Portal Knights

Portal Knights is an open-world sandbox crafting RPG where we must embark on epic quests, build an awesome base, and slay the forces of evil to reunite our shattered home world.

It’s a shame because beneath such striking flaws beats a game with bold ambition that never manages to realise its own potential. There are clear lessons to be learned, then, and it could be said that Portal Knights has tried to achieve far too much at once, rather than nailing the basics and iterating on them. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its own successes, but some poor design decisions result in a game that will require you to work everything out for yourself before you can become lost in it.

Portal Knights gives players an open sandbox full of possibilities, and then layers on a series of quests that challenge you to use all its tools to overcome their challenges. This is a killer combination and makes Portal Knights super satisfying to play, despite the fact that it doesn’t always feel as sleek or elegant as you might want.

It’s the kind of game you can easily find yourself getting lost in for hours at a time even when you aren’t making progress toward the end of the story. That’s good value, especially when you consider that it’s only a few bucks for iOS or Android. We may get too sidetracked along the way to ever jump through every portal, but we’re definitely anticipating having a lot of fun regardless.

Portal Knights is a Minecraft-alike with a lot of personality and a lot of promise, but in its current state, I just couldn’t enjoy it. It feels bloated in places, empty in others, and just can’t compare to other games in the block-placing, creation “genre”. Fun for a while, but outstays its welcome too quickly.

Portal Knights has been designed in such a way that encourages co-operative play; sharing the fun of exploring the worlds and discovering new things together is undoubtedly one of the game’s largest selling points. If you would rather play the game alone, though, there is nothing stopping you from doing so and you’ll still find that there is an enjoyable adventure to be had (albeit with a slightly different focus on how to go about completing tasks).