended your first 100 points of mist energy whether you want to keep playing. The question of whether you’ll have the strength I lacked to grind your way out of the constrictions of the energy system is another question entirely. If you treat the game as a dip in/dip out sort of affair, then I think it’s possible to really enjoy it.