Knack - Review

We've all got a Knack for something.

Knack
Release 11/15/13
Pub. Sony Computer Entertainment

Knack begins as a scientific demonstration where

our main character "The Doctor" starts by explaining the excavation of Relics found in the earth. He goes on to show how these relics power things in their world like motors and everyday objects. The Doctor finds a way to harness the power of the  relics and make "Knack" a conscious being! This demonstration doubles as your active tutorial with Knack showing what he can do: Attack, Enlarge, Shrink, Specials, ETC.

The H.U.D. is pretty standard with a health bar , one for your sunstones, and one showing your relic size. Menus in the game are very user friendly and basic. Not much flair here. When hitting the options button you will see items, crystals, and parts needed and found.  Game play of Knack is very adventurous. levels resembling skylanders with a smash and bash style. Buttons are simple. Square being attack. Combos happen with a quick Square-Circle, or Square-Triangle. Knack also has a jump-homing attack. Levels are seperated into sections (1.2, 5.3, 12.4,  ETC). In each of these sections you can find breakable walls with machine parts or relic boxes hidden inside. These walls  can be tricky to find.

Knack must defeat evil goblins and robots invading the land, while jumping and avoiding lasers and  rockets. Knacks size affects his strength and defense. Each hit he takes the smaller he gets. While progressing through the game Knack gains the ability to absorb wood, metal and other thing you need to play to find out! Using abilities like wood, Knack can start on fire and burn his way through obstacles. Where as small knack can climb into air shafts. There is a ton of replay value in collectibles. collecting gems unlock new forms.

Knack looks great! the detail in  knacks moving relics and their design is astounding.The characters and world look great for their "cartoony" graphical style. the whole world of "Knack" looks like a CGI animated kids movie. Something from the minds at pixar.

Knack stands its ground as an awesome game for kids and a still good game for adults. Just like pixar, made for kids and loved by all. My 7 year old son loves Knack. i just felt it was rushed. it has a ton of potential i hope for a less stressed sequel. If your a gamer looking for quick fun here it is. if you want a more thorough story and complex game play you may want to look further.

6.0

Pros.  Fun, new ideas, collectables

Cons.  Not too deep,  too easy

inFAMOUS Second Son

inFAMOUS Second Son

Sucker Punch Producers

03/20/14 Release

Review by: Benjaman Knuckey



Rise of the shining Son 
  Sucker punch, a game company I have grown to know and love never cease to amaze me. I remember being ten years old in 2000 and loving a puzzle game on the Nintendo 64 called"Rocket: Robot on Wheels". Later on the PS2 in 2002 playing the "Sly Cooper: and the Thievius Raccoonus", which proved to the world Sucker Punch knew what it takes to make a Spectacular Action/Adventure/ Platforming game along with smart, silly, and cool; interesting characters and large worlds to boot! Sucker Punch went on to develop "Sly 2: Band of Thieves" in 2004 and "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves" in 2005. All with high acclaim and on the PS2 console. After the three "Sly cooper" games and their success they handed the project over to the developers at Sanzaru games for "Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time" the 4th game installment to work on their daring next-gen project for the PS3, what we now know as inFAMOUS released in 2009! And a sequel "inFAMOUS 2". Taking their skills from the "Sly" series RPG and rooftop-action play style and expanding it all immensely. 




 "Second Son" takes place 7 years after "inFAMOUS" 1 and 2. The Department of Unified Protection is put into action to capture any remaining "conduits" that the D.U.P. is calling "Bio Terrorists" to scare the public. 
inFAMOUS Second Son sets the scene with our hero (or villan) Delsin Rowe escaping trouble from his shenanigans in his grandmother Betty's shop backroom, then a convicted "conduit" named Hank barrels in knocking Delsin down; in the process transferring his smoke powers to Delsin. When hank the "conduit" tries to escape out the back he runs into the one and only head of the D.U.P. Brooke Augustine, with Delsin to follow. Hank gets away while Augustine questions Delsin about who he saw. Delsin shrugs off her authority with  sarcasm. Augustine retaliates and proves her seriousness by using her conduit powers to shoot concrete into Betty's legs. Delsin now realizes he must obtain more power to stop Brooke Augustine and her D.U.P. to save Betty and  possibly the city.
 inFAMOUS: Second Son is a Zero load time, open-world Role Playing Game (RPG) where you can traverse the games world in just about any way imaginable. inFAMOUS is based on a "good" "Bad" karma system where your actions affect your outcome. Save a live, or take it sort of thing. There are typical RPG elements such as Main missions, Side missions, Collectibles, ETC. 
Once after getting started you immediately see the beauty of the city and its characters and are introduced to Delsin and his brother. Cutscenes of current events look next-gen, while the back stories are told in a great grafitti comic-book art. Framing this beautiful artwork of a game you will see a great looking Heads Up Display (HUD). There is a health/energy bar made up of what power your wielding. Of course a map revealing objectives, DUP coverage, blast shards, ETC.. Finally a karma icon that changes along with your actions. This also switches over to your special attack meter when filled. 

