Knights of the Temple Review | Deus kinda Vult!

In the past, I expressed my enjoyment for Enclave, for, despite its many defects, it had a really enjoyable set of mechanics and a charm typical of newbie developers with little experience but a lot of passion. So, when I found out that Knights of Temple was made by the same company, I was curious to see what it would have come out from them.

Aesthetics

The camera manages to give some nice shots despite its rigidity

The 3d graphics are what one can imagine for a game that aims for a realistic style. The characters look tolerable (although a bit expression-less during close-ups), the scenery is nice to see, both in the Gothic looking churches and the Arabian cities, but ultimately it remains a product of its time, with textures and models straight out of 2004. My only complaint are about the demons, I wished they appeared sooner in the game, their design together with the hellish locations in which they reside give a lot of imaginative sights, even if they are on the nose.

One aspect in which the game has aged incredibly well are the animations, a smart use of motion capture make them look appealing and clear to see to this day. At least, when they work I mean, the collision physics are a bit out of sync, I've seen characters teleport, so not everything is perfect. Plus, there is one cutscene where the movements imply mind control, but to express that concept the game shows the controlled and the controller in the same room, making the whole scene look really awkward. Something else I didn't like is that all the melee weapons have the same pattern of movement, making them feel samey.

The soundtrack is fine for the most part, what sticks out is a track that is played when you are on very low health. This track uses a slower, more melancholic tune, with a singing chorus to notify the imminent demise of the player, it's a good track and a welcome choice.

More in general, the sound design is overall well done, both for the verses of the demons and the clashing of the weapons, the sounds are nice to listen, and the voice acting is OK.

In short, bearable visuals and decent sounds.

Game Mechanics

Discrete amount of combos offer a decent window of action

The game is a 3rd person action adventure hack-and-slash. The main tools in the hands of the player are: an array of 4 weapons(swords, axes, hammers and bows), an almost invincible block, a set of combos that can deliver a variety of moves, 4 special attacks that use stamina and, gained later, 4 divine powers. Swords have the longest range of the melee weapons, but deal average damage. Hammers deal good damage, but have average range. Axes deal the most damage, but also have the shortest range. Bows deal moderate damage from distance, but can theoretically kill most enemies immediately with a clean head-shot.

From experience, swords are best used against large groups of weak enemies, it's very possible to deal damage to multiple targets, axes are good against single targets and hammers fit the role for the fights against two strong thugs. The weapons can be "upgraded" by finding stronger variants in the levels, either by defeating enemies or by exploring a bit.

Combos are executed by a combination of the basic two attacks(one fast that deals low damage and a slow that deals a lot of damage). Combos can deliver a decent amount of damage and are easy enough to perform once understood the rhythm.

Abilities are attacks that consume stamina, these abilities can break the guard, stun units to the ground, deal small damage that ignores the guard and a do a windmill attack that deals a lot of damage. Not a bad set, and since stamina regenerates fast, using them often is a good idea.

The divine powers deliver different effects: one heals, one grants an invincible armor, another performs an area attack and the last one launches fire arrows. To use them, faith is consumed, faith is gained by killing the enemies and performing an execution on them when they are on low health.

While all the tools are cool, the most effective strategy most of the time is to button mash your way through victory, mainly because the attacks against the player are almost relentless and it's difficult to act clearly. Nevertheless, figure out some kind of strategy in specific circumstance does yield decent benefits. What does hurt the game a bit is the semi-fixed camera, instead of being from a third-person perspective, it gets positioned in certain places or on an invisible rail. At their best bearable, the position are bearable, at their worst, they hinder the fights to the point I almost lost in certain situations. So, do prepare for a bad camera if you have intention of buying the game.

I am surprised by this choice, this is not the first third person hack and slash that this company made, to replace the imperfect but functional camera from Enclave with a worse version is bizarre. Perhaps to give some cinematic shots? It's a shame, because the mechanics here are more refined and makes the fights more enjoyable and fun, despite the best winning strategy most of the time being to button mash.

Moving onto other subjects.

There isn't a lot to talk about the quest design, you must get to the end of every level while defeating  every enemy that blocks your way.

