It’s fair to say that Knack divided opinion upon its release alongside the PlayStation 4 in November 2013. Some concluded it to be an abomination that failed to live up to the promise of being a Crash Bandicoot successor, while others deemed it to be not so bad. Either way you look at it, it's now clear to see that the divisive title was met with enough success to spawn a sequel. And now the question becomes this: does the follow-up make good on the lofty expectations set four years ago – or does it flounder in murky water all over again? The answer lies firmly in the former: Knack 2 could well be the most improved sequel of the entire generation.
Following on from the events of the first game, the utopian city of Newhaven has come under attack from a goblin army that hasn’t been seen since the humans fended them off in the Crystal Wars. The invasion forms the opening chapter, but following that the plot is told through a flashback that takes up a large majority of the game where you learn who brought the infantry back to life and why they’re doing it. We then meet back up with present-day Knack during the finale as he bids to save the city.
While the plot itself remains fairly simple throughout, it’s the backstory and the characters themselves that give the journey its charm. Animated cutscenes tell the tales of the past as the two man party of Knack and Lucas learn more about the Crystal Wars and how they’re influencing the world of today, while Lucas himself brings a fair amount of charisma to the table as he goes through the blundering teenage years – spouting out some awkward lines and suffering with girl problems. The campaign is a genuinely fun adventure that is sure to please, but it comes with one major caveat.
Knack 2 pulls a Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, whereby you’re made to replay the first chapter all over again once you join Knack back in the present just so you can see what happens next. It makes for an incredibly tedious 30 minutes where you repeat everything you’ve already done, and it slams a locked door into the face of any pace the story was building. It wasn’t fun when Big Boss made us do it, and it’s the opposite of entertaining in this case, too.
On its surface, Knack’s second outing plays very much like its precursor. You’ll explore linear levels as you battle it out with enemies you encounter, while engaging in some platforming and hunting down treasure chests for upgrades. But if you were to burrow even an inch down, you would find a wealth of change and improvements.
Probably the biggest of these enhancements would be the sheer amount of options you now have when engaging in combat. The basic punch and kick return but these become more and more obsolete as you gain access to new moves such as the heavy punch, a hook shot which pulls goblins towards you, and a boomerang that locks enemies in place. On top of that there’s an all-new skill tree which improves current abilities and introduces new ones. Four branches of the tree focus on speed, strength, skill, and a late-game unlock. A body slam deals damage far and wide, while a frenzy of punches can be unleashed with an uppercut to boot later on.
These blows also factor into the co-operative mode, where two players can team up to perform combos that are only possible with a second Knack thrown into the mix. It gets to the point where you can pull off serious combo moves that leave waste to any enemy that gets in your way. No matter whether you’re playing by yourself or with a friend, you have a huge arsenal at your fingertips. It’s a monumental upgrade over the original, and it creates an experience full of variety, fun, and experimentation.
One complaint that was leveraged at the 2013 launch title was its difficulty. The sequel addresses this with expanded settings and a normal difficulty option that’s far more accessible. Fights feel a lot fairer with a larger health pool and many more ways of dealing with foes. That’s not to say that every encounter is a cakewalk, however, as you will be annihilated if you give enemies enough of a chance, but on the whole you’re in for a much more civil and courteous experience this time around.
Of course the other component to Knack 2 is its platforming, and the follow-up leans into this far harder than the original ever did. Some levels let the platforming take the lead role as you’re presented with some challenging sections that wouldn’t look out of place in a Crash Bandicoot title. This is then made even more complex by the fact that Knack can now switch between his large and smaller self on the fly, which is incorporated into many a sector. Numerous optional paths keep exploration at a high with even more community driven treasure chests to uncover, and with some light puzzle solving introduced alongside this entry, a brain teaser here and there helps to break up the gameplay with enjoyable distractions.
While it’s not quite on par with the graphical powerhouses of today, Knack’s second expedition still manages to look good with a big facelift given to character models and the environments. This coupled with a smooth 60 frames-per-second on the PS4 Pro makes for a polished experience on the presentational stage.
The 15 chapters will take you roughly 12 hours to complete, but that’s only the beginning as an abundance of post-game content will keep you busy. Every single level comes with its own set of challenges which when fulfilled, reward you with Knack tokens. As well as that there’s time attack and coliseum modes which give you the chance to race against the clock and do battle with enemies for the highest score possible, and a New Game Plus option unlocks which carries over all your abilities and skills onto a new playthrough.
