What good timing you have, Friends of Safety, releasing Kingdom of Night in time with the season finale of Stranger Things. However, this wasn’t just a good marketing strategy; it’s a really good game at that. And no, 80s retro fantasy adventure does not equal Netflix copycat.
In reality, said show pays homage to the 80s, as does this retro adventure, though it’s more in line with D&D, video nasties, and the classic tales that veteran gamers will appreciate. Anyone familiar with watching Nightmare on Elm Street or even Ghostbusters on VHS will be smitten with this tale. Though it also pays homage to clunky controls and sketchy visuals.
Set in 1987’s Miami (Arizona, Tommy Vercetti fans), you play a classic movie teen and their ‘crew’ which consists of the girl-next-door, the knucklehead jock, and an alt-girl that seemingly knows what is always afoot. Chuck in your local goggle-eyed wizard, beer kegs and gym socks, plus various cults and societies, and we’re very much in familiar territory. Until night comes.
Kingdom of Night starts on a good foot in that you can use your name as a placeholder for the default hero John, as well as changing the immediate characters’ names to your significant other, crush, or perhaps labelling the jock ‘Fartface’. It’s up to you, as is the relatively straightforward class system.
While I know of D&D, my expertise is Hero Quest from the 80s, Baldur’s Gate, and comic book guys with ponytails. The idea of a dice was off-putting, but Kingdom of Night is very intuitive and gives a lot of freedom for exploration, courtesy of a rather large world map. The skinny is, the love interest has gone missing, and some Goosebumps-like villain that has been influenced by Clive Barker is kidnapping your peers. Fortunately, some beardy chap who models himself on Gandalf shows up and dripfeeds you some lore.
Within about 10 minutes, it’s full-blown ganstay, and any mention again of Stranger Things is purely coincidental as the tale covers everything, with an abundance of choice, but predominantly it’s an action RPG with lots of simplified combat. I say simplified when I speak of the melee side of things. It’s clunky but serviceable. Mostly, the positioning of your character and assailants is off, and I found it difficult not to incur damage on a regular basis.
To counter this, you aren’t restricted to how your build works and can choose from sub-classes based on your preference of place. Typically, going for a defence melee character, in Kingdom of Night, I opted for the barbarian subclass. This beefs up health and attack damage dramatically, adding a buffer for the incoming damage – especially with oversized bosses – at the caveat of decreasing health that is countered by eating junk. Twinkies, no doubt.
If that puts you off a bit, a magic build is also an option. However, this is the polar opposite of the simple melee combat system and instead requires a good memory. Using a series of button combos, you can cast all manner of spells, from damage to support, though there are no tutorials aside from the resident geek at school. Rather, you have to memorise the magic spells. This does sound off-putting, but it’s surprisingly fun and well worth investing in, though do expect to fumble quite a bit.
For me, Kingdom of Night would have been a triple-A back in the ’90s, and I would have played this to death. That’s not to say that it’s a poor game – far from it, but that melee combat was frustrating at times, and it can hinder the truly excellent storyline and exploration. It’s quite a big game, what with the flexibility of subclasses, but also the freedom to wander around and perhaps grind a bit to level up for that buffer I mentioned about.
The art style, a pixelated affair with talking heads for dialogue, is brilliant, as too are the sound effects, and naturally, the score. Again, this resonates more with me having been a product of the era – well, the tail end – and having consumed an unhealthy share of 80s/90s nostalgia and been there, man, I particularly like the premise and meeting those expectations of stereotypes; the hero, jock, prom queen, geek, etc etc… Kingdom of Night doesn’t pretend to be clever and cater to modern standards, instead focusing on what was glorious of the time: ghetto blasters, bad hair, and… adventure. Great stuff.
