• Publisher: Sega
  • Release Date: Apr 4, 2011
User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 139 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 92 out of 139
  2. Negative: 23 out of 139

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  1. Apr 8, 2011
    Actually, I hate MMOs because I've played most of them and they are all the same. I'm SO tired of the same old thing that I've been playing since the 90s. I don't want to play another hack/MUD/UO/Everquest/WoW regurgitation and so when my roommate told me about this game my jaw hit the floor because finally there was something out there that is made for ME.

    I went into it just waiting t
    o be disappointed, just wanting to be let down again after so many games have let me down so I could just toss it aside like the rest. But I found something wonderful in this game that took me back to my childhood when I used to play games for the honest fun of it. I don't know why, but there's just something there. I can't explain it or why I'm seriously playing an MMO again but it really does something right for me. I dunno, maybe it's the music or the art or the old super nintendoey of it all but it really does something well that I've been missing for awhile. Expand
  2. Apr 6, 2011
    Strange, I didn't have any of the problems with this game Zenkel had (haven't seen these complaints on the forums either). I usually get tired of games very quickly (for instance, Wow lasted 3 months, most other MMO's lasted only a month before I was sick of grind and unfriendly atmosphere) yet I've been playing this game since I got into the beta testing about a year ago and I'm still not tired of it! The environment is extremely user-friendly and co-operative, the enemies are challenging and require thought and skill to kill effectively, and there always seems to be something new to strive for (a friend just helped me craft a Grey Owlite shield, which I'm immensely pleased with - nothing like casually strolling through flame puppies breath!)
    I guess it's the comment about the art direction that annoys me most - dozens of unique characters in an original art style, with interesting enemy AI and lovely background art and music, and all you can mention is you were annoyed by the camera???? :/
    Anyways, I love this game. My friends are all eagerly playing, and even if there have been quibbles during development, the game has developers who *listen* and respond to player feedback - which is something common to all of Three Rings games.
    Go play and see for yourself!
  3. May 23, 2011
    This game was on course to become bigger than World of Warcraft...Then the developers decided to get greedy and tripled the real world cost of in game items. That mistake will cost them. Severely.
  4. Jun 25, 2011
    You can get

    A misson or two

    Done before

    You have to pay

    or wait until the next day

    to have energy to

    play another dungeon or two.

    Or pay ... a lot

    Of course, levelling up also requires this same "energy" that you only accumulate until 100 (even though some items cost lots more than that in energy to even craft in game>
    This game is a pure example of greed fail.
  5. Apr 4, 2011
    It's like Gauntlet Legends meets Zelda. How could this possibly go wrong? The dungeons are randomly generated, but since they're basically large blocks pasted together, so it doesn't take long before you'll find "new" levels that look just like previous levels. Enemies have slide dodges and can use them repeatedly, which means that they'll be sliding ALL over the place (Who needs friction? It's a bad Gauntlet Legends knockoff ON ICE!) There's an energy system that keeps trying to nickel and dime you (Finding a secret room is a mixed bag, as there's an energy surcharge to access these). The art direction looks good at first but they managed to botch this too. The game takes place on tile-based maps with a 3d camera with a fixed camera angle. If you're on the south side of a room, it's fine. If you're on the north side of a room, it's awful--the enemies you're trying to fight will often be completely off camera. If this is the best that they can come up with during four years of development, there's no reason to hope for improvement. Expand
  6. May 11, 2011
    Spiral Knights is an addictive hack-n-slash puzzler that will keep you occupied for a while. I love the feel and polish of the game, western developed mmo's always seem to have a finer attention to detail, especially when it comes to things like net-code stability and smoothness of animations and effects. If there's one thing I hate about Asian mmo's it's having my character teleporting and rubber-banding all over the place when I'm trying to attack an enemy, but you won't see any of that in Spiral Knights. There are a few things I think they could improve on though, at least at the time of me writing this. Currently the puzzles are simply not challenging. I haven't yet been to the deepest levels in the game, but in the first 2/3 of the game, the "puzzles" are basically just to hit any switches or buttons you see until you reach the end of the level. Some greater challenges aside from harder enemies would be nice. Another issue I've noticed is that shields will only block damage if you put them up a second or two before the enemy attacks, even though it looks like the shield deploys immediately. Also, I would like to see them add some new weapon types in the future, currently there are only swords, guns, and bombs. As for the energy system, I am fine with it, as by the time I ran out of energy for the first time, I had earned enough in-game currency to buy more in the market place. I eventually ended up spending $0.75 to get a 200 energy pack in the shop in order to save up some money for items, but this isn't really necessary if you're willing to put in the time. Not that 75 cents is going to break your bank anyways. Expand
  7. Apr 6, 2011
    Despite my lack of enthusiasm for hack-n-slash, I find myself addicted to Spiral Knights. It's absolutely gorgeous, and it's easy to pick up for short periods of time if you don't own a poopsock and don't want to raid for six hours straight.

    A minor downside is that it has no auction house, and the UI is annoying in spots unrelated to gameplay. But that's minor; the game really is encha
    nting and worth a try. Expand
  8. Jul 11, 2011
    Spiral Knights New and Updated
    at first glance you think to yourself "there's no possible way i could like this game" but when you actually start to play it you will be amazed by how addicting it is
    While this game is Free to Play it has an energy system that takes 22 hours for it to recharge completely and that might not suit people. they can either decide that the game is worth their t
    ime and money and pay for more energy right off the bat, or they can decide it isn't good enough so ill take the free way.
    either way you decide you will still have tons of fun with this game
  9. Jul 20, 2011
    There are loads of free-to-play MMOs around, but Spiral Knights offers something new. Simple but engaing combat makes the the gameplay of this game very easy to understand, and what's not explained you'll pick up quickly.

    The gameplay reminds me much of a LoZ DS game, if you've played one of those you'll know what I mean. Levels in the clockworks are randomised but they all can have diffe
    rent themes to do it, so it's different every time you go down. Your character doesn't level up, instead your eqipment does, which is a unique way to d it.

    But there's also the energy system. Energy is a resource that's needed for the majority of actions, this can be pretty costly if you want to play a lot, but if you don't buy crystal enegy with real money, you'll run out very fast if you're not careful, and you only get 100 a day, unless you buy it. But if you make it to Tier 2, you can probably make enough money a run to buy more energy in the energy market, and if you manage your energy well though, you might be able to make a profit (unless the price of energy keeps going up) This doesn't, however stop this game from being worth a try.