Conclusion
Who would have thought it? Knack 2 is a genuinely great game. The huge breadth of combat options on offer make for a far better experience than anything the initial outing could ever offer, and with a much bigger focus on platforming, the title can start to lay claim to the promises of a Crash Bandicoot successor. Even if you were completely turned off by the original adventure, make sure you give Knack 2 a fair shot because what you find may pleasantly surprise you.
Comments 46
Day 1 buy
It's nice to see average game become good in the sequel. I hope sony make the order 1886 sequel.
Never played the original and have the demo for this downloaded. Assuming it's a whole new story?
Have you accepted Knack as your lord and savior?
Great review and nice to see it earned a good score!
The Knack bundle was all I could find when the PS4 came out and though I wasn't expecting much I didant stop playing the original until it was finished.Never did understand all the hate.
I have played the latest demo and found it more of the same to be honest but will definitely get this at some point.
I'm actually going to buy this game. It's a budget price, I enjoyed the demo and this review and another one I've read were both pretty positive.
Great now i have to unplug the internet for a bit and throw my ladyfriends phone in the river so she doesnt get any ideas of buying this. Glad they managed to improve on the concept though.
I've checked out a few Knack II reviews and this was the first genuinely positive one I've seen. Personally, I liked the first Knack a lot and have little doubt I'll like this one as well given that it seems to be more of the same but with various improvements. That said, despite this particular critic's positive impression it look's like Knack II is set to divide critics and gamers just as much as the first one did.
@wiiware The original was great, too; I'm playing through it now. Totally underappreciated game.
Knacked it out of the ball park with this sequel.
Anyway, looking at Metacritic it looks like with 31 reviews counted so far Knack already has nearly twice as many positive reviews as the original got and only one completely negative one so far, so it looks like Knack II really is a much improved sequel, but one that isn't likely to convince many that didn't care for the original.
'Knack 2 could well be the most improved sequel of the entire generation'.
Damn, that's high praise.
Was looking forward to this regardless of reviews, as I did enjoy the original a fair bit, but it's good to see it's got the PushSquare sign of approval.
All hail our Lord and Saviour, Knack!
"It wasn’t fun when Big Boss made us do it"
I thought the level repeat was really well done in mgs5. You didnt have to play any of the repeated harder missions to finish the game btw just the new ones. Just like knack, mgs5 will forever get unwarranted hate although its technically competent and plays like a dream.
@themcnoisy when it's not loading
@wiiware I was thinking the exact same thing let's hope there is a sequel
Question: does the crystal abilities (or skins) give Knack any special attacks? What lacked the first game is that no matter what crystal abilities, you always played the same.
@wiiware I'd definitely be down for an sequel to The Order. Much like Knack, it was a game that I enjoyed mostly for the world and the characters and I'd like to see more of it just for that, though I'd hope any sequel would give us more exploration and interactivity in the world and not just be another corridor shooter where all the boss battles are the same QTE repeated several times. Talk about lazy design.
That said, I really don't think a sequel is likely. Knack is one thing. For a long time a sequel to Knack seemed unlikely, but for all the criticism and complaints I'm sure it probably got a major boost from being a launch title. Besides, as much as people liked to rag on it after the fact, nobody really expects all that much from launch titles anyway. The Order: 1886 on the other hand was the PS4's first big post-launch exclusive that was a new IP and had a huge amount of hype around it for that reason. Ready at Dawn blew it too badly to get another chance I think, especially since a sequel that actually does the property justice would be a big budget product, unlike Knack II whose $40 price tag reflects the fact that it's a smaller-budget title. Sony's not gonna put that kinda money into a sequel to a game that dropped the ball as badly as The Order did.
@doctommaso Maybe I'll get it when its discounted on psn. I saw the gameplay on youtube, it seems the game difficulty is a bit high, knack 2 seems more fair.
@Bingoboyop I still remember the order, I have no plan to buy it because all of the review and comment say the game is really bad. But the game looks cool when I saw it on youtube, so I bought it when its discounted, and it turns out I like the game. Its a bit rough but it can be improved on the sequel.
