Reknum

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Reknum is an Action-Platformer released on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2020. It has a medieval fantasy theme and has you going through levels swiping swords at enemies and jumping on platforms.

The presentation here combines pixel art graphics with something between an 8-bit and 16-bit visual style, and fast-paced synthesized music that’s… frankly not very befitting the game’s theme, but is otherwise decent enough. The game’s intro is voiced, and that at least is pretty good, though the story being told feels painfully generic. Overall I’d say this game’s presentation is decent but nothing great.

When it comes to the gameplay, Reknum feels like it has hints of fun, but they’re too often ruined by terrible design. The core movement and combat here is decent, although your character’s limited range feels restrictive. However, that is marred by bad and repetitive level design, leaps of faith, frustrating hazards that send you back to the beginning of the level, and I even encountered an invisible obstruction barring my path.

Perhaps if Reknum was worked on a bit more, this could have been a nice little retro-styled Action-Platformer. But as-is, it’s a frustrating mess of poor design that makes it hard to enjoy the parts of the gameplay that are actually fun.

tl;dr – Reknum is an Action-Platformer with a retro-style presentation and a medieval fantasy theme. Unfortunately, multiple design flaws sap any fun out of playing this game, such as poor level design and frustrating hazards that force players to restart the entire level. Skip this one.

Grade: D+

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