RadioSEGA Review: Spiral Knights (PC) Part 2: The Spiralling

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Titans Creed
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RadioSEGA Review: Spiral Knights (PC) Part 2: The Spiralling

Post by Titans Creed »

This is a follow-up review to Spiral Knights by Three Rings and SEGA. You can read my original thoughts and impressions >here<

So, what has happened in the realm of the Clockworks in the last 4 months?

Recently, we have had the official announcement of a million players on Spiral Knights, which, I imagine quite a few of those have come from the also recent Steam partnership.

Slightly prior to that, we had the first new low-tier boss addition in the form of the Snarbolax, which is great fun, and a really good introduction to specific tactics used for bosses for low-tier players.

We have also seen the inclusion of the in-game auction house, which if you'll notice, is one of the things I felt was one of Spiral Knights' flaws at the time. Talking to some of the older SK players, some feel, that the auction house has taken slightly away from the community feel of trading, which, it does, to an extent, but then, it allows those players, who don't like to talk openly with strangers, to actually help themselves in the game. Overall, I think it is still an overall improvement to it's in-game economy structure as well.

More recently, after the Steam partnership, we have had the new Tier 2 boss of the Roarmulus Twins. Which, I personally, have managed to defeat for the first time quite recently, and it was a REALLY good boss encounter. The levels prior to it, are slightly overtuned, and even the slightest bit of lag can hamper getting through there solo, but as a party group, theres definately some extra margin. But overall, it's really fun, which is the most important thing.

At time of writing, the latest content patch has gone live, which contains the new Player vs Player arena, King Krogmo's Coliseum. I intend to have a go at this soonish, when I can find some friends to play with, but from what I've been able to acquire, it puts all players on an even gear level, so that it really comes down to a skill vs skill game, except when lag can be involved of course.

The first available level of the Coliseum is currently an event called Blast Network. Which is completely reminiscent of multiplayer Bomberman. Only exceptions being, the power-ups of flame power, bombs and speed randomly spawn instead of being in boxes, and you will erspawn after deaths. You can choose to spawn instantly and pay an energy cost, or wait for the timer to tick down for a free revive. The only drawback I have seen of this so far is that it is absolutely lag-tastic in it's present state, which, one would presume will get fixed and adjusted as it goes on.

Now, while this is definately taken a step in the right direction, the same niggling issues from before are still there. The most glaringly being the gated tier content. It still requires the high energy cost gear to create/purchase, which as well as the crown cost can slow a lot more of the more casual playerbase down.

Otherwise, the updates to the game, and the new additions definately outweigh the negatives that still exist. Lets hope that the next 4 months of Spiral Knights bring just as much fun and gameplay as the previous 4.
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Post by dab_dob »

Nice .. thank you
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