Obviously, the big focus in any game about knights is fighting. In "BattleKnight," fighting takes place primarily in three ways: missions, duels, and jousts. After completing a mission or duel, you'll be able to view the effects of the fight; who won, what kind of damage was done, how often blows were blocked, etc. In the case of duels, there's an added visual layer, featuring two 3D models of knights hitting each other repeatedly with the same animations, until one of them groans and then drops dead. And not even directly after a hit; it's more like instead of the next hit animation, there's a brief transition, a groan, and then a dead knight. It's a nice idea, and the 3D animation looks nice for a browser game, but the repetition of attacks makes it boring to watch more than a time or two -– especially since you can't fast forward toward the end of the fight.

Outside of fighting, one of the more inviting features is building up your estate and castle. As you progress you can increase its appearance, and also the benefits they give you. Hire guards to increase defense, buy training dummies to increase training proficiency, etc. It's not quite as eventful as I would have liked, but it does make for a nice break from the working, training, and dueling in the rest of the game.

Unfortunately, I found the idea of "BattleKnight" to be a lot more glamorous than the game itself. For people new to the browser gaming scene, I can see how the game is a good way to introduce one's self to the world of browser-games, especially since knight-related concepts are so readily understood by most people. But for players well-versed in playing a multitude of online browser games, the focus on one character doesn't leave a whole lot to do in terms of strategy, and the repetition of actions is made even more apparent. It's a good game to try out since it's a novel idea in a well-presented package, but your mileage will vary.

Review Brendon Lindsey
August 6, 2009