    Unless you're the kind a gamer that likes to play for hours and hours on end, you'll probably like it, since after an hour or so you'll hit your daily limit of energy. You could always buy more energy with real money, but you'll shortly regret doing so as soon as you realize they've managed to make spending real money part of the game.
  10. Aug 1, 2012
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Spiral Knights is an RPG overhead game similar to The Legend of Zelda, but with online play. It's fun at first, but then you will run out of energy. Unless you cough up some money to buy more, you're done for the day. While you can trade coins for energy, you need a lot of coins to get even a little. Another way to temporarily get around this issue is to play with friends, who can use their energy to pay for the elevator, but that's almost like a backstab to them. The boss battles, if you can get far enough to get into one, are fun because they require skill. Not much to say about them other than this: the only boss I've battled is the Snarbolax, which is an awesome boss, but I can't fight any farther because of a lack of energy. I wish I could talk about this game more, but the energy is such a problem, I can't keep off it. Almost any subject in this game leads to the energy problem. I would explain the dungeons, which are simple, but still, you eventually have to leave due to a lack of energy. The weapons and armor are good looking and work well, but a lack of energy prevents you from getting past anything with a 2 star rating. You can revive yourself if you die in game, but only if you or your friend has energy. I wish I could stop talking about this problem, but almost everything in this game revolves around energy. It's energy that makes the Clockworks go round in Spiral Knights. Overall, Spiral Knights is fun, but only until you run out of energy. Expand
  11. Jul 12, 2011
    this game is awesome. iv played many ftp games and none are as charming as this. people who moan about games being greedy for charging players really need to think about what their saying.. THEY are the greedy ones... want want want no give. so i put Â£1.50 into this game and had 30 hours enjoyment... good value for money if you ask me... ok so in the long run this could be a pretty expensive game BUT if i play it and get my moneys worth I'm not going to complain.. id rather spend Â£100 on this and get many many hours of gameplay, than Â£40 on a game like Duke Nukem Forever (great game dont get me wrong) that iv completed in 10 hours. granted ill end up doing both but im just putting the value into comparison here. the reason i didn't give it a 10 though is because the daily allowance for the greedy little freebie hunters ;P (which the game needs) is FAR faaar too low.. it needs to be double what it is AT LEAST. but either way i dont mind.. for the days i dont want to pay it acts as a nice block for the addiction kick, in other words i wont waste a whole day playing it (that's just me though). the game aside from money is SOLID, beautiful visuals, lovely SFX and awesome character design. the HUD is very nice too. gameplay is a simple hack n' slash (you can make it as complex as you want by trying not to loose any HP orrrrr just sit back, relax and let your team mates do all the work, i do both depending on my mood) with lovely level design. i honestly look forward to the future of this game, i hear pvp rumours. lets just hope they add a little more game time for the greedy folk as the game NEEDS their numbers, it will stop them giving mixed reviews any way. such a simple masterpiece... good job three rings, hats off to you but pleas bow down before the greedy ones because i want this game to succeed. Expand
  12. Jun 17, 2011
    This game all in all is awesome! its a must get and its free! you dont have to buy anything but if you do happen to be bill gates will money to burn you can buy in game money to get top level weapons and make the game as easy as hell (not recomend) however if you are normal like the rest of us the game offers a great reward for risk battling and great co op play and heck its even got a in game auction where you can sell and bid for weapons! and if that wasnt enough there is even a free TF2 hat!!! thats right HAT thrown in! whats not to like? Install it now!! Expand
  13. Apr 6, 2011
    A brilliant visually appealing game that appeals to both serious gamers and those who just want to dip their toes into a game occasionally. Go try it!
  14. Jul 23, 2011
    My suggestion: Download this game and do that damn achievement to get the soldier hat in TF2, then uninstall the game. Its horrible, but the hat is nice.
  15. Jul 12, 2011
    The game have a few down side to it, the biggest is that since it is free, there are a few things in the game that are locked and can only be unlock if you purchase the game. Other than that the game is pretty fun, especially if you invite your friends to play. I recommend you to download it, and give it a try!
  16. Jul 26, 2011
    Real time combat. Little grinding. Free to play. What else could you ask from an MMO? The only problem for most people seems to be the energy system, but it works pretty well in the end, allowing things that wouldn't be possible with other payment models.
  17. Jul 22, 2012
    Very nice game ! It's quite like Zelda, you control a knight you can make evolving. It demands a lot of skill. A good stuff wont help you if u have no skill. And in spite of all the bad reviews, you can progress without paying anything. You just have to buy energy with the money of the game. It's quite long at first, but if you are skilled you can go very far in a short time.

    The is one
    of my favourite game, and it's a F2P !! Enjoy ;) Expand
  18. Aug 6, 2011
    Spiral knights isn't easy to make a overall judgement about. you either Hate it or you love it.
    i really like spiral knights. it simple to play, expands rapidly and its art-style is kinda cute (have you seen the Ghost cats?? they are simply adorable...til they notice you). Spiral Knights belongs to the current line "Free to Play" games that have been becoming popular lately. Spiral knigh
    ts works a bit similar to 3 rings earlier creation (Puzzle Pirates) in that the game has 2 currencies. the normal in-game earn-able currency(crowns) and the special bought with real-life money currency(Energy). Energy is required to do most activities (except PvP and trading). unfortunately since you only get 100 energy to use a day and it costs 10 energy to play a level you run out of energy quite quickly(this has caused some controversy on whether the game is truly Free to play since others normally allow you to play freely all the time). if you play the game casually this wont be a large problem, but if you want to play this game a lot and want to get the more powerful items(cost 400-800 energy to create) this game will drain your wallet faster then most MMO games are capable. my judgement is that the game is quite fun. the controls are simple,the enemies are quite fun and the knights kinda remind me of the Bomberman games i used to love(ironically spiral knights now has a pvp arena where you try to blow up each other). my advise is to just try playing Spiral knights and see if you like it. if you have steam you wont even need to create a account. Expand
  19. Jun 26, 2011
    Sorry nay-sayers, but people gotta love this game. I don't know where to begin with the good things about this game. The artistic style, for example, is very cute, very fitting for this game. The combat system makes pointing and clicking fun. The new boss, Snarbolax is a challenge for the level one tier, and after that they just get progressively harder. It's a great game for all ages. Now, quite honestly, I am not an optimist, and I see what's wrong in video games. For example, they make this game free to play, but has a whole system involving actual money. What teenager is going to be able to buy crystal energy? All in all, i love the game, I have a great time playing it. If you have Steam, definitely get this game. Expand
  20. May 17, 2011
    Spiral Knights is a very deceptive game. It is free to play, if your happy with ~20 minutes a day in the same 8 recycled stages. At first it seems like a very casual, accessible game that is a great value. Unfortunately, if you want to advance, literally beyond the first 20 minutes of gameplay, you will have to spend money. Every single item in the game costs crowns, which is the ingame "gold" and energy, which is real world money from your credit card. You get 100 energy for free, and it regenerates slowly back up to 100 in what is called "mist" which is just jargon for "free energy". Each dungeon delve takes 10 energy, and if you run out of your mist you either have to wait, sell off a MASSIVE amount of crowns (an amount that is unlikely to be gathered by adventuring with your mist reserves early on) or spend real world money to buy energy. Now is where the trap starts - once you get past the initial "tier 1" areas, you are locked form advancing further without upgrading to "2 star" equipment. It costs a small number of crowns and >50< energy to craft a single 2 star item(as well as a purchased recipe and materials that drop down in the dungeons), and you need a full outfit (4 items at least) to get to the "tier 2" stages. This gets progressively more intense, to access tier 3 you need 4 star items which cost 2500 crowns and 200 energy - more than is possible to have on your person without spending MASSIVE amounts of time grinding dungeons and hoping you do well, or spend real world money. This is all well and good, and even with a small investment you can get alot of play time (as of writing, 4.95$ USD will get you 1600 energy points) but you better be careful, because if you end up not liking your gear you will have to just live with it or spend more money to replace it, as all gear binds to you once you equip.

