A Knight In The Attic Review

April 17, 2023

One thing I love is when an Indie developer takes an idea that is new to VR and runs with it. This is certainly something Mighty Yell has done with A Knight in the Attic. I have now been in my virtual attic and played through the game, but did the unique idea work?

STORY

The game puts it own twist on the Knights of the Round table story. As you will guide (or roll in this case) Guinevere around the board and through puzzles to save King Arthur and reclaim the throne.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is the truly unique part about A Knight in the Attic, with you playing inside VR holding a game-board that a 3D world comes out of – making you feel like your are playing Augmented Reality within Virtual Reality,

This sees you placing game parts into the board and then Guinevere who is a game piece on a marble. You will then be tilting the board by grabbing it or using analogues to move her through the levels and 3D worlds in front of you. So, the basics of the gameplay is like those old marble puzzle games for the movement and exploring the worlds.

However, with the power of VR they have introduced a unique feature of allowing you to help her on her journey to save King Arthur. These come in the form of items that you will find inside of the board-game, but then pick up and bring them into your real world. These tools come in the form of a crank, a model windmill, a cup, a hammer and a sword. With them all being used for multiple reasons inside of the board-games world. With some really fun uses like needing to tip the board to make the water from the fountain sprout out of the game world into the attic to fill your cup with water, being by far my favourite.

In order to unlock gates in the game world and unlock more levels in your world you need to collect Bees, this again mixes Guinevere’s world with your own. As you will be finding the Bees in the game and then it will fly out of the board into the attic for you catch in a jar. As with the previously mentioned use of tools, these little touches is what makes this game shine for me. As well as the Bees, there is also a scroll that can be located in each level of the game, giving you something else to keep an eye out for on your travels – again you will locate them in the game world and then grab them and read them from within attic.

One big issue I found with the game, is when collecting the pieces you use to help Guinevere it isn’t always clear on what these are used for. With the illustration of the instructions that get added to your notebook not really explaining all uses of the object. This sometimes lead to some guess work that some of the items can be used in set puzzles.

PRESENTATION

All of the game plays out in your Grandma’s attic, so this part of the presentation does not change for most of the game – with it only slightly changing near the end. This has you sitting in the attic and concentrating on the 3D world and guiding Guinevere around this world as it all builds out of the board in front of you. Unfortunately there is not too much variation in the worlds aesthetic throughout the whole game – but it does suit the time the game is set in. It all looks nice – from looking around the attic to the board and the game world.

In the game there is no spoken audio and the story is told by the reading the in-game conversation pop-ups and the scrolls you can find around the levels. Where I am not normally one who likes it when VR makes you read, as you are playing a board game it does make sense that you will be reading the dialogue – meaning it does not detract from the game. Although, you are in the attic the game sound is make up of the running water and environments from the 3D world coming out of the board and this is mixed with some light relaxing music, which suits the game perfectly.

COMFORT/CONTROLS

The game is made to be played seated, as the team at Mighty Yell explain the game as a comfortable experience. With how the game plays they did not need any comfort options either as you will not move from your static spot in the attic.

To play the game you only need the grab buttons and analogues. This is because you will either be grabbing the board and tilting it in person or using the analogues to tilt the board. Then you will be using the grab buttons to also grab the items in the real world you need to use to help Guinevere on her way. Really simple to use, but works perfectly with the how the game plays.

When it came to moving the board I used both methods, although the majority was tilting the board manually with my hands. I did however, use the analogues for more the fiddly parts that needed a bit more care.

LONGEVITY

The game took me around three-hours to get through which included finding all the scrolls. With finding everything in the game on my first play-through I really do not think I will play it again, but for the price you certainly get your money and entertainment worth.

REVIEWED USING META QUEST 2 & LINK CABLE

For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a review code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a press code does not affect my judgement of the product.

REVIEW OVERVIEW

The team at Mighty Yell have done a great job of bringing something unique to VR with A Knight in the Attic. The gameplay keeping it simple but being entertaining at the same time. With little touches of using items in the real world to interact with the the board-game world to help Guinevere on her adventure, and how it is all handled adding a great aspect to the game. If you are looking for a unique, charming and relaxing game, that was made with comfort in mind, for the price A Knight in the Attic could be perfect for you.

One thing I would like to add as just a warning, at the moment even via Steam the game will only work on the Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2. This is something the team at Mighty Yell are looking to expand on and make it support more headsets in the future.