Imagine Gauntlet, but instead of fighting baddies, you are in a chaotic battle with seven other players, each battling out to be the victor. That’s exactly what Knight Squad 2 brings and it is as awesome as it sounds.
The game is a top down, action, arcade party game where you battle it out against other players (either other human or COM characters) in different scenarios: Capture the Grail (capture the flag style game), Battle Royale, and Payload.
In Capture the Grail, you race against other knights to grab the grail that is located in the middle of the area, and bring it back to your base. Of course, the other knights are trying to stop you, and if you get killed before you bring it back to your base, the Grail is dropped, and anyone else can pick up the Grail. You get points for each Grail you capture and points for each kill you get. This game mode is a timed event, and the time can be modified to best fit your game needs.
In Battle Royale, you battle it out against the other knights in a last man standing game mode. The default sets the game number of wins at three, but this can be modified as well.
The final mode that was included in the demo was the Payload scenario. In this game, you work with a squad of four other knights, as you work together to move a payload from the center of the room to the opponents cave. The way to move the payload is to stand next to the payload, which will change the color of the area around the payload to your team's color.
While Payload is a squad game, the other modes can be played as a squad or as duos. The other interesting aspect of the game is that there are powerup weapons located in the battle field that popup in certain spawn areas. Some are traditional weapons like swords that will give you better attack ability, and some weapons are just wacky, like laser guns. This adds to the overall crazy battles that can happen.
Each knight has a unique personality and name, but there isn’t any advantage of one knight over another.
We were given a demo code for the game, which didn’t allow for some additional game features, online and tournament, as these features were ghosted out. But from the looks of it, it appears that this game would have an online multiplayer capability. Looking at the press kit, it also looks like there will be some additional game modes that weren't included in the demo code, including medieval soccer.
Final Grade: A
From what we’ve gotten to play, the game is absolutely a blast. The game modes and variants you can add to each game makes for a fun arcade, chaotic, party game. Add multiplayer and this could be the next big hit.
Review code provided by Stride PR