    It should also be noted that when you die in the game, it costs an uncapped, increasing amount to resurrect. First death is 5 energy, and it doubles each time, and there is seemingly no cap. This can get really, really expensive and you have to learn to control your natural instinct to click the "revive now!" button when you die. And die you will. This game plays like a hybrid of zelda/gauntlet/diablo and its really, really hard. Each weapon class has a different moveset, and some are better suited to certain types of enemies. Woe be to you who brings a striker to a wolver fight. Again, you are going to have to pay in order to have a robust array of gear once you get into the midlevel game. Enemies can be rather unbalanced, sometimes you will get hit for 10% of your life gauge, and in the next room face an enemy that hits for 75% of it. Enemies have a dodge move that allows them to slide around you, and there is no counter to this other than learn when they do it and be able to move or block and hope your block strength holds out. The gameplay is pretty rewarding once you learn the different enemy types patterns. The problem is there are not alot of enemy types, and eveything is just a palette swap from the low level enemies. The stages also, are supposedly randomly generated but in truth there are about 10 "layouts" that get randomly shuffled around and populated with creatures. It gets old very fast, and only someone who really gets their jolly's off on this type of "stab stab block" gameplay will want to stick around and spend the real money that it requires to advance in the game. The player run economy is pretty interesting, only to see how an items value will change over time as new items become popular. SEGA and Three Rings promise lots and lots of new content and this could provide for a very compelling experience at some point in the future, but as of right now there is not alot of depth or gameplay to be had. Luckily the entire system has a robust built in "demo" just from the fact that its a "F2P" game so you should know by the first day or two whether its worth it for you to spend actual money on the game.
  21. Jun 16, 2011
    Let's start with the good. This game has a pretty appealing art style and will run on low end computers without a problem. The structure of the game is also very addicting. You'll enter random generated levels with a given theme and monsters matching that theme, and can proceed down to more and more challenging levels and hoard up loot in the meantime. The loot can be used to craft better items back in the city where you have vendors and auction houses so you can buy or sell custom made items. The game is co-op oriented but you can play alone.

    Now the bad. The game is incredibly easy and repetitive. It won't be long before you get tired of the 5 or 6 themes the game uses and the reskinned monsters, reused rooms and the same 'triggers' required to continue further. Using items or switching weapons are done on roughly 2 or 3 seconds delay, so people used to the fast paced action of other dungeon crawlers will tear their hair out when they shoot something and quickly want to switch back to hacking at melee range.

    Despite being advertised as free to play, what you get for free is essentially just pathetically small amounts of game time a day. The game uses an energy system which depletes your energy with every essential thing you do, be it crafting, opening doors or descending to a lower dungeon level. The usual energy cost is 10. You get 100 for free and a level takes about 2-5 minutes to beat. Do the math. Your energy very slowly recharges back to 100 in the course of 24 hours so you'll be able to play your 20 minutes again the next day. The only way of getting additional energy is either buying for real life money or buying from other players for ridiculous amounts of in-game currency.

    To sum it up, if you're looking for either challenge, a free game you can fully enjoy, or just a decent dungeon crawler, this game is not it. If you've played every single dungeon crawler loot based game out there and are craving for more, this might scratch some of your itch but don't expect much from it.
  22. Jul 9, 2011
    Spiral Knights is a very addictive game. Basically it is nothing more than a hack-and-slay game, but it has nice nostalgic influences like Zelda. It's a classical SEGA game and I can completely recommend this for players who like old school games. "I don't play anything that has a worse graphic than Crysis"-people should just don't even think about playing it. This is a game with classic gameplay and graphics like in the late 90's. I really enjoy wasting my time with it. The only thing I could criticise is the energy you need for visiting dungeons and upgrading your equipment. It gets low very fast and without it you can't do anything. The only possibility to get it is to buy it with the ingame currency (very expensive) or with real money (but the cash shop isn't that expensive, with spending about 10$ you should go well). Expand
  23. Jun 26, 2011
    Spiral Knights is indeed pretty fun, but it's probably the quickest "F2P" game I've ever seen in terms of herding you into spending real money to progress. The gameplay is pretty good but is repetitive even by the standard of the game Ian (the game's main dev) compares it to; PSO. Also the game is marred by even the slightest bit of lag; while enemies all telegraph their attacks for what seems like forever, there can be so many enemies on screen that you can't tell what's going on in the **** of your party member's attacks and the enemys'. If this was released without a subscription and the energy thing was gone it would still be an 8/10 at best. That's not that's bad, but when you're nickel and diming me to play a "Decent" hack and slasher I'm afraid I'm gonna take a pass.

    Sorry Ian, but you do realize that Torchlight 2 is coming out soon right? The game that's a lot deeper, has free online play, mod support, and only charges you once? Hell, PSO2 is coming as well, nevermind Diablo 3. I know the F2P model tends to be like that, but you can't flatly offer an inferior product for more money and expect people not to raise an eyebrow.

    Now for people who don't totally get the energy thing:

    Mist Energy: Capped at 100, regenerates at 1 per 5 minutes.

    Crystal Energy: You buy this ingame with real money or an assload of ingame currency.

    Energy is required for crafting better items, and you need to pay it as an "elevator fee" to continue to every subsequent floor in the dungeons. It also costs an increasing amount of energy to revive on the spot if you die. Basically, if you're not crafting anything that day the 100 mist energy non-paying players get will give you ~10 floors of dungeon running which is like an hour or hour and a half of playtime.

    To get past the first "tier" of dungeons you need better gear, which is measured in quality from 0 to 5 stars. 2 star gear costs 50 energy per item to make, nevermind the mats and recipies. So basically, make two different 2-star items and you're done "playing" for about 24 hours if you're a non-payer.

    Anything over 3-stars requires more than 100 energy. Meaning, no pay, no play past Tier 2. Top tier items cost about 800 energy to craft. To give you an idea; you get a grand total of 8000 energy and a few other perks for paying $20. By the time you get to crafting Tier 5 items, you will have long since burned up 8000 energy.

