Reviewed: April 29, 2003
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Tri Synergy
Developer
Davilex Games
Released: March 26, 2003
Genre: Racing
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
6
8
8
6
7.1
System Requirements
I’m amazed at how many games are being made based on movies and TV these days, but I really get surprised when these games are based on TV shows that aren’t even on the air. Sierra has already released Dark Angel which ended last year, Starsky and Hutch in coming soon, and now Davilex and Tri Synergy are bringing the 80’s series, Knight Rider back to life.
While Knight Rider was a cool series for its time, sparking more black Trans Am sales than Smokey and the Bandit, it is definitely dated material and gamers in 2003 may have trouble relating; especially since we have had more recent super car shows like Viper. Of all the 80’s TV shows available for game conversion I was surprised to see Knight Rider make the trip to the PC. Maybe CHiP’s will be next.
For those too young to know about Knight Rider, it is the story of a man and his car. The man is Michael Knight, a man who was presumed dead but instead received a new face and a new identity. He now works for FLAG (Foundation for Law and Government) and tools around town in a high-tech Trans Am that can talk, drive itself, and perform all sorts of wild stunts. Admittedly, the show was quite silly even in the 80’s but it didn’t stop me from watching every week.
The plot for the game is worthy of a two-part episode. Actually, much of the game plot is a rehash of several existing episodes from the series. Fans of the show will instantly recognize classic villain names like Garth, KARR, and Goliath. Yes, all three are back to give Michael and KITT the ultimate challenge.
Garth is the evil son of Wilton Knight, the man who founded FLAG and setup Michael in his new career as crime fighter. When Michael got his new identity his face was made to look like Garth so we have the classic evil-twin scenario. Thankfully Garth is sporting a stylish goatee so we can keep the two separate.
Fans of the series will remember that Garth was the one responsible for creating Goliath, the giant semi-truck created with the same MBS (molecular bonded shell) as KITT. In a massive duel that nearly killed Michael and destroyed KITT, Goliath was sent over a cliff with Garth inside. Both were presumed dead until we start playing this game.
Garth somehow survived and is back with new technology to mass-produce the MBS formula and sell it to the highest bidder to create an army of super-shielded weapons. The various missions and levels all tie loosely in with this plot but there are several glaring holes that had me wondering why they bothered with the story at all.
Garth has a huge undersea complex that rivals the lair of your favorite James Bond villain. It is here that he manufactures the MBS chemical but he chooses to apply the formula to cars and trucks in a garage located out in the desert. Hmmm…
Knight Rider's 15 missions are all based around driving from point A to B or pursuing vehicle C or scanning buildings D, E and F to for clues to further the story and advance to the next mission where you get to do it all again. There is a lot of driving involved, naturally, and plenty of opportunities to invoke the unique powers of your car. You might be pursuing a bank robbery getaway vehicle and it will drive "around" a truck blocking the road while you get to use your Turbo Boost to sail over (or through) the truck gaining precious seconds in the pursuit.
What little gameplay Knight Rider does offer is great fun and makes use of all of the high-tech modes that fans of the series will remember. KITT can use the aforementioned Turbo Boost to launch himself up and forward. This allows you to jump over trucks and trains and even slower traffic, but it also allowed the designers to create a series of demented jumping puzzles. Yes, platform jumping is no longer limited to cute platform characters like Rayman. Now you get to jump a car from crate to crate and rooftop to rooftop in a black Trans Am.
KITT also has a Ski Mode that lets him kick up onto two wheels and balance his way between obstacles or through narrow gaps. This is one of the more challenging abilities you will have to master, but aside from the training mission you are only required to use this feature once or twice in the actual game.
The Super Pursuit Mode sends KITT into overdrive. All sorts of ground effects come out of the body and a rocket engine pops out of the trunk allowing you to reach insane speeds. This feature is very hard to use since controlling your car at such speeds in nearly impossible. SPM was much cooler on the TV show since they just sped up the film about 4x normal and KITT magically stuck to the roads.
KITT also has a powerful computer system with scanners and Micro Jammers. You will use these devices to search buildings, download data, jam electronic signals and open locked doors. You get to scan stuff in just about every mission and it's a nice break from just driving around. Unfortunately, there is no real guesswork or puzzles in this game. You always know what to do and when to do it making Knight Rider a game more about reflexed and driving skill than problem solving. KITT will handle the thinking for you, which now that I think about it is pretty much what happned in the TV show.
