Do you like first-person parkour? Do you like traversing up platforms by using a grappling hook? Do you like it when a game gives you a style grade as you stylishly mow down your foes?
Then take a look at Shady Knight, a one-person indie game developed by Alexy ‘cptnsigh’.
It’s not quite Ultrakill or Neon White (not enough breakcore in the music selection), but Shady Knight has that relentless action feel that the two indie games share.
Inspired by the melee combat of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Shady Knight gives you all of your moveset upfront and asks upon you to stylebeast upon your foes. A sword to slash, parry projectiles and thrust downward via death-from-above lunges. A chain that hooks onto enemies and pull you to them which doubles as a traversal move to get up to higher platforms. A bow-and-arrow for ranged trickshots.
And yes, Shady Knight does have a kick to send hapless goons into the abyss or on tactically-placed spikes on walls. You cannot mention Dark Messiah and not think of those sweet, sweet, kicks. And Shady Knight is not here to disappoint any Dark Messiah fans.
And when all of this is going on, you have a style meter that goes up to SSS rank if you can keep the combo of fresh new moves going with slide jumps and air dashes. Is this a first-person Devil May Cry? Or maybe this is Ghostrunner with more style and less punishment?
Shady Knight’s movement also allows players to gain momentum, which means at high skill levels, you can basically soar and reach new heights (figuratively and literally) opening up potential for skill-based expressions of gaming like speedrunning.
Shady Knight will have over 40 levels, all designed for replayability in mind, with plenty of ways to kill your foes, parkour through platforming trials and other bonus challenges.
Shady Knight launches on October 9 on PC (Steam). The game previously had limited-time demos, but a brand new demo will be available on release.