Think Overlord, but you get to make Zombies for your troopers. This PSP title from Team Tacyon claims a sense of humor involved in this hack and munch, as you bring down the evil queen with one of three wronged anti-heroes. Unfortunately some bad design holds this game back from being anything but mediocre.

The plot revolves around the house of Blood, not a literal house, but a family. The evil Queen (campy evil) has tricked the King into killing your family which includes his own daughter, the cad! However, returning from the Abyss with the powers of necromancy, you set off with revenge on your mind, cutting a swath through a medieval fantasy land by turning its own armies against it.

The game plays of a simple two button combo system which we see a lot in these kinds of games, add in some magical spells and you have your basic hack and slash. Unlike other games through, you can grab an enemy and transform them into the living dead, the lower their health the faster the process. Without the undead by your side you will find yourself quickly swamped by spawning enemies, and believe me they will spawn until the end of time given the chance. Orders can be given to the zombies to complete objectives or bring down specific targets by swamping them with numbers, simply hold a button and point toward whatever it is you want done! Unfortunately this does leave you open with all your minions occupied, letting go of the button will result in your brainless allies forgetting their task and returning to random slaughter.

It’s an interesting system that changes up the genre slightly, Overlord did it better, but Overlord was arse on handheld. Using your own troops as human shields to get close to archers should be funnier than it actually is. Due to the dark tone and epic music it feels like the designers got confused over the style they were going for, ending up with a serious theme that’s so hammy its funny they tried it. The press release that came with the review copy was genuinely funny, so when I jumped in the game it was strange to see the tone was the opposite of what was promised.

Graphically designers on the PSP keep surprising me every time I turn the system on, it looks like a PS2 game with some rough edges that plagued the system. Everything is a bit dark and muddy, but as the design choice ended up medieval there isn’t a whole lot you could do. Controls are solid enough for the most part, but the camera and focus attack are obviously flawed with both doing little to help the flow of the game. Enemies constantly spawning at the edge of the screen is done poorly and while left unexplained should be banned from all gaming! I understand there are limitations on the system but if Konami can make MGS on the PSP look that good then a bit more effort could remove this problem, at least put an entrance they are coming from in the game!

The real problem with Undead Knights is that it’s not a poor game, just a confused one. It honestly feels like they lost their direction when making it and ended up with a smorgasbord of genres and features that don’t complement each other. Look past the obvious flaws and you can see an average game, but had Team Tacyon focused upon the comedy factor this game could have been a lot better.

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