Portal Knights is a cute 3D sandbox action RPG game developed by Keen Games and published by 505 Games. It was originally released for PC and consoles in May this year and was only recently ported to Android and published on the Play Store. The design is clearly reminiscent of Minecraft, but is distinguished by including some RPG character classes, a wide variety of random events, and plenty of epic boss battles.
The first thing I want to point out is that Portal Knights is, in fact, a console experience on mobile. Better yet, this version of Android costs $4.99. Compared to its console and PC counterparts that cost $19.99, it’s clear that Android’s price is definitely a bargain for the amount of content you get in return. And even though the Play Store listing shows that there are in-app purchases in the game, in fact none can be found.
You start by choosing your character’s class, which ranges from warrior, ranger, to mage. After customizing your character and naming your universe, you’ll be immersed in a randomly generated world. From here, you’ll progress through the game’s tutorial, which walks you through the basic controls and general fighting mechanics in real time.
Gameplay-wise, it offers pretty much what you’d expect from a 3D sandbox action RPG. You can go through numerous unique environments, meet countless NPC characters, discover a large number of creatures and resources to create. Plus, there are plenty of caves, lakes, and dungeons to make your way through that are filled with quite a few surprises. All combat is action based and there are many ways to build a bunch of different structures. You will also be tasked with collecting dozens of materials to make those structures and all of their supplies.
The controls work pretty well on a touchscreen, though the camera often needs fixing. I found the default camera sensitivity too high, although it can be adjusted in the game settings. But even at lower sensitivity, the camera still feels like it’s lagging where you move it. This can disorient you and won’t help if you’re in the middle of a fight. I also noticed that there is no support for HID controllers, which seems strange for a game ported from consoles and PCs. I would say I struggled more with the controls.
Load times are also a real pain. Portal Knights takes forever to start, displaying only a black screen that makes you think your phone is off. So you have to deal with the load even more when opening your universe. I’d say it takes a total of 3-4 minutes to get into the game.
It is also worth noting that Google Play game services support an automatic login and performance system. Painfully absent is a cloud storage feature. Frankly, I’m pretty confused at this point that cloud saves aren’t a staple for such high-profile releases.
Oh, and as of version 1.2.7, the game takes up 519 MB of storage space. So it may not be the biggest release on Android, but it will take a while for the game to fully download, so be prepared.
Overall, I’d say Portal Knights is a quality port that could use a bit of polish. The gameplay can be quite fun, even if you have to fight with the camera too often. The lack of cloud savings is also a big problem for me. Fortunately, the price is fair, so these niceties can be easily ignored when you consider the amount of content and playback capacity you get for $4.99.
While I can’t say this is the next for Minecraft, the minor changes to the default sandbox formula and the addition of instanced events and boss battles give the player so much more to explore and a sense of progression that’s hard to deny. .
