Spiral Knights
- Area: North America
- Official Site: Spiral Knights
- Publisher: SEGA
- Developer: Three Rings
- Platform: Download
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Overview
Spiral Knights is a high-quality Free to Play MMORPG from Three Rings and SEGA that combines multiple modern MMO genres with traditional, team-based puzzle dungeons reminiscent of many SNES RPG titles to create a unique game experience.
Join groups of up to 4-players and work together to navigate complex dungeons, defeat awesome bosses and collect bags of loot as you progress deeper into the Clockworks - a near infinite labyrinth of themed, random dungeons that should prove challenging for all players, young and old.
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Features
- In-Depth Crafting and Combat Mechanics
- Unlimited Dungeons!
- Similar gameplay style to older Zelda titles
- Area: North America
- Official Site: Spiral Knights
- Publisher: SEGA
- Developer: Three Rings
- Platform: Download
Like this game? Tell your friends!
Review
"Free-to-Play Action-RPG Spiral Knights, developed by Three Rings and published by SEGA, is just what the armour-clad, cyborg doctor ordered" says Cody Hargreaves, game critic at MMOGames.com.
I did say that. Meant it, too. Spiral Knights is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise suffocated genre of online gaming titles; it's a unique blend of dungeon-crawler gameplay, RPG progression and action-orientated combat mechanics. The result? Multiplayer Zelda, yo.
You remember multiplayer Zelda, right? They called it Four Swords or something. You played it on the GameCube, but used your GameBoy Advance as a controller. Ah, those were the days; working together with 3 friends to solve puzzles, slay monsters and cut grass. Well, if Spiral Knights was inspired by anything, this was it. It's not the same, but it's very, very similar.
In a good way, I mean. It's not a rip-off; it's a reimagining. You begin by creating your own personalised armour-clad cyborg dude, customising him with a few minor appearance options, then embarking on a tutorial mission that will help you grasp the finer mechanics of the gameplay (read: swing sword, cut grass, solve puzzle, shoot gun -- it's all very Zelda).
Then you'll arrive at your first player hub. Here, you'll get a taste of the modern MMO-style gameplay decisions; i.e. it's something like a city in a persistent world MMORPG, a place to meet friends, buy weapons, join guilds and organise dungeon groups. Oh, yeah, there're dungeons. In fact, 99% of the game world in Spiral Knights is a dungeon called the Clockworks.
This is where the dungeon-crawler genre makes an appearance; once you've made your way to 'Haven', the international shopping hub, the only way forward is down -- into the Clockworks.
There are multiple entrances into the Clockworks that all take the form of an elevator, which then leads to a lobby allowing you to create or join a party, which then leads to a seemingly randomly generated playing field. The object is simple: fight your way through monsters, puzzles and traps collecting crystals, cash and items until you reach another elevator. Here you'll be given the choice to return to Haven, or descend to a deeper level of the Clockworks.
Here's the catch: each time you use an elevator you'll be charged 10 energy. You'll also be charged energy to revive yourself, to craft new items in Haven, and so on. I've played Spiral Knights for about 3 hours, and I'm still not entirely sure how the energy system works entirely. I know that there are 2 types of energy, Mist and Crystal, and that one of them regenerates slowly over time, while the other can be collected in the Clockworks. Oh, and you can trade energy with other players to help them progress further if they've run out.
That's about as much as I know. Will you be able to purchase energy with a credit card in the future? Probably. Is there more to this energy system than I know? Definitely. If you ever figure it out, send me an email. It's got me stumped.
And that's Spiral Knights. Well, that's the basic overview, at least. As you progress further into the Clockworks, earning more cash and upgrading more weapons and completing more quests and cutting more grass... you'll gain access to new elevators that will take you to new depths of the Clockworks, with new monsters and level designs. It's all very new after you've made your first trip into the Clockworks, and so far as I know, it only gets better.
Remember Lufia on the Super Nintendo? You should, that game was awesome. Spiral Knights is like the 100-level dungeon in Lufia; every time you enter it you'll be taken somewhere new. Except you can do it with up to 3 other people. And it looks different every time. And it never, ever ends.
