Undead Knights Review

Lacking any kind of interesting direction it falls to the combat and command of the undead to provide the game with any substance, and sadly the game fails to stimulate here too. Undead Knights offers you an extremely limited set of attack options that fail to make effective use of the four face buttons. Square and triangle allow for light and heavy attacks and a choice of two (count them) paltry combos before upgrading. Even after gathering the souls of your victims, the additional three upgrade moves offer very little difference from the regular attacks.

Something is geting eaten here, though given the quality of the polygon models, you'd have a hard time spotting one morsel from another.

The jump button proves worthless too, offering the most miniscule of vertical climb. It’s used for the first time two thirds of the way through the game, and only then to reach an optional and redundant platform. A double tap of the jump button provides a quick dodge out of harm’s way, but is extremely demanding on tapping speed, meaning you will often end up performing the utterly useless jump and getting hit.

You will come to rely on your sword, at least until you've chipped away enemies, priming them for grabbing.

Obviously the circle button’s grab and zombify move is the unique aspect of Undead Knights, and your command over the undead offers a few additional attack options, such as throwing rotting cadavers at enemies to stun them ready for transformation (though the awkward camera doesn’t help here) or even smashing them into the ground for splash damage. They can also be sent to overwhelm an enemy through sheer force of numbers, which can be handy for keeping more threatening enemies busy while you “induct” some new recruits. The grab mechanic however is very flawed, auto-tracking certain enemies in an inconsistent manor, and when you inevitably grab the wrong enemy you have no option to drop him – only to wait it out until you get damaged and shrugged off.