Why You Can Trust CNET One Epic Knight review: One Epic Knight
Though there are several perpetual runners in the App Store, this title's 3D over-the-shoulder perspective is one of the things that make it worth checking out.
One Epic Knight is another in a long list of perpetual running escape games in the App Store, but the 3D third-person viewing angle and upgradable items keep you coming back for one more run.
One Epic Knight
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
You play as an armored knight who enters a dungeon in search of treasure. As you run through the stone halls, your control system is somewhat like in Temple Run, but with a twist. You'll still use horizontal swipes to turn corners, up swipes to jump, and down swipes to slide under obstacles. But the game also uses a lane system where you'll swipe to switch to the middle or sides of your path to avoid obstacles and monsters, and also to pick up weapons, armor, and treasure.
The armor and weapon pickups are great additions that help you get further than you would without them. When you encounter monsters or obstacles that block your path, you would usually need to swipe to dodge out of the way. But weapons let you blast through a monster without consequences while a shield will take the brunt of hitting an obstacle and let you continue on. These really come in handy the further you go -- as the game speeds up and more obstacles are thrown in your way, the extra items act as second chances to push you a bit further.
As you run through the dungeon, you'll pick up coins and also earn them through the game's many achievements, and you can spend your coins on weapon and shield upgrades to make them last longer. You also can use your coins to purchase temporary boosts when you're shooting for a record distance. Where other games make you go through countless runs to earn money, One Epic Knight feels like it has a good balance -- after only a few runs, you'll be able to afford some of the early upgrades. The exception to this rule are the costumes; all the alternate costumes cost 30,000 coins each and it will take you some time to earn that kind of money. Still, for the upgrades, the pricing seems about right.
While it has a lot of great ideas, the game is not perfect. Sometimes the swipe controls don't feel as responsive as they should, causing you to have those "But I pressed it!" moments as your knight runs into a wall. There are also some unfair instances where an obstacle can make it impossible to correctly perform the jump needed to continue on. While these issues are annoying, it seems like they would be easily fixed, so future updates will probably smooth out the game's minor problems.
As a running game, One Epic Knight will inevitably get repetitive after awhile, but the added variation with upgradable items and the possibility of finding secret paths to treasure rooms keep the game exciting a bit longer. If you like escape games like Temple Run, One Epic Knight is worthy of checking out for a new twist on the genre.