Portal Knights | Xbox One

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At first glance, Portal Knights could be mistaken for just another Minecraft clone, but, if you keep looking, it quickly becomes apparent there’s a lot more to it than that. Having been in early access on Steam for the past year - a span of time in which developer Keen Games took constant feedback from the community - Portal Knights features the necessary depth and complexity to make it a varied and fun-filled experience in its own right.

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by James
Michael
​Parry

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​@james_parry

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Developer: Keen Games
Publisher: 505 Games
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, PC
​Players: 1-2 local, 1-4 online

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Featuring elements from the survival, action and role-playing genres, the former side of things isn’t bogged down by keeping yourself from starving or topped up on sleep, making things simple and accessible for younger gamers, while arguably less tedious for everyone. Instead, the game places focus on crafting new weapons and armour from ingredients strewn around Portal Knights’ various worlds to support you on your quest.
 
The titular portals are found in set locations throughout the game, often underground or well-hidden, and most will need to be manually activated before they’ll act as gateways that can be freely fast travelled between (providing you’re happy to sit through a fairly hefty loading screen, that is). They link together 30 different biomes, which are all relatively small, Avatar-esque floating islands home to a host of enemies and NPC quest/hint givers. Quests are kept very simple, like battling enemies or fetching items, and feel particularly reminiscent of those seen in Lego Worlds, while useful hints guide you towards finding secrets in the surrounding area.

​Environments have a blocky aesthetic that’s similar to the likes of Minecraft and Terraria, but they’re occupied by fully-modelled, cartoon animals and plant life that help to set the game apart. These can serve as obstacles that make traversal more of a challenge, though they add to the density of your surroundings and help landmark locales to avoid long treks between different areas, which Minecraft can certainly suffer from. The music is really the main thing which lets exploring these areas down, often feeling fairly uninspired and repetitive, as well as the baffling inability of your character to run, making avoiding enemies tricky.

You land at set points after using one of the aforementioned portals, which can be changed by crafting new markers once you’ve gathered a few resources and unlocked some of the more specialist crafting options by upgrading your workbench. The bench is your creative hub, and really where the Minecraft comparison is the most apt, though items are more deliberately sorted and categorised here. You’ll also need additional benches to craft specialist items, be it an anvil for Warrior gear, an archer station for Ranger gear, or an altar for souped-up Mage equipment.

The addictive nature of the game’s main thrust may prove enough to hold your attention for longer than the 30 hours it would take to power through the main questline.

On that note, at the beginning of the game you’re asked to choose one of three fairly bog standard character classes - Warrior, Ranger or Mage. There are a few implications to this choice, as Warriors wield melee weapons, Rangers use (you guessed it) ranged weapons and Mages play with magic wands, naturally. Aside from each class having unique unlockable abilities which you can choose between at roughly five-level intervals, they pretty much serve as loose suggestions, with characters growing based on which skills (Dexterity, Strength, etc.) you assign points to. This means you could make a beefy, tankish magic user if you felt like it, or a particularly nimble Warrior.

Whatever your build, you’ll fight enemies reminiscent of creatures you might come across in The Legend of Zelda, particularly those which add elemental typings to the same base enemy, as Breath of the Wild fans will be all too familiar with (curse you Wizzrobes!). Certain armour provides bonus defence against certain elements, and depending on how willing you are to grind the rarest materials or craft the most complex gear, you can find yourself with astonishingly high defence to absorb the wrath of most foes.
 
You can team up online with up to three other players if ever you require aid on your quest, with one player acting as host and everyone else coming to visit, but, beyond that, there are no additional modes. The addictive nature of the game’s main thrust may prove enough to hold your attention for longer than the 30 hours it would take to power through the main questline, however.
 
Portal Knights boasts more deliberate direction and increased complexity over Minecraft, while still managing to keep things straightforward enough to be accessible. The game’s design is endearing and makes basic RPG elements easy to get to grips with, proving to be a good bridge for youngsters in transitioning towards more ‘grown-up’ games, and to be good, laid-back fun for adults.
 
Pros

• Accessible, varied gameplay
• Lose yourself in your own colourful, digital universe
• Surprising depth offers more than initially meets the eye

 
Cons
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• Music fails to inspire
• Backtracking can build up over time, despite being less prevalent than in contemporaries
• Not tons of variety between the 30 levels

 
Score 9/10