Knights Bane

Knights Bane is a dark medieval fantasy FPS series published and developed by Silicon Wizards.

Knights Bane (1994)
A level based FPS that uses staffs and Medieval weaponary. The game follows a knight as he seeks to defend the Kingdom of Almor from a demonic invasion in multiple different locations. Each level starts with a short wall of text that somebody reads to the player about what is going on in the level, otherwise the game features no vocal lines. The game uses a fully fledged 3D engine that uses 2D sprites for the enemies, fire, and the players UI.

The Gameplay was similar to the oldschool doom in which you would run around the map killing enemies while carrying 10 different weapons you could switch between using the num pad. The game had no jump button despite the engine being full 3D.

Knights Bane: Arena (1995)
Arena was a multiplayer only standalone release that was built upon the original Knights Bane's gameplay and engine. The game featured Free for All Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Possessed (one player would play a demon while the other players defended), Humans vs Zombies (One player starts off as a zombie and tries to amass more zombies by killing players before the time runs out).

Maps:

Twin Towers: A map with a river in the middle of two towers

Seafarer: Two ships on the ocean with planks connecting them

Hollowed Ground: A giant cathedral's interior and exterior with a crypt below it. They can step on Pentagrams to teleport.

Dreadfort: A fort on a beach. One side's base is a cave, while the other is the fort. They can step on Pentagrams to teleport.

Woodlands: Two forts in a forest. They can step on Pentagrams to teleport.

Peak: Two forts ontop of a mountain plateau

Hellfire: Two demonic keeps in a volcanic area. They can step on Pentagrams to teleport.

Prisoner: A multistory dungeon where players need to navigate passageways

Village: Takes place in a village where the players bases are two keeps

Ritual: A multistory crypt where players need to navigate passageways. They can step on Pentagrams to teleport.

Knights Bane II (1997)
Knights Bane 2 shipped with a campaign mode and a multiplayer mode instead of them being two separate games. The game featured a much more fleshed out simple story told through mission briefings, ingame dialogue, and CGI cutscenes. The gameplay used and expanded upon the originals gameplay now allowing the player to couch, jump, and double jump their way around the map. The campaign featured minor platforming elements among the fast paced run n gun gameplay.

The story of the game sees the dark warlock Garnaman open a portal to hell, sending demons back into the kingdom of Almor. Sir Blades (the player character) among other knights must combat this evil and defeat sir Garnaman's dark master The Sinlord Derth. Despite this simple story worldbuilding was expanded upon by introducing the Demon's Masters being called Sinlords, the humans worship the goddess Hela, among other minor things.

The engine saw a huge upgrade with the 2D sprites being replaced with 3D ones, water being swimmable instead of a instakill, weather effects such as rain and snow, windows being transparent, particle effects, and light effects. The game was named one of the best looking games of 1997.

DLC

Knights Bane III: Scholar of Sin (2001)
The game was seen by many as a disappointment that did get better with expansion 2 and 3. The graphics weren't great, the gameplay was slower than the first two, there was a greater focus put on making the game scary, the weapon system was reduced to the player only being able to carry 3 weapons at once, and multiplayer wasn't there at launch instead being a free patch you could download 3 months later. Each expansion was a standalone story and campaign separate from the main game. Expansion 2 and 3 introduced more classic style gameplay in their standalone campaigns, many were saddened that this did not carry over to the multiplayer.

DLC

Expansion Pack 3: Shadow of The Dreadfort (2004)
Undeath Map Pack (2002)

Eldritch Map Pack (2002)

Dreadful Map Pack (2003)

Helheim Map Pack (2003)

Knights Bane IV: Hellfire's Gate (2006)
The game was a return to form 10 unique weapons, and fast paced movement and action. The game was panned by critics for being a bit ugly for their first HD game, but the graphics were definitely passable.

DLC

Expansion 2: The First Ones (2008)
Necropolis Map Pack (2006)

Shadowfire Map Pack (2007)

Flames of Drek Cosmetics (2007)

Bloody Map Pack (2007)

Diabolic Map Pack (2008)

Armageddon Map Pack (2008)

Knights Bane V: The Vampire Lords (2010)
The Last Knights Bane game released. Largely considered a good entry.

DLC

Knights Bane II Reforged (2019)
The game retells the story of Knights Bane II using modern graphics, and gameplay similar to Knights Bane V. This is the first game not developed by Silicon Wizards, and instead was published by FromSoftware and developed by Runic Games and Creative Assembly.

The Cancelled Knights Bane VI
This game has has had a very troubled development. Originally planned to come out in 2014 before the studio closed its doors due to Activision shutting down the studio. The game was then given to Tryarch until Activision sold the IP to FromSoftware and Runic Games who have yet to make an announcement on the sequel.