You’ve never played a twin-stick shooter quite like Kill Knight. This relentlessly intense action game may indeed be based around firing off a steady stream of projectiles as enemies swarm in, forcing you to dodge and shimmy your way to every corner of the game’s tightly enclosed arenas, but you also wield a sword – which itself feeds into the game’s (at least initially) overwhelming set of mechanics. Kill Knight is a densely layered twin-stick shooter, in other words, but it’s been designed that way with a very clear purpose – to sort the wheat from the chaff.
This is a return to old school arcade sensibilities; a straight-up high score chaser anchored in twin-stick shooter traditions, but also owing a lot to the likes of Dark Souls, Hyper Demon, and Doom Eternal. It is ruthlessly exacting, but never unfair, with over the top action and a skill ceiling that seemingly reaches up forever. It’s also, thankfully, a whole lot of fun.
The learning curve is undoubtedly steep, but I found myself quickly sucked in by the chunky, satisfying feel of Kill Knight’s frenetic combat – not to mention its elegant interlocking mechanics, striking lo-fi brutalist aesthetic, grim mood and killer soundscape. Playing Kill Knight is a whirling dervish of death, a high-speed mix of swords and gunplay, counters, and supercharged screen clears. It is a game in which wave upon wave of enemies constantly crowds in, forcing you into perpetual motion, dashing to reposition, lining up yo.