Knight with Tactics is listed as a “puzzle & trivia” game. If the trivia question is “how fast can you get 1000 gamerscore?” then I can advise the answer is approximately three minutes.
Gameplay in Knight with Tactics takes the form of a sliding puzzle. You control a knight who can only move in the four cardinal directions, and only stops when it hits an enemy, item, or surface. The goal is to clear every enemy on the screen. Clearing the first 12 levels gets you all 12 achievements. After this, your only “goal” is to unlock every skin by raising your total point value.
Clearing a level grants you a frustratingly unique 207 points. Every fifth level is labeled as a “boss” level, but the only distinction appears to be that one enemy is slightly stronger and takes up a 2×2 grid as opposed to the single square that the rest of the enemy legions normally do. There are six of these groups of five, totalling 30 levels. Upon completion, you are prompted to start level one again, as at this point you have only unlocked three of the available 12 skins.
Whilst the art style itself is suitably cutesy and charming, there is a distinct lack of care with how Knight with Tactics is presented. When you fail, a sad face appears on the screen, but this sad face is almost the same colour as most of the level, so you can only see it due to the fact it swells and changes opacity. There is no pause menu or title screen, instead your three options (skins, restart, confirm) are written in miniscule font in the bottom left corner of the screen. Textures clip in and out in later levels, and the only audio I’ve encountered is a vaguely satisfying jingle that plays when you clear a level.
In terms of variety, there are technically different “biomes” to visit, but they aren’t grouped by any particular level number. Mechanics start as simple as ramming enemies, before eventually adding swords to increase your strength and levers to activate trap doors.
Let me be perfectly clear, developer Gametry LLC is currently only asking for £1.69 of your hard earned cash for this game, but even at that steal in this economy, I’m unsure I can wholly recommend this. There’s a nugget of good gameplay here, and I’ve yet to encounter any game breaking bugs (again, frustratingly impressive in this day and age) but I do not think enough care has gone into this game to warrant a purchase.
Knight with Tactics was reviewed on Xbox Series X, but is also available on Nintendo Switch, and Playstation consoles.