    Even Korean F2P games are less annoying about forcing you to pay. Would recommend this higher if it wasn't a cynical cash-grab even for an F2P title.
  24. Jul 25, 2011
    This game is fun, thats why I gave it a 2. After that it all goes downhill. As said before you are limited by energy, it is posible to get endgame in 2 weeks without buying it also said below. After a while the replay value drops significantly. If your rich you can buy the best equipment in the game (by buying solid energy then selling it) before fighting a boss. And no leveling system equipment is the only thing that maters so you can basicly buy your way to the top. The maps constantly change provides some interesting points which is nice. I would really like to play more but you basicly get a couple of hours of playtime a day unless you buy it. Most other games that do this don't give such insain advantages as this game if you have money, take it from league of legends where you can't really buy advantages. Expand
  25. Aug 19, 2011
    just not worth it. the interface is terrible (it tries to do everything with just left and right mouse), the game itself amazingly boring with repetitive, blocky levels and only re-skinned enemies. latency is a big issue (at least in Australia) and despite being "free", you very quickly run out of play, as many actions (like changing level) require up to 10% of daily energy. spend a lot of money on this "free" game, or not worth playing Expand
  26. Oct 25, 2011
    I dont understand why some people really dislike the game for the fact that it SEEMS like a zelda knock-off, it dosen't seem like a knock-off but more like an improvement to graphics and also multiplayer. Its an awesome game which i thoroughly enjoyed playing, what was so good was that it wasn't competitive but more co-operation, the way they split money and heat (exp in Spiral knights) was awesome so you don't get pissed off trying to fight over money. I also liked the way the implemented the level up system where your equipment levels not you. The downer is the limited energy you get, after waiting 24 hours all you get is 100 mist energy which allows you to get through like 10 levels and that is to say you don't die. The good thing about the system is that it stops those crazy game nerds out there who spend their whole day playing but then you can buy crystal energy which can be stored, its purchasable by money, so they tempt you very well into buying the crystal energy. I also love the auction house in the game, its awesome. Overall to me this game is definitely one of the best free to play MMORPGs out there. I LOVE SPIRAL KNIGHTS............
    btw, all other MMORPGS are crap including WOW which is not fun at ALL!!!!!!
  27. Nov 5, 2011
    Fun at first, but the frustrating limits that severely limit your progression to new levels unless you pay quickly get in your face. The fun lasts a bit longer if you play it with friends on voice chat, though.
  28. Dec 7, 2011
    I don't know what's wrong with people these days because I've almost got a full set of 3* armour and I haven't paid anything. Their problem is that they don't use the little circle with a line through it above their energy bar, since clicking on that and the second tab will bring up a button saying 'Buy 100 energy for (used as an example) 7,234 crowns'. If you know about the magic button, this game becomes extremely addictive and enjoyable. Expand
  29. Dec 23, 2011
    Funny game, if you player it with your best friend
    Without any friend... After 2-3 hour it was very boring!
  30. Feb 11, 2012
    I've been playing the game on and off since it was advertised on Steam in the summer of 2011. I thought the game looked interesting, so me and my friends gave it a whirl. Weapons level up instead of the player, "dungeons" are random, the dungeons are divided into 3 levels based on the stars on your gear, and there's a stamina system. It was extremely fun at first and this was the first game I played with said stamina system, I thought it was pretty cool. But as a reached the 2nd level with my gear things started to become a bit more lackluster and I found some of the same systems I loved to be a bit dull. The stamina system can sometimes leave a bit of want, if you play more casually the stamina bar shouldn't phase you, but I have had plenty of times where I would love to play a bit longer. The only way to play longer is to either a) pay for some crystal energy, b) buy crystal energy with in-game currency (crowns), or c) buy an unlimited elevator pay (Well you could just pvp a bit too). If you're not going to bother shelling out money, you'll be looking at option B, which I don't find ideal if you want to play another round of dungeons, because you will probably lose crowns (Ideally you want to buy Crystal energy when its around 6k or lower to make a little in-game money). Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING runs on the stamina system. You want to make the jump from Dungeon level 1 to 2? Sure, just use all your stamina and a couple days worth of it to upgrade your items. Need to revive because your entire team died? Just use your stamina to do it. Want a that trinket that buffs your weapon damage? Pay all your stamina and some Crystal Energy for the day. Want more weapons so you can be a bit more versatile in a dungeon? Pay all your stamina and some CE for the day. (Not to mention weapon and trinket slots don't stay unlocked... You have 30 days.) The cost of upgrading will increase steadily with each upgrade. So, you may find yourself taking a week off just to craft all those new weapons because making them costs your stamina. Essentially, being a Free to Player is going to be quite grindy. There's no problem with some grinding, it comes with MMOs, but expect it quite a bit from this game. I do think the game makers could give a bit of slack on the attempt to make players pay at some point, but good luck having any conversation on the forum when most of the members will sheepishly tell you to support them or leave. While I have no problems supporting a company (I admit I gave them 5 bucks for an elevator pass because it is the only sensible deal to me), but there is a difference between garnering support and milking, if they aren't "milking" their customers then they're pretty damn close. And to repay their loyal customers in September (or around that time) they unveiled a new endgame content. What was it? Just a rehash of the 4 bosses they currently have, just more difficult, oh and to get there you needed to find a shadow key in a lockbox (a rare item inside a rare item) and pay a bunch of CE/money to get it. Not to mention the key disappears after use. They eventually made the keys sold by a vendor, but I still find it a pretty jerk move to your loyal fans. On a more positive note, the art is pretty cool and the music is very classic sounding. The pvp can also be pretty fun, but of course it does have it balance issues (not surprising from a pure pve MMO). All in all, if you can stand the grinding and all that, Spiral Knights is a fun game to play. It's an ok game to play every-so-often or if you're a bit bored and only have an hour to devote. As of February 2012, they're planning on rolling out a mission/quest system and I'm hoping that will be fun and keep my interest for another few weeks until I take my next break. Expand
  31. Jan 20, 2013
    This game is good, until it turns into a giant **** grind fest. Like, when you get to level 3+(maybe 4, not sure), you need to grind for long amounts of time. This game also punches you in the **** face with all the pay to win stuff. Nuff said'
  32. Jul 3, 2011
    Enjoyable game at first. But for a free game, you are REALLY limited to the stuff you are able to do in a SINGLE DAY (with intense emphasis on it). The game seems to be more attractive to people who can afford the real money to pay for it, and less focused on the freebie account players.
  33. Jun 27, 2011
    Great fun but the F2P model makes it rather hard to enjoy f you actualy want it to be freee. It's quite tempting to spend $5 or so since the game limits your daily acess if you don't. I have mixed feelings all around
  34. Aug 28, 2011
    this game is great, has a strong resemblance to Zelda, has varieties of weapons and armor and pvp fights option, a great online game ... has very good gameplay and it is easy to learn to play.
    Its graphics are fairly acceptable, but still a great game
  35. Nov 27, 2011
    It's a great game with nice visuals for a free game. The fighting mechanics are well made and so are the equipments. I've been playing this game for quite a while and I can tell you this is a rather mixed game. Although everything is more or less polished, the lack of content is worrisome. Like many free only RPG, Spiral Knights is a game of repetition and farming until you have the money to buy a new set of equipment and so on. Gets boring after a while, but hey! It's free and will probably entertain you for at least a good 20 hours. Expand
  36. Dec 26, 2011
    I've played played several MMOs over the last 10 years, and F2P is usually a front to entice you before you realise that to get the most out of the game you have to pay. Spiral Knights is different; Sure you have to wait 24 hours to play more than 7 or 8 floors until you have several thousand 'crowns', but it's something to look forward to. It may take longer than if you pay, but you get ALL the content. True free-to-play, brilliant graphics, amazing gameplay and music that remind me a lot of playing Zelda, and the ability to log in, get on an elevator and face monsters within 30 seconds of hitting 'play'. Expand
  37. Feb 2, 2012
    This game is amazing. It's somewhat repetitive, but that is made up for by both the cool graphics style and awesome community. I got this game day after release on steam (jun 2011) and have played it ever since. I'm what you might call a "casual" player, but I find that the game is very enjoyable. Anyone who says the game is bad because it forces you to pay outrageous amounts of money are simply wrong. After the fist week or so of playing, a normal player will get into a rhythm of earning enough in-game money to buy CE (premium currency) in the in-game exchange shop. Also, if you want to spend a small amount of money you can pay $5.95 to have free dungeon access for 30 days. Levels in the dungeons are NOT randomly generated, but there is a wide variety of levels that can be selected before the dungeon is released (dungeons cycle in and out of use). Recently added PvP adds replay value, and relatively frequent patches and content additions keep the endgame interesting. Expand
  38. Jan 5, 2012
    The game is a classic free to play. Starts with a single player tutorial and then sends you to a city with all the other people playing online. The game itself consists of three tiers, each unlocked by crafting better gear to your knight. If you decide to buy energy with real money, you'll be getting better gear and unlocking tiers much faster, but it's still completely possible to unlock all tiers in reasonable amount of time by not using money. A part of the game reminds me of Team Fortress 2. It features crafting and trading which add to the variety of the game. You can craft gear that is strong against certain types of enemies to make beating certain boss stages easier. The game constantly keeps updating adding more content to play if you've already beaten everything. An example of this are Shadow Lairs which contain harder versions of the bosses and mysterious shadow enemies. Overall, the game is very rewarding and fun if you put time to learn and play it. Expand
  39. May 26, 2012
    A good F2P game. It's Pay2Play, however. You can play only a few games at the day with the energy, or you must spend real money to continue playing by buying Crystal Energy, that also can be traded as a currency in this game. Ignoring all these flaws, you can fully enjoy this game!
  40. Mar 14, 2012
    Spiral Knights is an interesting game, that I highly recommend everyone try at least once, at least for the sake that it's a f2p game, and who knows, you might it enjoy it. Everyday, players are given 100 mist energy which they are allowed to spend to their choosing. Whether it's playing newly generated levels, or creating new items is purely left purely to the user. Of course, players can spend real world money to get Crystal Energy, that unlike mist energy does not top out at 100. Stronger items are required by the game to progress onto later levels, but that does not mean players are confined to low level playing. Gone are the days when games cost a set amount upfront and I've spent twenty dollars on many things that were of far more inferior quality. Even still, players that play smart, will have many hours of entertainment on a given day. At the time this review was written, I found it incredibly easy to spend multiple hours a day playing. In addition, once players reach the final playing zone, Tier 3, the amount of money in their coffers fluctuates from a few crowns, the game's currency, to ten's of thousands of crowns, which can be traded for crystal energy, thus lengthening play time considerably. The two biggest flaws are as follows. First, there is no way to credibly and quantifiably determine the value of armor, weapons, or items. Colorful bars are given to show damage output, resistance and cancellation, but many players have determined that the bars are mostly bologna, so there is little end-game variation between players, as good players walk away from unfamiliar items, also it was recently determined that trinkets, an in-game item, have little effect on what cancellation of things like being burned, frozen or shocked. Players have pleaded to the developers many times to release item information, only to receive a blanket statement that it's to preserve the "mystery of the game" and players are to "discover for themselves". This is my most frustrated complaint. Secondly, there is the issue with servers. I'm not sure what is wrong, but there have been times where my expedition party and I all had a "flawless" connection, but many of us were walking through walls, blacking out, freezing in place, and blinking around the map faster than Bugs Bunny on cocaine. Given that players tend to spend crystal energy whenever they die, lag is probably one of the biggest drains of real world money in this game, which is very rarely refunded. Given that this occurrence is happening a lot less than it used to, it is not affecting my review as much as it would a month ago, but it is still quite annoying. Overall, this game is quite a fun and even with the f2p aspects can give many hours of enjoyment. I strongly recommend everyone give this game a chance, and if they really like it spend a little cash on it, it makes it that much better. 8/10

