A dice game with a sense of humour
If games like Torchlight II, Diablo III, and Grim Dawn are your thing, Knights of Pen & Paper II will seem like a snooze-fest to you. While Knights has elements of a role playing game, it’s not an “Action” role playing game (ARPG), but more mimics the kind of play you might get from playing Dungeons and Dragons with a game master.
Unfortunately the game is NOT multiplayer, so one of the best parts of D&D is missing from Knights of Pen & Paper II, but if you’re okay with playing solo, this might be a fun title for you.
Knights of Pen & Paper II starts out with a single overpowered player story-line, but the GameMaster (GM – computer) banishes that OP player in favour of playing with other friends (Level 1). You get to pick two character types from a selection of classes and races. Each class and race have specific strengths and weaknesses.
In the game I started for this review I chose:
- A “Rich Kid, Elven, Hunter”
- A “Lab Rat, Human, Mage”
As a Rich Kid my Elven Hunter has the added benefit that enemies drop 10% more gold. The Elven race adds +20 Energy, meaning the hunter will be able to use skills more often.
As a Lab Rat, the Human Mage has the benefit of an extra trinket slot. This translates into being able to carry one more item, an item that can be used to further enhance the character. Normally, characters have a total of 3 trinket slots. The Lab Rat bonus adds a 4th trinket slot. The Human race adds the perk of beginning the game with a skill point. Characters begin Knights of Pen & Paper II with no skill points, so this human race benefit means the character can choose a special attack right away.
There are more classes and races than the start of the game makes available. As you progress in Knights of Pen & Paper II you’ll have an opportunity to unlock other classes and races through quests and the “Magazine.” At the start of the game the “Magazine” doesn’t seem very important, but completing the objectives lined out by each magazine results in powerful items, and unlocking other cool classes, races, and DLC (Downloadable Content).
Knights of Pen & Paper II is obviously inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, and takes a few humorous jabs at the game. The introduction with the Tarrasque is a jab at the fact that some players feel they have to play overpowered characters to enjoy the game. The “dungeon master” in the intro ends the game, eliminates several players, and starts the game back at the very beginning.
While you start out with only two characters, the extra slots are there for a purpose. Once you reach a certain threshold of money you can hire other characters to fill the remaining slots. The more characters, the stronger the party is overall. Newly hired characters start at level 0 with no abilities. If the rest of your characters are level 10, and you’re fighting higher-level monsters, your level 0 character is a lot more likely to get killed during combat. I recommend going back to a lower level area, and levelling up newly added characters by hunting monsters outside of quests.
Various areas throughout the game offer quests, for gold, experience, and items. Quests often involve travelling to another area and fighting particular monsters, and/or collecting particular items. Travelling to other areas costs gold, and has a chance of a random encounter. As you move through an in-between area, you may or might not run into a random wandering monster.
What do I love about Knights of Pen & Paper II?
Knights of Pen & Paper II runs on computers with low-end graphics cards. Officially the Steam page recommends a 2GH+ CPU, and a Direct3D/OpenGL compatible card with at least 128MB. There is a SteamOS/Linux version, and that version seems to run fine without any adjustments on all my machines at home and the machines I use at work.
I really love the fact that playing the game actually unlocks some downloadable content. I also like that you can buy buffs/bonuses through the main menu with in-game gold. I didn’t realize Knights of Pen & Paper II could be customized until I was well into the game.
The graphics in Knights of Pen & Paper II are cheesy, and nowhere near as good as some games, but they’re better than version 1 of the game.
Why not Knights of Pen & Paper 3
The keen-eyed will note that Knights of Pen & Paper 3 is available on Steam. Version 3 is only available for Windows, and while it might run using Proton, reviews of version 3 are very negative at this point. Judging by the reviews, version 3 appears to be lacking a lot of the features added to version 2. While it looks to have better graphics, it might be worth waiting a few more months to see if more development is on the horizon for the game. If it goes on sale for the right price I might pick it up despite the negative reviews to give my own assessment of version 3.
I still enjoy playing version 2 of Knights of Pen & Paper. While I’m more likely to play Grim Dawn, Victor Vran, or Hero Siege, every now and then I spend a weekend or two playing Knights of Pen & Paper II again.
Knights of Pen & Paper 2 currently costs $8.79CDN for the base game and $16.99 for the “Deluxist” version, which adds an art book, the Here Be Dragons DLC, and a soundtrack. The game has gone on sale several times, including the bundle editions.