Attention trivia aficionados, Wish Studios’ Playstation PlayLink title, Knowledge is Power, is finally here! (well, our review is anyway, the game launches next Wednesday, Nov. 22nd.) The latest addition to Playstation’s collection of PlayLink games, Knowledge is Power gets you and your friends gathered around your TV, smartphone in hand, to answer various quiz questions as quick as possible to win.
Once you’ve got all your friends around, you each use a specially designed app on your either Android or iOS device to select from a colourful roster of characters. You also get to take a selfie of yourself with added face masks, much like Snapchat’s filters, the add another level of individuality.
You’ll continue to use your smartphone through game as it acts as your controller and answer-selection device. At the start of each round, the topic of the questions is decided by the players. You will get the choice of 4 different doors, each with their own specific topic and you each get to choose which one you’d like to go for. If there’s a tie, the game will randomly select one of the chosen doors.
Once inside,, you’ll be delivered the relevant question. One interesting thing I noticed was that each winning topic affects the next selection of topics so, for example, if you decide on a movies door, the next selection of doors will have topics such as horror movies or classic movies which is a good way to keep players engaged in topics they like.
Another clever gameplay mechanic is, between choosing a topic and actually been given your question, each player must choose a ‘Power Play’ from a selection of three. Power Plays are obstacles you can put in place to slow down or hinder your opponents from selection their answer quicker than you. The options available vary from ‘gloop’, which covers your opponent’s answers in green goo that they must swipe off on their smartphone in order to see them to ‘freeze’, which adds a layer of ice on top of your opponent’s answers that they must tap multiple times in order to ‘crack’ the ice and select their answer.
At first, I wasn’t sure if this type of game mechanic would work but, after a couple of rounds, I found myself becoming ever more tactical when it came to selecting the correct Power Play to hinder my fellow players.
Along with the regular question rounds, there are also two special types of rounds called ‘linking’ and ‘sorting’. In the linking round, players are tasked with connecting corresponding terms within a give time limit so, for example, you may be asked to pair off famous authors and their books on your smartphone and the quicker you do it, the better. It’s definitely a nice addition to just the straight forward aspect of answering questions found in the other rounds.
There’s also the sorting round which has you sorting two different categories either to the left or the right on your smartphone such as mythical or real animals for example. Again, this is another bit of fun that breaks up the more straight forward question-answering rounds.
The final round of the game is the pyramid. It’s here were the points you’ve accumulated through the last number of rounds are converted to decide how far up the pyramid you will be placed before the final round of questions begins. These questions are more general knowledge, but, depending on which level you’re on, you get to use a specific Power Play to hinder your fellow pyramid climbers so as to be the first one to reach the top.
Overall, Knowledge is Power is great fun. The PlayLink series of games really is a fantastic innovation from Sony as it allows people to jump into a multiplayer game, simply by downloading an app. The art style is quirky and fun, the host’s catchphrases and interactions are clever and the questions are tricky yet easy enough to give everyone a chance to enjoy playing.
Knowledge is Power launches next Wednesday, November 22nd, for €19.99 and the accompanying iOS and Android app is free.