    UPDATE: With the recent incorporation of the mission update and the Steam exclusive content, this game has failed horrifically. The lower level missions are significantly tougher than the boss battles, and the economy has crashed due to a large portion of the F2P playing group that strive to horde in game currency just for a chance to Steam Trade for the content. Updated score: 4/10
  41. Nov 23, 2011
    Spiral Knights is fast paced enough to keep you on your toes, but also requires a touch of strategy when it comes to the larger battles. The more you play, the better your weapons and armor become, and more items become available to you. One of the major complaints people have about this game (and it usually results in a below 5 score despite all of the great things in this game) is energy. You have a bank of 100 Mist energy, which recharges daily. Crystal energy you can either buy with in-game currency or real money via paypal. You need energy to craft items, enter dungeons, pretty much anything. However, if you simply save crowns, merch in the marketplace, and just play the game, you will soon have a rather large bank of crystal energy. The amount of equipment and variation in strategy in this game is admirable. There are 3 types of weapons: swords, guns, and bombs, all with different variants which usually incorporate elemental damage. Armor and shields give you health bonuses and damage resistances. Trinkets are also available to give you perks like increases in attack speed or damage bonuses, but these require 30 day trinket slot upgrades bought with energy, so i prefer to ignore them. A good combination of equipment can make your knight a force to be reckoned with. The bosses in the game usually require at least a 3 player party, and organization makes everything easier, so this game is more fun with friends, especially with mics. Levels are randomized constantly, so there is much variety when you play. Aside from the co-operative aspects of the game, there is also two PvP game modes: Blast Network (Bomberman live), and Lockdown. Lockdown involves knights capturing control points for their team, very similar to TF2. There are 3 classes. Guardian is a tank class that can defend and heal teammates in its large shield radius. Striker can dash around the map in short bursts using a jetpack-like device. Recon can turn invisible and sneak around to ambush enemies. All weapons and armor found in game can be used in Lockdown. Despite what many people are blindly blurting out, Spiral Knights is a great game. If nothing else, give it a try, see what you think. If you don't like it, don't play it. Have fun, readers.

  42. Sep 25, 2011
    While Spiral Knights seems like your run of the mill dungeon crawler, this game starts to feel more like familiar games like WoW and Diablo.
    You start out with no gear, money, like a standard action role playing game. You're then introduced to the basics of dungeon crawling (completing fairly simple puzzles, finding certain items and such) and you're then thrown into the game. Once you fin
    d your way to a Terminal, the elevator-ish things in Haven, the town you'll spend alot of time in, you can embark on your journey into the Clockworks, a weird underground world, with it's own day/night rotation. The day/night rotation also affects the dungeons and monster you'll encounter on your trip. You might venture into the Clockworks at 5pm, and encounter dungeon AB&C. If you return about 4 hours later however, you'll encounter dungeons TY and H. Venturing into a dungeon requires energy, which is used to power the elevators, and multiple objects in the environment. You get 100 per day, and each elevator trip costs 10, so that's 10 dungeons per day. This seems fine at first, but you'll start to realize that you'll run out of energy fairly quickly, and you'll then have to resort to either purchasing it for crowns(the in-game currency), or for your hard earned dollars. This one of the major flaws i tend to find with this game. It's marked as a free to play game. Free to play. You can play for a certain amount of time each day, and still get somewhere, which is fine. But a free to play game should never restrict your play time, only your accesibility to the end-game content. These are personal thoughts, so you may not agree, but this is isn't all that bad, after all. Buying energy is fairly cheap. 7500 energy is about 23$. 7500 energy is 750 trips into dungeons. Each dungeons is about 10-30 minutes long, depending on the tier/difficulty you're in. That's alot of entertainment value right there. Energy is also used to craft new items, weapons and armor, which is essential if you want to venture deeper into the clockworks. The MMO aspects of Spiral Knights work fine. You've got about 20 different servers, with a shared auction house where you can seel or buy items from other players. Items you buy from the auction house, will be received by in-game mail instantaneously, and it's fairly easy to find the cheapest material you need to make that sweet 4-star helmet you want. Items in Spiral Knights are kind of special. Unlike in other MMO's, your character doesn't level up. Your items do. Each time you slay a monster, open a gift box, or defeat a boss, you'll receive heat. Heat is automatically distributed to all your equipped items, once you exit a dungeon. Each item can then level up 10 times each, adding various effects and buffs to your knight. Items also have different star-levels, which determine the quality of the item. 5-star items are generally more expensive to make/buy, but will almost for sure be better in every way, than a 3-star item. Overall, Spiral Knights is a fun and enjoyable game, that can be palyed with up to 3 other friends online, over steam, or without. It fails as a free to play, but as a game with micro transactions, it really stands out. Expand
  43. Nov 16, 2012
    Quite fun to play, casual, simple action-arcade fighting game. MMO element makes it better, but fights are quite limited in players participating - its either a team of 4 vs AI-controlled monsters, or a group of players fighting each other. Both are lots of fun, both will get boring over time.
    As long as you play casually, 1-2 hours a day, you'll never have a problem with energy. And with
    out that problem the game's quite fun to play.
    However, if you're a hardcore gamer, be ready to pay up: $6/month lifts the main 1-2 hour limitation of the game and allows you to play as much as you like (elevator pass for $6/month). If you're also impatient, a few hundred dollars will get you best gear you could ever hope to get, all in one sift move of your credit card. Quite sad, actually, as it kills the entire point of playing the game - you don't need to play for months to get best stuff, just pay up and its all open to you almost immediately.
  44. Dec 20, 2011
    This game is fun, being repetitive and all it still manages to be fun and put challenges so you keep playing, unfortunately, the dungeons get repetitive and the enemies too, they also tend to get extremely hard to defeat making this game a little bit annoying. I don't know how this game manages to stand but it still keeps being fun besides endless repetition.
  45. Mar 16, 2012
    This game is actually quite interesting now. This year they give u many extra things with actual missions. With the missions the game play isn't the same until u finish all of it. Also 3 star item are actually easier to get with a trade market costing 6000crs to 7000cr for 100 energy. Although creating things after that can be very hard. Now each levels take quite a while ranging from 10 to even 30min[ that was red round carpet run around aka royal jelly] This game is nice until a few months were it get repetitive Expand
  46. Apr 22, 2012
    For a free to play game, this game is excellent! It has fun, challenging campaign missions and lots of customization. I also love the use of cooperative gameplay and the additional bonus mission in the arcade and the PvP system. The game has low system requirements, which is very good for people with bad computer like me. There are also very few bugs within the game and the graphics are goes so well with the gameplay. The only cons I have about the game are as follow: the time-length to regenerate mist energy, the constant price change of crystal energy, and the dependence on cash shops. Expand
  47. May 5, 2012
    I've foolishly spent a ton of time on this game... and its not because I enjoyed it, as my roommate can attest to with my frequent cursing while playing, but simply because I was bored. My overall recommendation is that you won't miss anything by passing this game up. It's most definitely not original, but can have a bit of charm. The cons outweigh the pros though.