Driving games are only as good as the control and even though Knight Rider is far from a "simulation" it still requires precise control. While my preview copy only had support for keyboard and mouse, the final shipping version has since added gamepad, joystick, and wheel support. This is a mixed blessing. The wheel support is fantastic, but only when you play from the cockpit view. Driving with a wheel and using a chase view just feels wrong. But then you have those jumping puzzles I mentioned and those are impossible to do from inside the car, which means you have to use an external camera. Ultimately, I settled on using my Gravis Xterminator gamepad, which offered the best control of KITT from a chase view while also allowing me access to all the sub-commands that I had mapped to the various buttons on the gamepad.
Graphically, the game is excellent. I cranked it all the way up to 1600x1200x32 and it ran flawlessly. The levels look great and are nicely detailed with plenty of ambient scenery and a decent amount of varied traffic. The cities are oddly lifeless with no pedestrians or any other signs of life other than the intentionally place obstacle that requires a special ability of KITT to circumvent. In one of the earlier missions you investigate a bank robbery and you drive to the bank in a small town. There is a hole in the side of the bank but no cops or onlookers are to be found.
There is a good selection of cutscenes that are created using the game engine graphics. The opening move starts off with actual TV footage then seamlessly blends into the CGI stuff. The CG characters all look remarkably like the actors that portrayed them 20 years ago. Mission briefings are done with text and still images and portraits of the characters doing the talking.
There are also plenty of special camera tricks employed when KITT does one of his special moves. Most of these are scripted so when you do something like jump over a semi or a train the camera will automatically swing out to a wide shot or a reverse angle for a slow-motion view then return to normal just when you regain control of the car. Normally, tricks like this are hazardous to the gameplay but Davilex has managed to incorporate these camera effects so seamlessly that they become second nature. I never wrecked once due to fancy camera tricks.
All of your favorite characters from the series are back; Michael Knight, Garth, Devon, and Bonnie are all back, but I was disappointed that they couldn’t get the original cast to do the voices. I suppose David Hasselhoff (Michael) is too “big” after his success on Baywatch. I haven’t seen much of Edward Mulhare since he played Devon, so I’m not sure why they couldn’t get him, but the biggest disappointment was that they didn’t get William Daniels (Boy Meets World, St. Elsewhere) to do the voice of KITT. Like Charlie, from Charlie’s Angels, you never saw the man behind the voice, which just makes it that much more noticeable when you try to slip in a substitution, and not a very good one at that.
The music is taken right from the series and anyone who has seen even a single episode will instantly recognize the synthesized opening theme music. The in-game music is a subdued techno riff that blends into the background. Sound effects are also perfectly reproduced from the show including the signature sounds of the Turbo Boost, Super Pursuit Mode, and the unmistakable whine of KITT’s engine that sounds more like a Eureka vacuum cleaner than a powerful sports car.
Knight Rider, the game, does an excellent job of recreating the TV experience in style, missions, and unfortunately length. Spanning only ten missions across 15 levels, this game can be finished in about the time it takes to watch two episodes. My first trip through this game took just under three hours on the easy skill level and a second pass on normal skill took just over three hours. Even at a budget price of $29 there may not be enough here to satisfy the more discriminating consumer.
On the other side of the coin is the fact that it is such a "short" game that you may be inclined to replay it more than say a game that would take you 20-40 hours to finish. The three difficulty levels also lend a bit of added value to the gameplay, although the Easy level is probably way too easy for most seasoned gamers, but perfect for the smaller kids.
Knight Rider is a good game that could have been a great game if there had simply been more of it. There are a lot of missed opportunities. You get a cool Night Vision mode but are never required to use it. There appears to be a mission where you are going to get to drive through some dark mine shafts and KITT says you are going to need to use Night Vision, but rather than driving through the mine the experience is told on a few pages of text then you magically appear in the arena with Goliath.
As far as driving games go, there are plenty of others out there that offer better content and more of it. But if you are fans of the show then this game is a must-have, and if you are looking for a harmless game suitable for the entire family look no further. Knight Rider is great fun with some great action, which just makes it that much more disappointing when the experience is over.