Knights Contract is a hack and slash game which at a glance would appear to have a well thought out and deep storyline. You'll be placed in the shoes of Heinrich, an executioner who killed witches which had done nothing wrong. Because of this Heinrich has been cursed with immortality and just wants his life to be over, but unluckily for him this isn't possible. Gretchen is the witch that Heinrich killed many years ago who has has come back from the dead to help you stop all of the other witches from destroying humanity. To do this you'll be slashing and casting spells throughout the game to achieve the main objective.
Despite the fact Heinrich is immortal, Gretchen can die and because you have been bonded with her as her knight you cannot let this happen, protecting Gretchen during battle is your main goal but it can be buggy at times. I encountered several occasions where an enemy grabbed her and she simply cannot be saved even after you killed the enemy, which leads to many frustrating times. Gretchen's spells are well thought out and are generally pretty cool, such as a magical bear trap which slows down enemies. She can also buff up Heinrich for a limited period of time giving him powers such as electricity on his scythe for easier kills.
With both characters being fairly well thought out and interesting you feel at the start that the game is shaping up to be fairly decent and interesting, but it's definitely not. Once you enter combat you realise how poor the AI is; Gretchen is AI controlled through the whole game but she may as well not be as she just stands there. An AI that moves only when they are following you is pretty damn pathetic, especially when it's your job to protect her. It also appears that the developers knew this so added a button in which you can pick her up and try and move her out of harms way, but once you put her down she just follows you into the danger zone again which makes your attempt seem very pointless, resulting in alot of frustration.
If you happen to be cut into a thousand pieces by an enemy whilst playing this game, or even if you get "downed" you'll get to enjoy a nice thumb exercise. To get back together you must mash the A button, and it's not just for a few seconds, but around 30 seconds. By the time you get back into one piece and are ready to fight again Gretchen has probably already died so really you might as well have just stayed dead. All this, especially on the harder difficulty modes, makes the game's story get more and more pointless by the minute, and what started out as a well thought out story soon becomes a novelty which you wish you'd never got into.
Knights Contract couldn't care less what you want to look at or where you want to go, as the camera has a mind of its own. Being unable to control the camera and having to go where it tells you to go makes the game that little bit more annoying than what it already has become. This is proven in the boss battles where you're fighting witches who've become massive monsters. Massive monsters which are then focused on by the camera which can lead you to even loosing Heinrich or Gretchen on the side of the screen leaving it up to you to guess which direction to pull the stick to get them back. Boss battles are also very hard work to complete, not only are you competing with the dodgy camera but also a big monster who has 10 bars of health, and then once all 10 are down you must do a sequence of button pressing and stick movements. Not to mention in the 2 seconds you have to press these buttons if you miss you're sent all the way back to the start with the boss reviving most of its health and you having to attack it all over again. This feels overly punishing and once again makes the game extremely frustrating.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it does. Not only has the game been a right pain, but as you reach the climax it splits the two companions up and you must play through both of them on their own. Gretchen is extremely weak in melee and the spells she has have long cool down times which makes getting through her segment tough. Heinrich's segment is not really hard but is just a case of clicking X over and over and over again, which gets very boring! Not only this but through the entire game it's so linear that there is only one path, which you barely fit through, so there's no way of making a mistake in travelling. Also the developers decided to place collectibles through the game which seem very pointless considering due to the linearity you simply cannot miss them.
Overall Knights Contract which initially seems like a good concept has just been completely ruined by the games inability to let you control a camera and its pathetic attempt at making an AI player. The game seemed to have all the elements for a co-op story mode but this is completely absent which makes Knights Contract one of the worst games to come to an Xbox 360, or console. Ever.
Knights Contract Gets An Official Game-Pad: 2.0/10