Wednesday 8 January 2020

Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment Review (Switch)


The second expansion campaign has players take on the role of Specter Knight and acts as an origin story for the events of the main game. Unlike Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment does not use a world map. Instead players enter the different levels from a portal in the cursed knight’s castle. This streamlines the experience and makes the game pick up the pace as you are getting directly into the action much more quickly.

The levels themselves follow the formulae of remixing those already visited in the original game for use with Specter Knight's skills set (much like with Plague of Shadows). There is some original content though as the game allows players to see and play through how Spectre Knight came into being through an interesting origin story that pops up after every few levels are completed.

The main gimmick now focuses around Spectre Knight's scythe. In order to progress around the levels players have to utilise the ability to cut though objects diagonally which causes the knight to go zooming up or down accordingly. As a result prepare to spend a lot of time in mid-air as you fly from object to object (normally over a big pit).  There are also a whole host of new sub weapons to get to grips with as well.

Overall, this is another excellent entry into the Shovel Knight franchise. Specter Knight's more aggressive style keeps the approach to the remixed levels fresh and this coupled with how you need to use the new skill set to get around makes it very different from the main game and previous expansion. It’s also somewhat easier than Plague of Shadows and much less frustrating as a result.

Overall 8/10

No comments:

Post a Comment