Portal Knights
Portal Knights blends action combat, light RPG progression, and sandbox building in a world that has literally been split apart. You hop between floating islands through portals, gather materials, craft upgrades, and tackle bosses solo or with friends.
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Publisher: 505 Games Playerbase: Low Type: Action Adventure Sandbox RPG Release Date: February 25, 2016 Pros: +Satisfying boss fights and responsive combat. +Strong biome variety that keeps exploration interesting. +Supports up to 4 people in co-op. Cons: -Bright visuals can feel flat due to limited texture contrast. -Narrative is fairly thin. -Progression can become grind-heavy. |
Portal Knights Overview
Portal Knights is an action adventure sandbox RPG developed by Keen Games and published by 505 Games. The game’s premise revolves around the Fracture, a cataclysm that shattered the land into countless island worlds. Each one is reachable only through portals, turning exploration into a steady loop of finding new zones, scavenging what you need, then pushing onward to the next destination.
At the start you create a charming, toy-like character and customize their look before committing to a class. The core options are Mage, Ranger, and Warrior, and each one plays differently enough to feel like a real choice, not just a cosmetic label. As you level, you improve your effectiveness in combat and expand your toolkit, which matters once enemies become more than simple fodder.
The moment-to-moment structure is familiar to anyone who enjoys crafting sandboxes: break blocks, harvest plants and ore, and convert those resources into weapons, armor, consumables, and building pieces. Biomes help the pacing a lot, since deserts, swamps, and other themed islands come with their own materials and hostile creatures. When you do hit a boss encounter, fights tend to emphasize patterns and specific vulnerabilities, rewarding players who pay attention instead of simply out-gearing the challenge.
Co-op is one of Portal Knights’ best fits. With up to four players, gathering and building goes faster, and battles feel more dynamic with different roles in the party. Add controller support and a clean, approachable interface, and the overall package is easy to pick up for both newcomers and genre veterans.
Portal Knights Key Features:
- Accessible, energetic combat – the mechanics are straightforward, but attacks feel quick and snappy, keeping fights from dragging.
- Boss battles built around weaknesses– major enemies generally have a tell or exploitable mechanic, so winning is as much about learning as it is about stats.
- Bright, blocky 3D presentation – the style lands somewhere between Minecraft and toy-brick aesthetics, with a friendly look that reads well in motion.
- Many distinct islands and biomes – portals lead to new themed worlds, each with its own resources, creatures, and hazards to plan around.
- Co-op sandbox play– up to four players can explore, craft, build, and fight together, making progression and experimentation more enjoyable.
Portal Knights Screenshots
Portal Knights Featured Video
Portal Knights Review
Portal Knights aims for a comfortable middle ground between action RPG and crafting sandbox, and at its best it succeeds by keeping goals clear and pacing brisk. You drop into an island, clear enemies, mine and chop what you need, craft upgrades, and then push through a portal to the next chunk of the broken world. It is a loop designed to be relaxing when you want it to be, but it also has spikes of challenge that prevent it from becoming purely a building toy.
Combat and classes: Fighting is the most consistently enjoyable part of the experience. Melee swings, ranged shots, and spellcasting all feel responsive, and the game does a good job of letting you stay mobile. The three classes provide distinct flavors, especially once you start relying on class strengths rather than brute forcing encounters. The overall complexity is not at the level of a hardcore ARPG, but it does not need to be, because the clarity supports co-op and quick sessions.
Exploration and crafting: The portal-based structure keeps discovery moving forward. Because each island has a theme, you get a practical reason to visit new places beyond sightseeing, you are usually hunting for a specific ingredient, ore tier, or crafting material tied to that biome. Building and crafting are straightforward, and the home-building angle gives players a way to personalize progress even when they are not chasing the next boss.
Boss design: Boss encounters are where Portal Knights separates itself from many similar sandboxes. Several fights are more about recognizing a pattern or interacting with a mechanic than simply stacking damage. That design choice makes victories feel earned, especially early on when gear options are limited.
Presentation and story: The colorful art style is inviting, though the world can sometimes look a little smooth or uniform, with less texture contrast than you might expect given how vibrant the palette is. The framing story about the Fracture is serviceable, but narrative depth is not the focus, you are here for progression, crafting, and combat rather than elaborate storytelling.
Grind and longevity: The main drawback is that the resource chase can turn repetitive if you are playing solo or aiming to optimize quickly. The game’s rhythm is built on gathering and upgrading, and some players will feel that friction as grind. Playing with friends softens that issue significantly, since roles emerge naturally (one person gathering, another building, another pushing combat), and the shared momentum makes repeat tasks feel lighter.
Who it is for: Portal Knights is a solid pick for players who like Minecraft-style collecting and building but want more directed combat and better boss encounters. If you need a rich narrative or deeply complex RPG systems, it may feel a bit thin. As a co-op-friendly action sandbox with clear progression, it delivers a lot of satisfying sessions.
Portal Knights Links
Portal Knights Official Site
Portal Knights Steam Page
Portal Knights Facebook Page
Portal Knights Wiki [Official]
Portal Knights Subreddit
Portal Knights System Requirements
Minimum Requirements (Windows):
Operating System: 64-bit Versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) 8450 Triple-Core Processor (3 CPUs), ~2.1GHz or Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0 GHz
RAM: 4 GB RAM
Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 470 (1Gb VRAM) / ATI Radeon TM HD 6870 (1Gb VRAM)
Hard Disk Space: 2 GB available space
Recommended Requirements (Windows):
Operating System: 64-bit Versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
CPU: AMD FX 8120 @ 3.1 GHz or Intel i3 2100 @ 3.10 GHz
RAM: 4 GB RAM
Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 750ti, ATI Radeon™ HD 7850
Hard Disk Space: 2 GB available space
Portal Knights Music & Soundtrack
Coming Soon!
Portal Knights Additional Information
Developer(s): Keen Games
Publisher(s): 505 Games
Engine: In-house, designed for Portal Knights
Language(s): English, French, Italian, German, Spanish
Early Access: February 25, 2016
Release Date: Q3/Q4 2016
Development History / Background:
Portal Knights is an action adventure RPG from Keen Games, published by 505 Games, and built on an in-house engine created specifically for the project. The concept centers on a fractured universe made up of many smaller worlds, with portals serving as the connective tissue for exploration and progression.
The game launched into Early Access on Steam on February 25, 2016, with a planned full release targeted for late 2016 (Q3/Q4). From the outset, its focus has been on combining approachable crafting and building with more structured RPG elements, including class-based combat and boss encounters designed around readable mechanics.