The saving system too is simple, either the game saves automatically at the end of a level or you can do a manual one at an altar at around the half-way through. Do be aware that at Knight difficulty (Hard) it's impossible to do the manual save, it's not allowed.

As for the levels, they are semi-linear, some branch out with short dead-ends, but may lead to some hidden treasure, like a new weapon. There may be even some puzzles, ranging from very easy in the first half,  to then turning all dials up to easy in the second one. Some doors require a key to be opened, which can be gathered either by exploring or by the defeated enemies. Ultimately, the levels are passable, I never felt frustrated or particularly engaged by the progression.

There are various kinds of enemies, all of them can be divided in 4 main groups: single weapon users, heavy weapons/double weapons, brutes and ranged. Single weapons are the easiest to deal with, they almost never block and their attacks don't deal too much damage. Heavy/double are trickier to deal with, they can block your attacks and deal a lot of damage, especially if you are cornered. Brutes are tough, being the only kind of enemy capable of breaking your guard, they must be dealt with fast. Ranged deal damage from a distance, they're never alone and their melee capabilities are lacking, but can be a nasty distraction since the guard stance doesn't block arrows. I think this kind of variety works, I have no complaint about the enemy design.

But if I had to define the artificial intelligence in one word, it would be "inconsistent". When you are fighting multiple enemies, it constantly switches from "let's fight him one at the time, it's only fair" to "wait, no, rush him all at once, it's more effective". With this inconsistency, it's not easy to create a consistent strategy, meaning that it is almost always necessary to improvise when things go down.

There are 4 difficulty selectors, it seems that they do not offer any kind of new challenge or reward, apart from the impossibility to save during a level as stated before and the obvious buffs for the enemies. For the most part, the experience is fluid, then an extreme difficulty spike at the end happens. I've died more times in that spike than in the rest of the game. This is due to the sheer absurdity of the fight: first, you face off against a demon beast that has never appeared before, then you must face a gauntlet of constant fights, one after the other, with the possibility to heal between them. The thing is that if you die, you have to restart the whole gauntlet again, no in between checkpoints, and it's very likely to die since you are faced against all the hardest hitting enemies possible, some are even buffed up versions of already strong entities. So, be prepared for a frustrating and prolong fight.

I finished the game in 9 hours at Knight (Hard) difficulty.

Summarizing, jank aside, the mechanics are functional and engaging.

Narrative

Two of the three named characters

It's the High Medieval period, the crusades in the holy land are full underway,  and Paul, knight of the temple, is out hunting when suddenly, he notices one of his fellow knights exhausted on the ground. He warns Paul of "man of God" and "the Devil", he delivers the letter he was carrying to Paul, just before dying. The letter was written by Charlotte, mother of his childhood friend Adelle. She implores Paul for aid, for her daughter, blessed by God, hasn't returned in weeks from her studying sessions at the monastery of Belmont. Strange events are happening in the monastery, and it is Paul's duty to find out the truth.

From here, the adventure starts in the shoes of the main Protagonist, Paul.

As one can guess, the game goes for serious tone, and it results being a bit of monotonous, with no real big twists to shake things up, it's quite possible to imagine what is going to happen, even the ending is a bit cliché. There are a couple of in-game text that try to contextualize the situation and motivation, but in the end they are lacking of good information.

Of the 3 relevant characters in the game, only two are worth to talk about: the protagonist Paul and the damsel in distress Adelle. While the characters are not in depth or interesting, watching them talk about the current events was OK. Multiple times she contacts him to warn about the coming dangers or to give him extra power to fight the opposing forces. A particular scene that I thought was decent is one where Paul, worn out by the scorching heat of the desert, approaches a fountain, only to realize that it has dried up. The thirst is unbearable and when it looks like he is about to pass out, Adelle manifests herself to give water to him, possible saving his life from dehydration. Not exactly the most unique kind of character interaction, but a moderately successful attempt in creating chemistry between the two.

In conclusion, the story is superficial and it's more to give context to the levels instead for higher narrative ambitions.

Recommendation:

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From graphics to gameplay, Knights of the Temple is the definition of jank, but it manages to entertain.

Available on Steam.

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