When I first heard of Knights of the Temple, I thought it was a cool-sounding game. That was last May. Then, the well was dry until a week or so ago when a trailer was released. Matter of fact, the well’s still pretty dry. A good deal of other information sources on the game was in other languages. But what did I do? I learned the languages! I translated! Why? ‘Cause I’m a SOLDIER for you people! I do what I gotta do to make sure you know what you need to know. That’s the dedication we exhibit as a matter of course around here. Anyway, the game.

"Knights of the Temple" is set in the time of the Crusades and features the Knights Templar, warriors of Christianity of the time. However, it does not make a religious message to the player in any form I can discern, seriously deal with the historical events of the time, or for that matter, deal with the continual harvest of Muslim-Christian animosity that we have enjoyed well up into the present day. No, what KotT is is your good old fashioned hack-and-stab pitting the player against the demonic legions of evil. And everyone can enjoy that, right? Ah, video games: the true harbinger of ecumenism. But I digress.

Andrew followed the Canyon of the Crescent Moon…now where were the Joneses?

The player takes on the persona of Paul, a young knight on his way to the Holy Land to join his brethren in killing himself some heathens. However, he is told of an evil bishop that, with the help of a captive he has taken – Adelle - , seeks to use the divine powers imbued within her to complete the Unholy Circle by desecrating sacred places in the Holy Land through performing dark rituals at the sites. All in all, the man intends to unlock and access the Gateway to Hell. Paul is then charged with not going out and shedding Saracen blood, but rather the task of uncovering the Evil Conspiracy to bring these plans to fruition, interrupting the Unholy Circle, and preventing the Evil Bishop from completing his nefarious plan. Bummer.

Soul goes up, soul goes down. Soul goes up, soul goes down.

Combat in the game is rather interesting. As opposed to the historical diabolical foot soldier in video games, the enemies in KotT do not feel a great urge to return to the nether realm from which they’ve been released. Hence, they spend most of their time blocking your attacks, rather than engaging in a headlong blood-crazed attack rush. This makes the player have to think a bit, working to trick his opponents into thinking they have a chance to strike if they attack, while maintaining enough control to counterattack when they miss. Things like swinging one’s sword wide of the target, overreaching, etc., etc. Controlling your actions will require more precision that one may be used to – one of the things stressed in the game is realism. Specifically, Paul moves as one would if actually swinging a twenty-pound blade with sixty or so pounds of chain mail strapped to one’s body.

Further, there are magic attacks of a sort built around divine powers like rejuvenation, invincibility, along with necessary offensive powers, allows the player to be on more of an even footing when going up against the hordes of Lucifer’s minions. The attack buttons are few; though multiple combos exist for the various weapons Paul wields in-game (axe, sword, mace, etc.). Arrow-firing however takes on a whole different aura, as the game swaps from a third- to first-person perspective whenever you want to take a shot. That and some heretofore-unspecified special attacks look fit to sharpen the learning curve.

See folks? HERE’S where Catholicism beats the Protestants all hollow.

Graphically, the game excels. The Knights’ uniforms are done with a great deal of detail to historical appearance and the nightmare world that Paul eventually travels through is exceedingly disturbing. More, TDK brought in medieval weapons experts to help with the motion capture of the battles – from the weapon movement and general tactics down to the desperate, nitty-gritty, boot-to-the-balls improvisation of desperate people fighting for their lives.

Mike Twomey