    On the pro side, the
    game has a decent mixture of weaponry that can be fun play with. However, it doesn't variate enough to keep things interesting. There's really only a few types of weapons (about 10?), the variations are just changes in damage type and status effects. The community is okay for the most part. There is that share of douchebags, beggars, elitists and scammers, but they do not make up the majority of the people I've met, which are nice and cooperative. In the beginning I enjoyed the soundtrack coupled with gameplay, though eventually I switched to my own music. The game is fast and easy to learn, and skills can make a big difference in effectiveness.

    I briefly skimmed a few other reviews and they seem to have covered most of them, but I will beat that dead horse because a lot of these qualms are rather important. The biggest of all is the energy system. Essentially, the economy has you by the throat. You cannot run levels or craft gear without using energy, and only 100 energy is generated daily and each level costs 10 energy. This means you will have to buy "crystal energy" to craft gear - crystal energy which is sold by players for in-game currency which the p2p players purchased from the developers. They like to call it free-market, but they seriously do not understand what free-market is. The game economy is controlled by oligarchs who own tons of crystal energy which can only be generated by becoming p2p. Even among p2p, most do not purchase masses of crystal to energy to play, but for those that do, their interest in items can actually drive the entire market down, and by placing huge bids here and there, they can drive the prices for crystal energy up. Another huge gripe is the lag spikes of this game. Even after a patch that repaired many of the lag problems, they continue to persist. For a game that's supposedly skill-based, you get heavily punished for taking hits and often by the time the lag spike ends you are about to die or already dead. I run a quadcore system with a decent video card with decent internet. I rarely lag in other games but for some reason my computer chokes up on Spiral Knights. Considering the graphics and simplicity of the game, I'm confused why the performance sucks so much. There is an extreme shortage of content in this game. One of the patches added missions, but the dialogues are elementary - it made me recall those silly assignments in grade school where I had to write stories. They are also essentially running the same random dungeons you always ran/run except you get some "prestige points". Besides that, there's only 4 bosses, therefore only 4 non-random dungeons. The random dungeons are uninspired, repetitive, and very basic to say the least. Other Gripes: The camera angle is horrible! As people have mentioned, you can't see anything up top of the screen, and it also takes some getting used to for dodging missiles or using ranged attacks. There IS a sizable of grinding. If you use 100 mist to craft each top tier item, it amounts to 1100 crystal energy which means several days of no playing and currently costs 73k in-game crowns - just calculate how long that will take to make. Be prepared for tons of monotony while gearing up.
  48. May 28, 2012
    It seems to me, reading these reviews, that this would be a game that you either love or hate. I, for one, have loved this game since the moment it came out. The point for me has never been to log enormous amounts of time and complete bazillions of missions before I have to go off. It's been mostly about enjoying the community and playing until my mist is done before moving on to other things. That's my two bits on this subject. Expand
  49. Nov 14, 2012
    This game has good graphics, controls, & gameplay. The only thing that is annoying is the energy. You have to pay a big sum of money to refill your energy or pay real cash. The monsters drop very little money.
  50. Feb 1, 2013
    This game is fun at first, but it's a trap. The developers are only interested in getting your money rather than providing real content to earn money. You don't see this at first that much but it becomes really apparent later on when you've invested a lot of time into the game and are less willing to quit because of such. They force you to endlessly grind doing un-fun things in order to frustrate you into giving them money so you don't have to play as much to get what you want. For example they have special events periodically during the year where they give you limited time to "play" (grind) for special items. The grinding involves doing tedious repetitive tasks for 10 to 15 minutes in order to be awarded a small amount of tokens. You'll need to do this upwards to 60 times to have enough tokens for one special item. Multiply this if you want more than one item. You'll have a few weeks to accomplish this until the event ends, this forces you to either invest a lot of time grinding in a short period of time (which involves using in-game currency to play that much in a row) or using even more in-game currency to buy the items from other players who've done the grinding already. The in-game currency needs to be bought from the developer with real world money or obtained from other players who bought it. Either way, you'll have to spend a lot of time grinding and not having fun, or paying money to not be forced to "play" as much. The only real way to win this game is not to play. As the game gets periodically updated, the developer doesn't add any real new content. Much of the "new content" are a facade of such, like costumes which are just in various different color of existing gear. The developer is really fond of promising things are coming, but they never do. Expand
  51. Dec 30, 2012
    This game has a lot of charm and a pretty nice atmosphere. The game style they chose was a very good design choice yet it falls flat because it was made a Free to Play game instead of a normal game.If energy was scraped and it was just a single payment of £10-£20 it would be much better.Still have a go at it I got just under 300 hours of game play from this.^_^
  52. Jan 20, 2013
    Not bad! Become a knight and fight! Fill of action! The start of the game is extremely exciting! But it gets harder and harder and harder and HARDER at tier 3! Hack and slash, shoot from a distance, or become a demoknight! (Get it? You would if you played TF2) The only part I don't like is how you have energy, when you have low or you run out, no missions for you! I think that sucks, but this game is still not bad! You COULD complete the game without paying, but it would take you a while. Expand
  53. Oct 25, 2013
    With the removed energy system you can now travel the dungeon unlimiteded.
    So all the old reviews that said the game was bad because of the energy system are now invalid.
    Give it a try now. The game is also expanding upon the lore and maybe the final of the game will come within in a year.
  54. Aug 6, 2013
    I feel like this game is very much underrated because of the issues it had at the time of release regarding energy and such, but with the latest update there is no limit to how long you can play without shelling out money. Plus they've added a lot of new features including the most recent addition of Battle Sprites, which adds a whole new aspect to the game.

