Box Knight

Box Knight is a straightforward and fun roguelike brawler with visuals inspired by South Park that does an excellent job of parodying corporate stereotypes. Although the combat eventually devolves into repetitive button mashing and the campaign takes only around 5 to 7 hours to complete, the overall experience is significantly salvaged by an excellent gameplay twist after encountering the First Knight, the bonus Horde Mode, and the well-executed local co-op. If you need a quick way to blow off some pent-up work stress, this is an ideal little treat.

Box Knight has a fun setting, likeable art style, straightforward combat and enough progression to keep you coming back. It’s easy to pick up, easy to understand and doesn’t demand that you spend hours learning complicated systems before you can actually enjoy yourself. It does become repetitive, and I would have liked some of the more interesting abilities to arrive a little earlier. The humour also occasionally misses the mark for me. But I came away from Box Knight feeling positive. There’s something quite appealing about its combination of office misery and silly fantasy nonsense. If you’re looking for a relatively simple roguelike brawler that you can dip into for a few runs in the evening, Box Knight is worth a look. And if you have someone to play the local co-op with, I suspect the cardboard capers could be even better.

Box Knight brings a fresh perspective to the roguelite genre. The art is fantastic, and the leveling system feels meaningful, which is important in this genre. Add in the fact that it’s a couch co-op beat-em-up, and it makes for a perfect game to play with friends.

Box Knight is a good little Rogue Lite who made the office guy that I am smile. Focusing its development on the character more than on the synergy of powers gives a little different and retro touch. The game is nervous and will make us nervous by a cruelty due to a display that could have been better and a part of randomness sometimes a little cruel; a curve of progression and non-linear difficulty. A demo is always available and the game is less than 15 €.

Box Knight isn’t going to blow you away with deep, tactical combat or mind bending level design, but it honestly doesn’t need to. It’s a silly, lighthearted, and genuinely funny roguelike that knows exactly what it wants to be. If you’re looking for an affordable, quick hit game to blow off some real world workplace stress after a long week especially if you bring a co-op buddy along for the ride it’s well worth it!

Box Knight's best ideas are trapped inside a loop that quickly becomes dull. The presentation kept me interested for a while, but presentation alone cannot carry a game built around repeating the same fights. If the charming office-fantasy theme is enough for you, there is some fun to be found here, especially with local co-op. For me, though, the one-button combat and weak build crafting turned too much of the experience into busywork.

I ran into a few issues during my time with Box Knight, and I think it could use some tweaks here and there, but I still had a great time. Some of the issues I ran into can likely be addressed, but in my time with the game, they stood out quite a bit. Despite all that, the core gameplay is a fun romp with some fantastic humour and a unique style. It’s fun to journey through the office departments solo, but I predict playing it with a friend would be even better.