Who says knights are only good for wars? This is clearly depicted by LockPickle’s new title Puddle Knights where you control and play with chivalrous knights whose sole purpose is to save the dignity of the nobles by covering dirt-covered paths with their capes. Puddle Knights is releasing next month on March 3, 2020, however, we managed to get our hands on an early access preview copy of Puddle Knights. This is our preview of Puddle Knights in which we get muddy, tear up some capes and step on some heads.
Before I start with my preview, I will say that I have previewed quite a decent amount of puzzle games since the start of this year and Puddle Knights easily take the top spot when it comes to brain scratching. The puzzles are brutal and despite the game giving you the options of ‘Undo’ and ‘Restart’ which restarts the level instantly without any loading, the game will take a lot of time and thinking for you to complete the levels.
The design and gameplay of Puddle Knights are really simple. You control both the Knights and the Nobles who have to reach their destination. However, the streets are covered in mud and dirt and we cannot have dirty nobles moving around because it does not give a good impression on the foreigners visiting your kingdom. This is where Puddle Knights come in as they lay down their capes in the mud ridden streets to help Nobles reach their destinations.
You can toggle between the knights and the nobles and move them around as you try to solve puzzles. Earlier levels are pretty simple as they will mostly introduce you to game mechanics and how you can use the knights to help cover up mud with capes allowing the Nobles to cross mud. The Nobles can only walk on capes, heads or the normal concrete sections in any map. While the knights can go anywhere, they cannot go back if they still have their cape dragging behind them.
As you move further in the puzzles, you will be required to tear up the capes by using a second knight. If a Noble is standing on a knight’s cap, the knight cannot move until the Noble gets off the cape however if another knight is standing on the cape, the whole length behind the second knight will be torn off if you move the first knight. The torn cape cannot be reattached however this mechanic allows you to use the cape of the knight to cover a section while you use the knight’s remaining cape on another section.
Progress even further and you will continue to get additional knights to help you out. The mechanics only get tougher as you move up the levels so if you complete a level, you should be ready to face an even tougher challenge next. Further progression will unlock drawbridges and sections where Nobles will be required to stand on the head of your knights to cross raised up paths. The core mechanics of the game still remain the same throughout the levels but the challenges and difficulty of these challenges continue to rise.
If you make a mistake, a single button press will undo that move to allow you to try again with a different approach. Want to start over? Press another button and it instantly refreshed to the default starting location. The gameplay is extremely smooth. There are no delays in the gameplay and this greatly helps as you try, try and yet try again to solve the puzzles. It might sound like I am over-exaggerating about the difficulty of the puzzles but LockPickle has really made some extremely brain-teasing puzzles. The real challenge started for me from Level 2-6 and after that, it is just brain-storming hell. Each level will take quite a decent amount of time even if you are a puzzle-solving pro.
After you complete the normal levels in a world, you will unlock some hardcore challenges in that location which mostly involve Metal Knights. Metal Knights are shinier knights however their capes cannot be torn unlike the normal knights thus further adding to the challenge. You can skip these Metal Knight challenges and move to the next world however if you are really want to put your brain to work, these challenges are the ultimate brain tease.
Puddle Knights, however, gives you all the time in the world to work your way through the puzzles. There is no time restriction of any sort. You can undo as much as you want and you can restart each level as much as you like. There are no penalties for either one of these actions. This allows you to experiment with different things as you try to complete the puddles. Depending on your proficiency with puzzle games, some of the levels will be pretty easy for you while some of the levels are made to get you stuck and curse everything in your living room.
Puddle Knights at this point has 6 worlds in which you will find increasingly difficult levels and additional challenges. Puddle Knights is only an offline game and there is no multiplayer or co-op at this point. Co-op would have been fun in the game as you or another local friend could have worked towards solving the puzzles but not having it in the game makes sense as some of the levels only have a single knight to control. Nonetheless, Puddle Knights is an excellent puzzle game and brings a completely unique idea into the mix.
We have seen many difficult puzzle games and Puddle Knights sits proudly on a very high spot in this list. It brings a completely unique idea into the mix and executes it brilliantly. The level and character design are brilliant as well. I really liked how the knights move around splashing in the puddles and how the nobles show their ignorance and actually appear to be proud of their behavior. Puddle Knights looks really cute however it is extremely brutal when it comes to puzzles.
Puddle Knights is coming out next week and the final version of the game will also be the most stable and optimal form of the title. I will highly recommend that you head over to the Steam page of Puddle Knights and add the game to your wishlist because if you’ve been craving a good puzzler, nothing will fill your craving better other than Puddle Knights. As for me, I am looking forward to the developer to add some more levels in the game post-launch.