    The recent energy overhaul t
    hat entirely removes Mist energy, and making usage of the elevators going into the Clockworks entirely free completely changes how the game plays. Upgrading items is different too, and now takes Forging to complete. When you forge you have a chance to fail it, unless you spend a bigger amount of embers on it up to 100% success rate. Embers aren't hard to come by either, as a typical run through a single Tier gives you enough to upgrade a weapon/armor once.

    Personally I'm quite fond of the recent change, which makes me change my split view of the game in the past to be an 9/10 because it still needs some slight optimization regarding too many people in Haven, and how much Java can handle.

    If you didn't like the energy system it had before, I would heavily suggest that you go and try it again.
  55. Aug 23, 2013
    I started playing this game long ago, and quit because of the energy system. I hated how pay to win it was. About a week ago, all of that changed. I got an Email saying how basically the ENTIRE game had been redone. Need to pay to play more than once? Gone. Need to pay to craft better gear? Gone. Need other people to keep you live in the clockworks? Gone. I have been playing this game for about a week after the update came out and I really like it. Basically ignore every review before August, because all they complain about is the pay to winness, and that's all gone. This game is now the best MMO, I have played, and has a very high spot in my top 10 games. You guys should really try it out. Expand
  56. Aug 24, 2013
    The game are great! especially the new update! the elevator payment are gone, and i can play many misson forever, people often to underrated the game! i said "why?" and then i continue "This is a free game! the developer just want you to play and enjoys it. and if you dont like this game! dont play it from the first time!"

    continue to the review, the game are great especially for 13 yea
    rs old! it's fun to play, easy to get friend, and many 5 stars gear user that can help you! i've been playing this for 1 year and still enjoying it. getting crowns sometime frustating! but not! if you're not lazy.
    so hope this review help! and enjoy the game!
  57. Aug 26, 2013
    Well, the nasty thing is that the score remained the same even after 2 years.I've been playing it since it launched, and it greatly improved. It became one of my favourite games. There isn't such a think like "pay to win" in this game, like many say. Everything is free! Great graphics, great gameplay, great MMORPG. Even if it seems like a "game for kids" it is really challenging. I am having a lot of fun with my friends. Those who under-rated this game, should give 1 more try. It will definitely change their mind! Expand
  58. Aug 6, 2013
    This game has an extreme lack of real content, does not offer new challenges as the game progresses, and is also insanely pay to win.

    Game is fun for about a day or two then you start repeating the same content over and over, and even if you spend more money than this game is worth, you will still find yourself lacking in the things you need to progress. But that doesnt really matter ca
    use you will be bored by the time you need to upgrade that far anyway. Expand
  59. Jul 31, 2012
    Spiral Knights is a very well put together and beautiful game. Music and art style are uniquely great. The gameplay is fun enough to keep you playing, although nothing is spectacular here. Like some other reviewers said, the game is much more enjoyable playing with a group of friends on voice chat.

    For those whining about the energy system - keep in mind Three Rings is a business, not a
    charity. If you constantly buy things, the game might get expensive, but not really any more than any other retail game out there. The 100 mist energy given to each player daily is enough for an hour or two in the clockworks, which is sufficient for most non-hardcore players. Grinding can get frustrating at times, but stepping down for a while to take a breather is never a bad thing.

    I have been playing this game on and off for a year or two and I've really enjoyed it. The recent updates adding missions, rank, and prestige have added a greater sense of purpose and accomplishment to the game through goals. It makes the game a lot more enjoyable in my book, and it has me hooked again.
  60. Dec 30, 2012
    It's that kind of game that is nice to play with friends, but boring after a short time. If you play too much you risk to destroy the right mouse button. I say, maybe you should give it a try, if you like MMOs.
  61. May 28, 2013
    Spiral Knights is a Diablo-esc game with a cute theme. It's a fun, if not basic game. Ultimately this game comes up short because of how the developers handle the game's economy.

    In order to access dungeons, in order to access some non essential features, as well as forging and making gear. Basically the entire game relies on the use of energy. Free users can save up to 100 Myst that ge
    ts regenerated every 24 hours, you can only have up to 100 Myst. If you want to spend money, you can get more in the form of a premium currency called CE.

    The game is okay, but it's nothing new, what breaks it entirely is the energy system is incorporated.
  62. Sep 4, 2013
    This game is incredible now. Solid combat, gameplay, and it's just... really fun. What else would you expect from an MMORPG? Spiral Knights is all about adventure, and discovery. The Clockworks are fun to explore, and once you reach the core, it's time to try out all the weapons! Bombs are a personal favourite of mine, because they produce amazing effects and brilliant mechanics. You can also start merchanting from the Auction House and become a smexy rich player, or even start collecting weapons and testing them! Then, there's PvP! Blast Network is a fun Bomberman game with power-ups that power you up! Lockdown is another favourite of mine. Everything is different weapons are classified "powerful" or "useless" in PvP. Whilst in PvE the "powerful"weapons YOU thought in PvE could be utterly useless in PvP. It's really fun; Spiral Knights, again, is all about exploration!!! Expand
  63. Sep 18, 2012
    Spiral Knights is a cute, top-down Free to play Online Action RPG made by Three Rings that should be considered a lighthearted version of the mainstream Action RPG games like Diablo, Phantasy Star Online and Path of Exile. The game can also turn out good for those who play it with their friends on a casual level as 4 people can explore through the games unique method of generated dungeons that have branching paths that could change in attempt to keep things fresh. The main problem many will find themselves seeing is how the game limits the content. For those that are willing to take a bite at the game there are two things to consider, energy and the current in-game market driven by the players in the game. This review will focus on the game aspect more than the community of the game itself. In order to play this game you need energy, and you are given a mist energy tank that can hold up to 100 and recharges over time like a battery. Since going down to a level cost 10 energy, you can only do 10 levels a day at most, which some players may not like if they are actually enjoying the game. Another source of energy is called Crystal, it can be stocked up to as much as you can get but it doesn't recharge and you start with none of it. In order to get Crystal energy is either paying for it or buying it from the player-driven energy market which could inflate or drop prices dramatically on a whim. Another thing about energy is that you use it to make weapons and armor, upgrade, and activating certain things in game that needs it like prize gates or turrets. If you actually enjoy playing it, consider paying for a elevator pass to bypass energy cost. The gameplay is very simple compared to other games, you run around and hit things until they die while traversing a level that has some simple puzzles. People that played Legend of Zelda: Link's Awaking will feel a familiar vibe in the game's battle system and could actually configure the game controls to play on a Controller if they really wanted to. The Story takes place in the game's Missions, where you grow in rank to gain access to the game's later levels as well as recipes to make better equipment. If you're looking to scrap with other players, you can try Lockdown, a Team Versus Team mode where you capture points and fight off the other team to win; and Blast Network, A bomb blasting arena that pits you against others in a Bomberman style mode, this comes in Free for all and Team flavors. Since this game using a F2P model you could either shell out some money to get Crystal energy to get the needed amount for all of your high end equipment soon, or try to grind through the game on a daily basis which could possibly lead you to quitting if you are not patient. Being a player that played the game since beta and +200 hours after it's release, I can recommend this game to players that take their time in playing games with friends, rather than to plow through them to get the high-end items. Collapse
  64. Jan 3, 2013
    The intro starts off great introducing you to this game's Zelda-clone mechanics but you are soon barricaded by the Energy system. Unless you convert real money into Energy, you have a Facebook game-esque timer on how long you're allowed to play with Energy costs being tagged onto everything inside dungeons. The graphics are chunky, sound and music are unimpressive, and the single hub town is small and cramped. All the dungeons are instanced so I'm honestly not sure how something like this is supposed to be a "Massively Multiplayer" game other than the fact that the devs drain your wallet like any other f2p MMO. Expand
  65. Jan 5, 2013
    Spiral Knights is one of my favorite games. The storyline of the game is that something strange is going on in their world of clockworks, you have recieved missions to accomplish and as you progres, your level becomes higher, your higher ranked, and you become more powerful. What I like about this game is that you have so much control over what weapons and armor you want to use. The only down side to this free game is that you have 100 energy everyday and every level you play costs 10 energy. Once you use it all it takes 24 hours to regenerate, but buying the elevator pass costs bout $5 and lasts you a month (Really worth it!) Expand
  66. Oct 28, 2013
    I'm editing my Spiral Knights review due to a large patch about a month ago that fixed most if not all of the issues this game has that're mentioned in most negative reviews. The game no longer uses the dreaded energy system that limited f2p players from playing more than 10 levels a day: gameplay is now unlimited and crafting has been revamped, no longer requiring ridiculous amounts of energy. Crafting is now based on alchemy orbs and heat crystals, both found through playing the game (which can now be played to no end).

