This Knight vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur review is made based on the Xbox version with a review key provided by the publisher. The game is also available in Switch, PC and Playstation consoles. The game costs €/$ 19,99.
A new kid on the block (at least for Xbox)
Gambir Studio is an Indonesian developer that has been making games since 2016. Don’t let the short history of the studio fool you. Most employees have over 15 years of experience in the game industry. So far their main focus has been the mobile market. They have released 13 titles on Google Playstore and Apple App Store. Now they enter the console market with their newest game Knight vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur.
Arthurian legend with a twist
Ok, so the title kind of gives it away. This game is knee deep into the Arthurian legend. No, not the standard folklore, but it takes the story and adds a massive twist into the mix. Of course it all starts with the Knights of the Round Table questing merrily after the Holy Grail. And lo-and-behold, they actually find the thing.
Because boys will be boys, the knights can’t help themselves and start poking the Grail with their swords. Why? No idea, but at the time it must have seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately it was anything but a great idea. By poking it, the knights unleashed a huge Void Giant. And this Void Giant means business. It wants to destroy the world. So now enters Arthur into the story, because who else can defeat such a Giant? As it seems not Arthur, because the Void Giants kills both Arthur and all his knights. In the process of killing Arthur it also breaks the mighty Excalibur. The end. ………. Nah, stories like this never end like this.
Merlin enters the stage and perfoms one of his best parlour-tricks. He teleports the Giant back into its own dimension. It seems like this is a huge success, but it turns out he also teleported Camelot to the Astral Dimension. Merlin is left with only enough power to resurrect one knight, so Arthur is resurrected. Together with his broken sword Excalibur Arthur is now responsible for saving Camelot, getting them all back to earth and defeating the Void Giant(s). So fellow knights, let’s see if we can give him a helping hand.
What to do, what to do?
In the early levels, the game offers you a thorough tutorial. You cover every base, from walking, dodging and attacking. During these explanations you notice the game runs ever so smoothly. It’s not just the gameplay that gets explained to you. You also get a clear insight to what the hell happened. (But just not everything is revealed at the get go. Merlin has to remain mysterious a bit longer.)
The levels you get to play are all procedurally generated. So you never quite know what’s coming for you. Every room / level and every set of enemies differs whenever you enter a level for a second time. It’s not just the easy enemies that differ every time. It’s also the more powerful enemies (that may be considered as mini-bosses) that get mixed up. On the one hand this keeps everything fresh, but on the other hand makes everything a bit more difficult. It is harder to come up with a strategy against enemies that vary every time.
A result of above-mentioned note is, that you will probably die a lot. This is something that is typical of these kind of games, so no surprise there. When you die, you respawn at Camelot. The game is actually being friendly here, because you get to keep all the money and experience you collected during your gameplay.
Apart from questing the world and defeating enemies, there is a second part to this game. With Camelot being warped into the Astral Dimension, all inhabitants of Camelot have gone missing. It is up to you to find them and to restore their dwellings in Camelot.
Of course the Knights of the Round Table cannot be forgotten. As they are quite dead, they can’t help you as such. But they remain with us through statues that were erected in their honour. Each statue represents a certain knight, and their statues can grant you their specific fighting style. You can imagine that this can have a big impact on how Arthur fights. For instance Lancelot’s style offers speed, allowing you to attack faster. It’s not only at Camelot where you can find the statues. They are also present in the levels you progress through. When you find one of the statues, don’t forget to interact with them. You might get a pleasant surprise.
Visually as lovely as Guinevere
When you boot up this action roguelite game, you immediately notice that the graphics are of a high standard. I was pleasantly surprised. Especially because I only knew this studio as a dev for mobile games. Developing for consoles is something completely different.
Knight vs Giant has a very appealing cartoony feel to it. Both the main characters and their enemies are portrayed very well. The environment is also polished. Only minor issue I had with the visuals, was that sometimes your rewards from breaking crates seem to vanish between the bushes surrounding the levels and can’t be collected.
The game uses a rather traditional top-down view of the world. In these worlds every level is separated from the next until you kill all enemies. Some levels don’t require you to kill every enemy. Why? Well because there are no enemies in that particular level. This gives you a bit of a breather between the multitude of levels where you do have to kill everything. Due to the cartoony appearances, the game never looks depressing, despite the sometimes glum outlook for Arthur and Merlin.
Shouting into the void?
Let’s make it clear; the voice acting in this game is really good. Most of the main lines of Arthur and Merlin are spoken lines. Every emotion is conveyed perfectly by the voice actors. Only in-game lines are text-based. Apart from good voice acting also the texts itself deserve credit. There is a great deal of humour in this game. Sometimes a bit cheesy, but as a whole very on point. You get clear mental pictures with every sigh Merlin utters because of Arthur’s silly questions.
Besides the voice acting and texts, the music and the battle sounds deserve their accolades. It all complements the gameplay and is never overly present. All in all a great effort by the devs.
Conclusion
Knights vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur is a game that is way above average. It is balanced, but not too easy. Great visuals and very good voice acting provide a pleasant experience.
Pros:
+ Very nice visuals
+ Voice-acting is top notch
+ Balanced gameplay with plenty of challenge
+ A good sense of humour
Cons:
- Sometimes rewards go missing at the edges of the levels