The new options menu  consists of three tabs. One displays a full expandable map. The next has Desin's karmatic info, along with friends and "surveillance" photos that allow you to change vests. And a Power tab that has a unlock tree new to the inFAMOUS series. 
  Based in a re-imagined Seattle, Delsin must use parkour skills and powers to traverse the city. In Second Son compared to past inFAMOUS Delsin's grabbing and climbing are less magnetic, sticky, and spider-man like making Desin feel inexperienced, needing a bit more accuracy. Moving around using powers has its options. Neon for instance will get you anywhere and over any obstacle fast. While  smoke allows you to launch up buildings air vents quick and high. Each side (good or bad) has an extravagant special move that is both visually spectacular and powerful, showing off what the game itself and Delsin have to offer.
There are a variety of  DUP agents to beat down from regular to heavy defense. This time around in inFAMOUS Second Son there is no blocking or cover mechanic. Defense is up to your smarts and moving behind things. This is where the Karma comes in. Say you are battling a wave of DUPs and you're in the middle of the city. You have to consider the bystander damage if you are playing to be a "True Hero", but you can also let your power run free, if you are planning to go "Infamous". There are also other ways to affect karma, like; good and bad side missions as well as graffiti tags.
Controls are very intuitive and easy to learn shooter style use of triggers. A bit different than before due to the PS4's DualShock 4 touch pad for power drain, saving a button combo.
  inFAMOUS Second Sons graphics are amazing. The use of colors is magnificent! From Delsin to the sky, and from the lighting to you draining powers this game is a rave with glow sticks. Seattle looks photo realistic. Textures from the streets all the way to the rooftops look spectacular. While textures and reflection in the rain and puddles have never looked better. Character models look wonderful. I have never seen emotion and facial expressions like i see in Delsin before. You can definitely see the hard work and effort put into Second Son. Even down to Delsins's idle animation, his air drumming just has that little bit of personality that makes me love Delsin as a character.
 SuckerPunch has done a superb job adapting Seattle into a living digital city. Seattle sounds alive! The people shouting at you or chanting for you, Vehicles driving and honking, That perfect sound of theneon signs running and you draining it. This all makes this city real. Even the tippity taps of Delsin's footsteps sound good. During standard gameplay the music has a detective theme or the "on-the-mission"if you may. This right away gave me a feel of Sly Coopers "sneaky" sound. When heated in a fight the beat and tempo pick up and slow to match the action.
  inFAMOUS Second Son is a true addition to the inFAMOUS family. Though the story isn't terribly long, i felt i was not ready for the end. None the less it was a emotional blast all the way through, from beginning to end. I spent my main play through (hero) collecting all the blast shards, dead drops, Spray paint spots,ETC. Then i hit all of the side missions while doing a main mission every now and then before actually doing the main. I did this to make the story more fun. Having all blast shards lets you fully upgrade a power right when you get it. Also it helps get those ever so tasty trophies faster! With the limited and collectors editions there is the "Cole's Legacy" Download Content (DLC). This is a set of bonus missions connecting events from inFamous 2 to Second Son. There is also the multi-media bonus DLC "paper Trail". This is a series of missions that have you track the mysterious killer Paper conduit that leaves an origami swan behind each murder. I would say after all of this there is a pretty moderate to high replay value depending on how you play. Also, this game is a good game to platinum if you have yet basque in platinum glory.

9.5

PROS
-Amazing graphics
-Amazing Cast and Characters
-Thoroughly fun game-play
-Good Story

CONS
-No Guard/Block
-wish it was a bit longer