    All of that said, for those who are new to Spiral Knights and are unaware of its past sins: Spiral Knights is a free-to-play dungeon-crawler style game. It plays similarly to games from the Zelda series and even boasts similarities to games like Diablo. The weapons in the game are well-designed and fun to play with and the bosses are satisfying. However, the game suffers from one fault that'll be evident to anyone who plays long enough: the endgame. Grinding the same boss over and over again is infinitely boring, and whereas events with new-ish missions pop up every now and then (usually holiday-based), the game desperately needs to be updated more frequently in terms of content (weapons, bosses).
  67. Feb 9, 2013
    I give this game a 7 because the 1st 80% of the game is really fun, action packed, though the last 20% of the game is really lacking as it becomes a grind fest and waiting for updates...
  68. Oct 10, 2013
    I am definitely not a large fan of this game. It is not a terrible dungeon crawler, but the energy system and microtransactions required to play for longer than a short amount of time per day is ridiculous. For such a petty, childlike game, this game really knows how to bleed you dry with small fees found in every gameplay element.
    That being said, microtransactions aside, actual gameplay
    can be entertaining with friends. Expand
  69. Apr 21, 2013
    I say that this game is very fun with friends. It's also fun if you feel like going solo.

    Of course, like many games, it's not for everyone. The only way to know if this game is good or not is to play it for yourself- Which should be easy, since it's free. Go ahead! Don't let the reviews here stop you.
  70. May 24, 2013
    In my opinion it is a good game, show the character(you can make your own) in a way that it is fun also about the energy....well, just buy more after all is a free game paying for just one thing is not that bad and with $15 bucks(dollars) you can buy a lot of energy,A LOT...so yeah it is one of my favorite games so far :D
  71. Aug 16, 2013
  72. Jun 6, 2013
    I played and liked it alot, but got borred, because there were no fresh content in game and they let kiddos that buy ingame things for real money to change price of energy in game currency to insane levels where f2p player had to grind few weeks to upgrade his item. Also introducing missions changed game, because everyone just play one mission to make more money instead of playing normal gates, what made it repetitive and borring as hell. Expand
  73. Sep 15, 2013
    What's funny is that people are complementing this game and being mad at it for all the wrong reasons. At first it's a cute little mmo about collecting things and crafting things. You get orbs of alchemy from missions, life is good. But then, as you go on, these orbs are a lot more rare. The game will evolve into a massive grindfest. It turns quickly into a game you can dump time into without much reward. The only real way to acquire the orbs is through two methods; You can trade crowns, the ingame non-premium currency, for the premium currency at a changing rate based on the market. It is to be noted this works both ways, meaning you can indeed BUY INGAME CURRENCY FOR REAL MONEY. This is a huge problem, of course, but the community manages to keep this ratio massively unfair, so it's all good.

    Actually no, it's not all good. In addition to the fact that the game is one of those increasingly common pay-to-win no questions asked games, it's actually very much a REQUIREMENT to pay to win. You have to grind for approximately 5 million crowns (a whole lot, considering the largest loot drop possible is only 50 crowns) in order to complete the tier 4 armor, which due to a massive difficulty curve later in the game is required to go on.

    The only reason I give this more than a flat zero is that the devs are really trying their best to fix the game, failing, but they are trying. The first 5 or so hours might be enjoyable, but if you cap tier 3 that's where the "Trial" period ends.
  74. Jun 16, 2013
    Great gameplay, story isn't anything amazing but it holds together, a bit too many pay to play issues than I would've liked, but once you have enough patience to get through the early game and are able to buy energy (This game's form of special pay real dollars to get currency.) with crowns, (The regular in-game currency for killing monsters, completing missions, etc.) you can start to get back into the swing of things, and the game becomes a great experience for everyone involved. Expand
  75. Dec 3, 2013
    i like this game because its a game you can play when you need to see something cute and something you can take it easy and play with your friends, all the ones saying that you need pay to get somewhere have not been playing for long at all. if you play it for some time you will see that its just about killing a little.
  76. Sep 12, 2013
    I feel sad when I look at all these reviews and see that every single one is out of date. Spiral knights no longer requires energy to travel into the clockworks. Not only that but along with a boatload of new content the whole "mist energy" concept is stripped from the game, allowing a completely different experience than the one described by the other reviews posted here.

    The entire pr
    ocess of upgrading gear has been radically revamped, and offers and even more unique and challenging form of game advancement. With all the new features, the old reviews by the companies to the left are NOT accurate. At all, actually. In fact, most of the negative comments on this game posted here are pretty inaccurate now. Strongly recommend this game be re-reviewed by those who have turned their noses up at it. Expand
  77. Oct 22, 2013
    It's a great MMORPG and all, but the pricing comes and beats the crap out of you. The farther you get in Spiral Knights, the more everything will cost, making the grind harder and longer, which grinds the game into a screeching stop.
  78. Oct 27, 2013
    Sometimes, games attempt to mix many genres at once, forming a massive ball of random that is ultimately found to be a fun experience. Other times it ends up a clusterf*ck. Surprisingly enough, this game reaches a medium. Its combination of Zelda-esc puzzle solving and combat and MMO style community integration can be satisfying, however, the game has some serious downsides. Spiral Knights is poorly optimized, with long load times and unusual amounts of lag for such a graphically un-intensive game. It also has an extremely boring, long, drawn-out story that sounds like it was written for a college essay, rather than an MMORPG. The game is certainly playable, and you may have fun with it, but don't be surprised when you find yourself uninstalling the game. Also, I suggest not purchasing DLC, as this is not a game I would sink money into. Expand
  79. Nov 10, 2013
    This is a fantastic game now. Before, your 100 energy would be up in a bit and you would have to wait 24 hours to play again. Now they have removed that feature and because of that this game is amazing. Just amazing. Everything is how it should be in a game. It's more for casual gamers, and the voice chat doesn't work as well as it should, but it is definitely a game worthy of a 9/10.
  80. Dec 12, 2013
    This game is eh.. But once your missions don't load and you can't get very far and you end up having to pay if you want a good weapon but I'm still saying it's eh..
  81. Sep 18, 2012

Mixed or average reviews - based on 4 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 4
  2. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Feb 18, 2012
  2. Aug 2, 2011
    When I look at this game it reminds me of the humorous Diablo 3 logo. The one with the sun, rainbow, clouds and unicorns. It's this game! Having in mind that it wasn't designed for hardcore gamers, I can let some of the boredom resulting from the combat system's simplicity slide. But only some. [August 2011, p.70]
  3. Jul 26, 2011