Everyone Enjoys Having a Good Knight
Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon released today, and having thus far played through the first dungeon and hung out in the village area, I feel qualified to tell you what I think of it so far. Frayed Knights is an indie RPG very much in the vein of the classic PC RPGs of the ’90s. Though it features a 3D world to explore and plunder, the battles are turn-based, similar to the Might & Magic or Wizardry-type games. It comes packed with a ton of spells, skills, feats, and enough stats to make the most die-hard role-player proud. It also doesn’t skimp on the challenge nor the complexity of the older games. For the veteran gamer, this will feel like slipping into a comfortable pair of slippers. For someone more accustomed to the newer incarnations of the RPG genre, some of it may not come so easily at first, but if you stick it out, and enjoy the idea of really getting into a game’s stats, strategic gameplay, and character development, Frayed Knights could prove a rewarding experience.
Admittedly, I’ve only been playing for a few hours thus far, but what I’ve seen has been very promising. Though the game can feel a bit rough around the edges at times, and the 3D graphics are by no means cutting-edge, the gameplay itself has been solid. Where the game is most enjoyable though is in its writing. I can’t remember the last time I wanted to click on everything I came across in an RPG just to read the description. I also found myself making decisions that I knew were bad, just to see what laughs it would deliver. For example, daring my warrior to drink from a pool of nasty sludge water in a giant toilet-shaped fountain. Obviously a stupid decision with predictable results, but man, it was worth the hilarity it brought about.
The game’s drama star system has also had its intended effect on my play style. Drama stars are a system of points you receive for performing a variety of tasks. The more points you build up, the cooler the payoff when you cash in. Only, the points start over when you load a game, thus encouraging the player to not use the age-old method of saving and loading until they get the best result from any given situation. And it really works! I actually find myself saving less, and not sweating the details I tend to usually worry about. In other words, I’m playing an RPG the way I assume they were always meant to be played, accepting things as they happen, and not trying to cheat the system.
Other little features I liked were the lock-picking and trap mini-games. They’re pretty simple, and require a combination of skill and luck, but have proven to be exciting when they come up. The music is also very nice, in some ways traditional soundtrack music, with elements of classic PC gaming music, and occasionally going places you wouldn’t expect in video games with more quirky (in a good way) bits here and there.
Promising over 30 hours of gameplay, I’m looking forward to really sinking my teeth into this one. I’ve long been waiting for a classic RPG that I could lose myself in, and Frayed Knights looks like it might scratch that itch. It seems ideal for fans of the older games, and brings in a dose of the old LucasFilms Games’ sense of humor. The game comes with a 69-page manual (PDF) which is also sure to please us old fogies.
The modern indie gaming scene to me really reflects the atmosphere of the ’80s and ’90s PC game development scene, with dedicated people making the games they wanted to make and loved. So perhaps it is no surprise that we’re seeing more and more of this sort of RPG coming around. The developer’s passion for his craft shines through Frayed Knights, a feature that isn’t so common in games requiring hundreds of workers developing small parts separately from each other. It’s refreshing to see this sort of thing surface lately, and this game would have probably been remembered as a classic should it have been released in the first half of the ’90s (of course, this is assuming it keeps the steam it’s built up in the first few hours). I’ll write a full review once I complete it, but now, I’m looking forward to jumping right back in!
The game’s homepage, and where you can buy it or try the demo.- For some more fun info, see my interview with the developer.
- The developer’s blog with tons of game info, and fun gaming stuff!
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- The Life and Times of a Pseudo-PC Gamer (bnbgaming.com)
