Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Rent it first"

Knight's Contract is one in many of modern hack & slash video games, but this one just doesn't stand out as much as a game like God Of War. The game is flawed in many different ways but there are many good aspects of the game.

Story: (Spoiler Alert)
You play as an executioner named Heinrich, and a witch named Gretchen. One hundred years ago people started hating witches and executing every one they got their hands on. Heinrich was the one who executed the witches. Just when Heinrich was about to kill Gretchen, she put a spell on Heinrich that made him immortal so he could think of all the pain he caused to them. One hundred years later, all of the witches seemed to have been resurrected. Heinrich finds Gretchen and asks her to take off the spell that she cast upon him. She agreed to help him only if he accompanied her on her quest. All of the witches that have been resurrected want revenge on humanity. Later on you find out there is a man named Faust that wants eternal life. He has stolen all of the shards of a jewel called the Anima Del Monde. The Anima Del Monde is a very powerful jewel that gives all of the witches their power. With all of the shards Faust has stolen, he was able to control all of the witches except for Gretchen. That is the general gist of how the story goes.

Gameplay:
The game has very fluent control and plays very well. Since it is basically a hack & slash game there is no need to go into too much detail about how the combat, if you have played a game like Darksiders you will know how it is. Just like in Darksiders the game's combat is very satisfying. There are the parts where your are just slashing at enemies and there are the finishers. The finishers is the highlight of the combat. They are very brutal and fun to pull off.

Heinrich can use his scythe and Gretchen can use her magic. You can also choose when Gretchen uses her spells. There are a variety of spells that Gretchen can use. There is a spell in which a pile of thorns come up from the ground and enclose on the enemies. One you can summon bear traps on the ground that can trap an enemy. There are also "super" spells that the characters can use. Heinrich can turn into a big blue beast that freezes time and can easily take down enemies. Gretchen turns into a huge blue naked version of herself in which she takes down all enemies in range or does a lot of damage to bosses.

A unique feature that the game has is the fact that Heinrich can't die. If he takes enough damage, it will take it's toll on the body, but he can recover very easily from it. Gretchen, however has her own health bar so she can die. Heinrich can hold Gretchen in his arms to regain his and Gretchen's health. Traveling and backtracking in the game can also feel very slow and tedious.

One of the worst aspects of the game is the boss battles. The fights in general are, for the most part, easy. There were two bosses in the game that are hard though due to the platform you are fighting on. If you fall off of a platform during a boss, Heinrich or Gretchen, you automatically die. The worst part of the fights are the end in which you have to perform very hard quick-time events. The QTE have a very small hit window and are very specific on when to press the button. Luckily the QTE have a set pattern in every sequence so they don't change and you can easily memorize them.

Conclusion:
Knights Contract is a very fun game but Quick Time Events and uneven pacing bring the game down. There is really nothing very memorable about the game so it can be easily forgotten. There is not too much replay value to the game either. The game is not for everyone, but if you want a fairly decent story and fun combat you should definitely rent the game.