Sony made a curious choice for first PS4 game to show the public ever. Not FPS Killzone: Shadow Fall, not racing sim DriveClub, but Knack, a game that looks aesthetically pleasing but is certainly not photo-realistic. Maybe Sony wanted to give this game – from a guy who's worked on Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet & Clank – a chance, since people are more likely to remember the first and last thing they see (all else being relatively equal). But I'm not sure it's worked. I'm seeing a lot of talk about Watch Dogs and The Witness, but hardly anyone seems to be interested in Knack.
Perhaps it's because it looks a bit like a kid's game, with its animated style. But is it? Like Ratchet & Clank, this is a way to market family-friendly violence: these cartoony goblins have tanks and fighter jets, after all. When it comes down to it, this is another game about war. You fight for mankind to save them from the threat these goblins pose, and you use force to do it.
But Knack has something more unique about it too. The focus in the trailer was on the main character and his/its ability to incorporate certain objects into his body to grow in size and presumably power, but from what Mark Cerny – the game's director – has to say it sounds like the more interesting aspect of the game may be the subtler parts of the plot:
“As for the story, mankind is threatened by a resurgent goblin army and Knack steps forward to protect them – until it becomes clear that an even greater danger is posed by elements of the human community.”
Will Knack turn on the humans he serves? Or will it be the other way around? And does that additional level to the plot make you more likely to check this game out when the PS4 arrives?
