Knee Deep

The story, the script and the characters in Knee Deep, as well as the setting, all contribute to a fantastic experience that is entirely unique at the moment. Knee Deep a game for anyone who wants to experience something a little calmer, a bit more cerebral and a little bit different to the norm.

As far as story-driven games go, Knee Deep is certainly ranking high in terms of original concepts and the story itself is chock full of suspense, over dramatisation and mystery. Almost every character has something about them to be memorable, whilst the locations set the scene well without ever looking brilliant. After a strong start, a rocky middle that almost lost me and an unforgettable finale, Knee Deep is a great overall experience. Just don’t expect any fancy brain teasing puzzles.

The ultimate frustration is that I was left wanting to play more of the game and get wrapped up in the story again, but the choices around skipping text and saving made that an unexciting experience. That coupled with the voice audio issues and narrative still being on a mostly locked path means that I probably will never unlock all the mysteries of Cypress Knee.

An unusual game, Knee Deep is entertaining while it lasts, its offbeat, Twin Peaks-inspired murder mystery taking in some strange twists and turns to reach its unexpected conclusion. Cypress Knee is certainly a place worth visiting.

If you want something actively engaging, then this isn’t the title for you. But if you’re happy to let yourself relax and get lost in an intriguing, dark, sometimes funny and always mysterious narrative, then [Knee Deep] is definitely worth picking up.

The game offers branching paths much like Quantum Break, but the ending doesn’t change much. It’s quite disappointing given what I would say is an overall great story.

Knee Deep is a conversational adventure where we’ll have to solve the mystery around a movie star’s suicide. Despite its original staging, Knee Deep tries to offer more than it cans. With some simpler graphics and a less complicated script, Prologue Games would have achieved a much better product.

Knee Deep features an interesting noir murder story narrated as a theatrical performance, but with a too low level of interaction only limited to dialogues and a few overly easy mini-games. The absence of foreign (Italian, in this case) localization with very colloquial and slangy dialogues doesn't help, either.

Man, is Knee Deep ever slow, though. Few indie games have ever presented me with such a slow campaign to work through, let alone one that is so dialogue heavy. And, while I’m not one to scoff at individuality, with a heavy reliance on dialogue, or just reading in general, it did become too much at times. It was during those moments where I wondered if it would have been better served as a book, movie or TV show.

Very little player interaction is involved, but conversation options can allow players to shape the characters so that it feels like they are creating their own story. Unfortunately, that feeling is short lived when all choices lead to the same story conclusion and characters are left underdeveloped. The puzzles that are intended to add extra gameplay end up falling flat because they're too easy. The result is an experience that is satisfactory for a single playthrough but becomes repetitive and boring across multiple playthroughs, which is something that the achievements encourage.

A strange concept in an evocative landscape that's in search of a better game. [March 2017, p.89]