I hope sony make the order 2 with 10-12 hour single player story and online multiplayer like uncharted series. Or maybe open world single player only like witcher 3.
@wiiware I would be so on board for an open world sequel to The Order, but as I said I really don't think a sequel is likely at all. Then again, not so long ago I thought the same thing about Knack, so who knows.
@Donald_M If sony make the order 2, it must have more varied enemy and definitely no qte bosses, the werewolf enemy ai is really bad.
I have no problem if sony make the order 2 like the first one with linear gameplay, it need multiplayer and horde mode for longevity though. Playing horde vs enemy ai is fun
The problem with the order failure is the core gameplay, graphics and story is fine, it just need better pacing, varied enemy, and multiplayer.
Knack is back in action, all hail to the King baby!
I'm sure that 8 is an actual 10 for any true believer.
Can't wait for next week's UK numbers! Just wish it had launched last week because this week it will be obliterated by Destiny 2.
Gunna get this slimy wee sausage for Christmas
@naruball Oh, Destiny would beat this in sales even if the first game were hugely popular, but not everyone cares about Destiny. I for one certainly don't.
I'm seeing so much praise for this sequel that I'm now laughing in the face of haters that thought this game would be s***. Anyway I enjoyed the demo but Hard mode was giving me some rage after losing 20 times in the same section... xD yes I rage quit from knack 2 stfu!
Anyway....I"m gonna pick Knack 2 maybe christmas time
Honestly i really enjoyed the original Knack although i forgot this was out this month so i'll have to go buy it tomorrow
i might play the original today for good measure and to get back into it
@Donald_M Same here. Couldn't care less about Destiny 1 or 2. But if it helps ps4 sell more, I'm all for it.
Just wish Knack 2 had a chance to top the charts like so many ps exclusives managed this year.
'Knack 2 could well be the most improved sequel of the entire generation'.
Hardly an achievement when the first was so underwhelming and I actually had some fun with that game, even if the co-op was nowhere near as good as it should have been. I'll likely pick this up somewhere down the line but with Crash, Sonic Mania and the upcoming Mario game, my platforming needs have been more satisfied then any time in the last 10 years 😃
Well well well.... ''Back then they didn't want me, now i'm hot they all on me''
But what about the associated match-3 mobile game that helped me unlock all of the power-ups in the first game?
My kids enjoyed the demo, I was thoroughly underwhelmed, perhaps b/c I just beat the original game this year so it was fresh in my mind and everyone on PS keeps talking about how vastly improved it was. Still seemed like the same game to me. I'll play it, but it will be $15 soon enough.
Well I'll be darned.
@wiiware The game is quite good its quite short ill give you that. I waited so long before i started playing. because of the negative reviews but when i started i found a good and fun game and for so cheap its a steal.
@Flaming_Kaiser I bought it like $8 on psn
I think it will fare better if it's $40 game, $60 for a 6-7 hour game without multiplayer is not a good value.
Had it pre-ordered until I played the demo, you just fight in one area go to the next and fight and repeat, very boring.
If it improved so much, they didnt bother to show it in the demo. Not getting it.
@feral1975 Yeah, that's exactly the kind of template for a 3D platformer I don't much care about. For me it's all about exploration and cleverly-hidden secrets.
I hope the game is better than the demo. My son and I had a blast with the first game. We didn't really love the demo, due to the sheer number of changes. Didn't really feel like the game we remember (we start playing the first game again over the Summer so it's still pretty fresh).
I played the demo and was completely underwhelmed.
This game didn't play well in the demo. Yooka Laylee is a better platformer in just about every way.
The demo was awful
I found the Demo boring really :-/ + didn't like the 1st one to. Shame SONY didn't keep Crash and gave that to SONY Japan Studios because Crash is a much better Character aswel. Oh well.
Great to see Knack living up to his potential here's hoping it sells well.
Meh. I'm sure it's pretty good, but I don't tend to like spending money on "pretty good", especially when there are games that I want a lot more that I'm pretty sure cost less or the same amount of money, like The Last of Us or Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
Happily, the Demo is just weird.
Bought the game and started it. This is Knack, the game is good.
@MadAussieBloke Touche.
I really thought the game was hard and I'm not that bad at videogames to be honest
@kustomflex Old comment, but you're doing it wrong. XD (Relationshipping, that is.)
It's dunkey-approved, so...
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