Knights Within

The creator of [i]Knights Within[/i] seems to have wondered "what if medieval knights had modern firearms?" and decided to made a game to answer just that question. The game consists of missions where one or more players traverse a map looking for objectives; each completed objective gives the player a choice of a power up, like a classic roguelike game. Players can also customise their characters in three ways: [list] [*]changing the equipped weapons: melee, firearm and a "spell" that must be charged during missions, as well as modifiers for each of them (e.g. a shield mod that stuns nearby enemies after blocking enough hits, or a gun mod that increases magazine size); [*]picking a class that favours a certain play style, like dodging through enemies or being more effective at stunning; [*]equipping passive traits from up to three skill trees that enhance some of the player's actions, depending on whether they want to be more effective at shooting, or blocking, or killing bosses, and so on. [/list] There is also cosmetic customisation: it's not very in-depth but it's certainly a welcome sight, especially on multiplayer missions where one may want to look different from their teammates. Missions in general have a lot going on, from random storms to enemy hordes to hidden locations where players can unlock new skill trees. It's also possible to find gadgets that give special abilities while on a mission, like an energy shield that blocks projectiles, and up to three can be equipped at a time. Even better, the developer is constantly at work on game updates, to the point where I'm not sure how long the content of this review will stay relevant. I wish every early access game received updates this often! So far, the only flaw I've found with this game consists of the enemies: the player is constantly chased by wraiths with assorted medieval weapons (both melee and ranged), as well as "elite" wraiths that specialise in certain attacks ([i]brutes[/i] will interrupt you and throw you to the ground, [i]enforcers[/i] will hit you with a slowing beam and so on) but there are so many of them that they can't help but feel generic and samey after a while. Bosses tend to have the same problem: they have unique names and movesets but they eventually all boil down to [list] [*]2 or 3 melee swings [*]linear or circular area-of-effect the player has to dodge [*]energy bubble that negates the player's bullets [/list] and fighting them is not very exciting. With some luck, we will eventually get new enemies that better stand out! This, however, is my real only issue with the game, and it hasn't prevented me from enjoying Knights Within for over 50 hours. It's definitely a thumbs up from me.